As Australia took a collective breather from a weekend of partying at Stereosonic, Electronic Music Conference or EMC got into full swing Tuesday morning with a whole host of different panels and discussions on various topics within dance music, its future and how it is impacting Australia and Asia. In one of those discussions, "Dim Mak and Discovering Talent", Steve Aoki was joined by Australian dance music label Vicious Recordings general manager John Course to try and parse out some advice and useful tips for unsigned artists looking to get their music placed on an influential dance music label (via In The Mix).
The conversation gives background on Steve's career and how he started the label 20 years ago in his bedroom. However it was not until Aoki started to answer audience questions did the big questions about actually getting signed start to get answered. An audience member asked bluntly, "How does an emerging artist get noticed by Steve Aoki?" You "You want to know how to get signed to Dim Mak?" Aoki replied directly. "It used to be just me signing new bands, but now we have a whole team, a Board of Directors. Just send it to demos@dimmak.com..."
Another audience member tried to delve a little deeper into the topic and get Steve to divulge a little more on the topic of what impresses him. Aoki emphasized being unique and showing the willingness to take risks.
"Now there's the Flume sound, or the Skrillex sound," Aoki said. "I'm not opposed if you want to write a Beatport Top Ten hit, but it's harder to follow your heart and create your own path... But you can produce anywhere these days, all you need is a computer and some Vengeance samples."
There is no word on whether or not this was the real Steve Aoki and not the impostor who fooled everyone on the Perth stop of Stereosonic, but it is fair to assume that this was the real man. Check out a recently released remix of Dim Mak Records from AC Slater if you need inspiration to get signed.
