A few Thanksgivings in the past, DJ and entrepreneur Steve Aoki invited 30 folks to his home for dinner. However he had a shock in retailer for his friends. When 10 p.m. rolled round, Aoki introduced, “OK, we’re all executed with dinner! Everybody’s going to go do the chilly plunge!”

A chilly plunge is the act of submerging your physique in chilly water; it’s stated to have sure advantages for each psychological and bodily well being, and Aoki was utilizing his platform to show it right into a pattern. He needed to deliver consideration to the mind advocacy work that he does with the Aoki Basis.

Aoki’s face lit up when he informed me this story over a Zoom name throughout his European tour. The science and analysis that exists on the intersection of humanity and expertise has all the time enchanted him—and it exhibits by way of his idea albums (together with his latest studio album, HiROQUEST: Double Helix), philanthropy and varied facet tasks.

From biology to the ‘Singularity’

Based in 2012, the Aoki Basis raises consciousness about mind well being and longevity, specializing in new gene therapies, regenerative medication and organ and tissue engineering and vitality. The muse’s Neon Future Science program produces one-on-one interviews with Aoki about present breakthroughs and discoveries.

The muse is funded by the Quantum Fund, whose contributors are sometimes energetic members within the conversations produced by the muse and in addition meet straight with stakeholders and scientists who’re highlighted. Based on the group’s 2022 Type 990, additionally they funded six grants to organizations that embody the Cleveland Clinic Basis, the College of California, San Francisco Basis and the Harvard Medical Faculty Basis.

Aoki didn’t begin out planning to create a basis. When his father, Japanese restaurateur and wrestler Rocky Aoki, died in 2008, Aoki needed to be taught extra in regards to the most cancers that killed him. He turned to studying to attempt to discover solutions.

“I began deep diving on vitamin, on what mutations of cells are, type of fascinating issues in regards to the physique,” Aoki says. “That led me down this path [of asking how to] restore our physique in ways in which we may by no means do earlier than…. The large reply… is expertise and science, and that opened this doorway into studying about singularity by way of Ray Kurzweil.”

Kurzweil is a futurist and inventor (in addition to a principal researcher and AI visionary at Google) who predicts that machines will grow to be smarter than people in our lifetime. The singularity is a hypothetical level sooner or later the place expertise has irreversibly grown and adjusted human civilization endlessly. Studying Kurzweil’s tackle the nonlinear path of humanity and expertise has influenced Aoki’s music.

“I categorical my passions by way of music,” Aoki says. “So, I made a music referred to as ‘Singularity’ in 2012, after which I requested Ray Kurzweil to be in a cameo for the music video of the story of this man who dies and comes again to life by way of expertise….

“I needed to go even one step additional and create an entire album,” Aoki says. “I coined this time period referred to as ‘Neon Future,’ which is my album collection, and I created an entire [intellectual property] round this title, which embraces the intersections of expertise and humanity in a approach the place we’re utilizing expertise to actually grow to be superhuman.”

The Aoki Basis focuses on the mind

However Aoki needed to take this idea past music and help analysis on issues that dive into longevity, notably the analysis that facilities a deeper understanding of the mind. So, he created his personal basis.

“The Aoki Basis is all in regards to the mind,” Aoki says. “And the way can we entry it extra? How can we do extra with the mind? How do we discover methods of longevity and do issues that appear like a science fiction strategy with a science reality?”

The Aoki Basis funded analysis efforts by Ashley Mason, Ph.D., analysis college and integrative medical psychologist at College of California San Francisco’s Osher Middle for Integrative Well being. Mason had a speculation in regards to the profit that folks obtain from saunas; she needed to see the impression of maximum warmth publicity on the brains of people that have melancholy. The research’s members have been requested to finish self-report measures on melancholy every week previous to, the week of, and one week after they accomplished their sauna remedy. Mason’s research discovered a big impact in decreased charges of melancholy after members’ physique temperature was raised to 101.3 levels Fahrenheit.

That is simply one of many research that the Aoki Basis has funded. The purpose of the muse is to search out analysis that has a possible to vary how the mind works and even discover cures for degenerative mind illness.

Steve Aoki’s New Album: HiROQUEST: Double Helix

On the time this story was written, Steve had not too long ago introduced the Nov. 17 launch of his eighth studio album, HiROQUEST: Double Helix. This album, whose DNA-inspired title provides a nod to Aoki’s preoccupation with human well being, is a follow-up to HiROQUEST: Genesis, launched in September 2022.

HiROQUEST: Double Helix options collaborations with Akon, Paris Hilton and John Martin. When the primary HiROQUEST album was launched, the CD got here with collectors’ playing cards and bought shortly, which Aoki credit to the playing cards. (These will include the CDs for the brand new album as nicely.)

“Persons are so obsessive about the playing cards that we bought out of 30,000 CDs in 5 hours as a result of we put playing cards contained in the CD,” Aoki says. “A few of these playing cards went for some huge cash. I believe one card went for like $1,500 on eBay.”

The HiROQUEST albums are idea albums a couple of character named Hiro, who is predicated on Aoki. The dystopian-esque video for the Aoki and Trinix remix of the Akon music “Locked Up” incorporates a claymation Aoki and Akon plotting their escape from a futuristic jail whereas hackers surrounded by wires manipulate the jail’s cameras with their laptops and ship directions to the fugitives through TV screens.

Alongside the album, Aoki is co-authoring a ebook with Jim Krueger, who wrote for DC and Marvel, which tells the story of HiRO hinted at within the playing cards. On the time of writing, there was no launch date for the ebook introduced, however Aoki anticipates that it is going to be launched in early 2024.

Music grading and Web3

Aoki is a pure entrepreneur who all the time has a number of tasks going. Lately, he partnered with Collector Archive Providers to create the primary bodily music grading and authentication platform. Like buying and selling card collections, music collections usually include hidden treasures which might be extremely priceless. Utilizing the identical methods for a way buying and selling playing cards are professionally graded, audiophiles can now submit their vinyl data, cassettes, CDs and 8-track music for grading.

Aoki can also be concerned in some NFT tasks and has a Web3 neighborhood referred to as AOK1VERSE, which provides each blockchain and bodily experiences, together with live performance tickets and early entry to NFTs that Aoki releases.

“A number of the time, [community members] come to my exhibits; they go backstage with me,” Aoki says.

Additionally, Aoki typically collaborates along with his followers on AOK1VERSE however has discovered it more durable to do because the neighborhood has grown.

“I’ve made a music with three of the members already, two of that are on the album, and people are the very best stage of AOK1VERSE: stage 6,” Aoki says. “And, inside a month of making AOK1VERSE, folks already reached that stage. I didn’t count on that…

“After I consider Web3, it’s extra about the way it provides a voice to folks in several methods,” Aoki says. “I’ve been there for the reason that rise of NFT tradition and now on the softening of the place it’s at, and it’s clear that you simply want real-world utility.”

Aoki imagines that, ultimately, folks will likely be utilizing some kind of blockchain expertise to authenticate and construct the good contracts with issues which might be taking place in the actual world. This results in a type of breakdown within the barrier between blockchain and actuality. He already sees a hyperlink between blockchain expertise and the best way that good contracts are used.

“I’m doing no matter I can to all the time create the infrastructure for when it’s going to occur sooner or later and grow to be extra [normalized] in common life—transactions and tradition,” he says.

Aoki’s DIY genesis

Aoki has all the time performed with creativity and thematic intersection, and his success is pushed by the willingness to stability a variety of tasks and take a look at new issues. Aoki credit this to the DIY tradition within the punk rock scene, the place he obtained his begin lengthy earlier than he grew to become a DJ.

“I devoted my life to music after I was 14,” Aoki says. “At 14, I discovered music on this capability the place I used to be like, ‘OK, I’m not only a passive listener. I’m a creator.’”

Aoki realized the right way to sing and play guitar and drums. Then, he made his first demo. Punk’s DIY tradition taught him that he may do something—and he did. This precept guided Aoki by way of quite a few tasks, and he based Dim Mak Information in 1996, which has signed artists corresponding to Bloc Occasion and The Gossip.

“There was by no means this worry of, ‘I can’t do it. I don’t come up with the money for. I don’t have sufficient investing. I don’t have folks backing it. I don’t have sufficient branding. I don’t have sufficient of this.’ Not sufficient of no matter,” Aoki says. “As a result of I can simply do it and scale because it grows. We’re all dwelling in an age of entrepreneurship already. Individuals have already got this understanding that, in the event you love lamps, you might begin your individual lamp firm with little or no funding.”

Making connections

“The most effective a part of DIY is the sensation and the thought that you might do something that you simply put your thoughts to,” Aoki says. “If you wish to begin a label, you can begin a label. You need to do a zine, you are able to do a zine. You need to be in a band, simply be in a band. You is likely to be taking part in for 3 folks, however you are able to do it now…. I took that precept with me all through my whole life.

“After I moved to LA, I used to be signing rock bands like The Kills and, later, Bloc Occasion and the Klaxons and bands like that,” Aoki says. “Then, I might remix these bands. In 2005, I remixed Bloc Occasion as a result of I used to be DJing in LA in these small, little bars throughout Dim Mak events. I reworked from placing on exhibits in my lounge after I was in faculty to placing on gigs in these bars. Bands would come, and I might DJ with the bands and open up the membership.”

As these events linked Aoki to extra artists in LA, he realized that he may remix these songs. He teamed up with some individuals who taught him the right way to produce, which led to the discharge of his first single, “I’m within the Home” (that includes Zuper Blahq, the alter ego of will.i.am) in 2009. These connections continued and led to extra collaborations.

“LA is the place you could be in case you are a musician as a result of, as you develop, it’s simpler to make connections with completely different artists,” says Aoki, who remixed Child Cudi’s 2009 hit, “Pursuit of Happiness,” and toured with the rapper.

Discovering vitality in music

Aoki’s lifelong dedication to music makes it simple to know a few of the extra intense fandom he has encountered on the highway. He admitted that the primary tattoo he ever obtained was a band—though he didn’t say which band—so he’s flattered when folks get Aoki or Dim Mak tattoos.

“You recognize, I get it. Music is an insane factor,” Aoki says. “It makes you do issues that you’d by no means do. It’s like love—two issues you can’t perceive or management.”

By 2011, Aoki was doing about 300 exhibits a yr and has continued to take action with some breaks for self-care. He tries to keep up a wholesome life-style and prioritize his personal mind well being, so he does the warmth publicity remedy researched by Mason.

Aoki finds his personal vitality in music. Aware of how mind functioning impacts each side of his life, he tries to search out vitality from “renewable sources” that come from sustaining a wholesome life-style—though he did admit to ingesting espresso and tea. For Aoki, his job is his superlative vitality useful resource.

“I’m so fortunate and grateful that I’ve a job that offers me heavy doses of dopamine rushes in a wholesome approach,” Aoki says. “After I play music to completely different folks world wide, I go away the stage with this excessive you can’t clarify. It’s really the best excessive you can expertise since you are simply crammed with happiness and gratitude. You’re crammed with love,” Aoki says. 

“These are issues I need to expertise on a regular basis.” 

This text initially appeared within the January/February 2024 challenge of SUCCESS Journal. Images by Eric Jamison Studio.