"Creamy white cakes are the best," says the long-tressed DJ/producer from Los Angeles, Calif. behind such obnoxious electro jams as I'm in the House, No Beef and Livin' My Love.
"Fluffy and soft cakes with lots of frosting for shrapnel effect. It feels good, trust me, I've been caked. It's like getting hit with a pillow -- except with sugar. It's not nice to clean, though. It takes 30 minutes to wash out of my hair."
Aoki estimates he's tossed 1,120 cakes over the span of two years and 560 gigs. (He won't throw any chocolate concoctions, because the aftermath looks like ... well, you can figure it out.)
"These ideas sometimes just come up off the top of my head," says Aoki, who also likes to spray champagne and ride a rubber dingy over his crowds. "I woke up from a cake dream -- 'Holy s---, that's a good idea!'
If he comes off as the court jester of electronic dance music, he can blame his late father. Rocky, who died in 2008, was a showman -- a musician, wrestler, Lothario, and the founder of a chain of Japanese restaurants called Benihana.
Yet Aoki also shares his dad's drive. As silly as the DJ/producer may be onstage, he's serious about his...
growing empire, which includes a record label, two fashion lines, thousands of gigs and millions of frequent flyer miles. The 35-year-old also manages the careers of other DJs and punk bands -- including Designer Drugs, Rancid, Blink-182 -- and wants to launch a site where post-secondary students can post classified ads.
"I've learned to be really efficient with my sleep patterns," he laughs. "I'm also efficient with my studio time -- I can't be messing around, jamming, like I used to. I have to have closure with tracks so I can get records out."
Aoki's empire began with Dim Mak Records in 1996, but he's only now getting the credit he deserves. Mixmag recently ranked him as the No. 3 DJ in the world while readers of DJ Mag voted him No. 15.
More importantly, he received his first Grammy nomination in early December. Wonderland, a collection of electro and dubstep tunes, is up for Best Dance/Electronica Album -- against such heavyweights as Deadmau5, Kaskade, Skrillex, and The Chemical Brothers.
"It's probably my biggest accomplishment; it's the one thing I've dreamed about." says Aoki, who sounds like he's blushing over the phone.
"There's no way I'm going to win. I'm just happy to be nominated. I'm still celebrating in my head. Every time I smile, it's because I'm thinking about the nomination."
As odd as Aoki thinks the whole affair is, he's not ready to write off Walser. "I've never heard of this guy. I don't know how he got up there. I don't even know how the nomination process works. I don't vote. I wouldn't have voted for Al Walser; I don't even know who the guy is. That his name -- Walser?
"But maybe there are a lot of people who think: 'Who the f--- is this Aoki guy?' Remember, it happened to Arcade Fire when they won best album (in 2011). So many people said: 'Who the f--- is Arcade Fire?' I was so happy to see an independent band win."
Aoki was busy last month, releasing a three-song EP, It's The End of the World As We Know It. The album art, featuring a cartoon version of Aoki, is replete with images of UFOs, meteors, waves and a Greek god. (The DJ says he was asked to perform on a Mayan pyramid on what was supposed to the apocalypse -- Dec. 21 -- but the gig never happened.)
One of the EP's tunes, Singularity featuring Canadian vocalist My Name Is Kay, is an homage to writer/futurist Ray Kurzweil's ideas. Like many musicians, including Our Lady Peace and Edmonton's own Jay Sparrow, Aoki says he's fascinated by Kurzweil's theories about "biology and technology combining to allow people to live forever."
No wonder -- the DJ/producer could use more than a few extra years to cram in all his plans. At the moment, he's about to release videos for three more Wonderland's songs -- Ooh, Come with Me, and Livin' My Love. He's also hoping to start working on his second album come late January and February.
"I work hard," says Aoki. "If you're not out there, showing your true colours, people of the world move on to the new thing."
You can't always have your cake and toss it, too.
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