Joe Rogan Experience #1345 - Steve Aoki

These are pretty cool. And we're live. Hello, Steve. Yeah, that's the Kanye one. Nice. That's, that's the most recent. That's, uh, this guy, Plastisel, Phong Tran. He, uh, creates all these. H- he hand paints each one. They're really nice. Yeah. He sculpts it. Very nice. And then he makes, uh, like a mold and then, uh- Yeah. ... he's got a bunch of dope ones. It's all on his line. And you got a book, bro. I do. Color of Noise. Yeah. Blue: The Color of Noise. Yeah. What's this about? It's my memoir. It's, um, uh, talks about the beginnings, um, goes through my process. It goes through a lot of different things. I mean, at the end of the day, it's a memoir so it's more about... It's less about what's happening now and more about, like, how I- I got there, you know? Like, the story and different piecemeal stories that, that are thematic and, you know, with this overarching idea of blue, which is, like, the different shades of blue of my life. It's my favorite color and actually, my last name is, means blue tree. Really? Yeah. Yeah. So it's like there's a lot of synergy with the color so when I was coming up with the idea to name the book, you know, I had to think of, like, uh, you know, something that relates throughout my whole life. So there's so many different shades, emotions, feelings that are represented in, in all these different stories. D- have you always been a writer? Um, I'm like a, yeah, I guess, like a piecemeal writer, you know? Mm-hmm. I, I needed help finishing this book. There's no doubt about it. I had so much, it's like... You know, 'cause I'm still, like, you know, of the pen and paper still, you know? Like, I grew up before, before computers and all that stuff, I was, when I was writing, uh, lyrics for my bands, I was, it was always, like, a notepad. Mm-hmm. So I had just so many different stories that I didn't know how to put it all together. Um, I started the inception of writing, you know, these, these different stories of my life six years ago and then I shot a documentary for Netflix and, uh, we dropped it, called, it's called I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. We dropped it three years ago, four years ago? Fi- 2015, 2016, I think. And a- and I, after I saw the reception and, and how people responded to the doc, then I knew that, like, you know, this is really gonna take shape. (laughs) This is gonna be front and center as finishing and, and writing a m- a proper memoir. So the, the idea of writing a memoir is only... The idea of writing and writing about yourself is only to write this memoir? It's not like you, you write on a regular basis? No. I mean- No, no, no. I mean, you know, like, I am actually coming up with some new ideas for the next, you know, conception of what I would put out there in book form because it's a different process for me that's, like, quite exciting just to, like, the challenge to do something like this. 'Cause I'm, my natural way to express myself is through music and, um, and I love being able to step outside my comfort zones. I think at the end of the day, when you do that enough, you just, you just get better as a human being and- Yes. ... and try, you know. If you always do the same thing over and over again, you're never really learning. So it's, uh, it's, it's been like a great learning process, you know, putting out this memoir and, uh, and, and, and, like, actually opening up this vulnerable side to who I am that I, I don't necessarily, I don't talk about really. You know? Like- Mm-hmm. ... for people that know me, like my fans or my music fans, or anyone else that knows Steve Aoki, they don't really know what's in this book. You know, they might have a glimpse of it from my documentary which I did because I, I talk really deeply about my relationship with my father and, and, like, this drive that I have as a kid to make it. And, uh, and it shows you enough where it's, okay, now I have a little bit more than my live shows and what's already out there, but this goes, you know, obviously, a- a lot deeper because it's a book and we're going through emotions and the vulnerability and, and, um, and I, and I wanna tell stories of the hardships. And at the end of the day, I wanna speak to young kids out there, y- young people out there, even older people that are trying to figure th- their own thing out and, and because the documentary related in so many ways on a personal level that I shared there, this is how I wanted to share that through my own words. Do you find that writing these things down and just thinking about your life and, and, and trying to express it in a way that's gonna resonate with people, that this h- helps you think about it and helps you sort of, uh, categorize it and put it all in your head and... 'Cause d- do you know Eddie Huang? Do you know who that is? Yeah. Yeah. The famous chef? Yeah. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Definitely, yeah. Yeah. He's a friend of mine, great guy, and writes every day, and I asked him why, I'm like, "Why, why are you writing?" Because he's written books, but he's, he writes to sort of collect his own thoughts. Yes. You know? 100%. It's like once you, that's the trigger for me because even when I read, I write right after. Mm-hmm. Like, what I gain from it. Al- almost like it's like my note, my, uh, homework- Yeah. ... for retention on, on what I gather or take away from what I'm reading. So I'm always, like, reading and writing or writing and scribbling in my, in my book or, or, like, writing off the side in a notepad or, like now, like, you know, I, like, like a tablet or something. But- I wri- ... it's like you need to gather your, your, your headspace so you have retention. Yeah. You write to understand. Right. Yeah. And then you write to express it so that other people can understand. Yeah. And in that process, you kinda understand yourself better. Right. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's how I sort of, Eddie described it. And when he said it to me, I was like, "God dammit, I don't write enough like that." I write more comedy stuff. I try and write material and essays on things and pull jokes out of them. Right. But, like, I think there's probably a great benefit for anybody to just sort of write about your thoughts- Yeah. ... to your diary, you know? (laughs) You just ac- you think- (laughs) You know? I mean, there's something to that because in that time, I mean, you could speak to this because you've written a book on yourself, but in that time of writing-