Where this was said
The Dim Mak Origin Story: The Kills, Bruce Lee & Choosing Music Over a PhD
At 40:54 · chapter starts 40:00
The fork-in-the-road moment is one of the episode's most compelling: Steve was genuinely on track for academia. He'd found his intellectual groove at UCSB, was bonding with professors, and had been accepted to graduate and PhD programs. [1] — Steve Aoki "Steve Aoki launched Dim Mak Records with zero capital out of his tiny Isla Vista apartment, hosting 400 bands before getting evicted. He na…" 43:10 Then Allison — the singer who would go on to front The Kills — sent him a demo from a band she was forming. He couldn't believe what he heard. She'd seen his work releasing Planes Mistaken for Stars and Pretty Girls Make Graves, and decided he was the right person to release their EP. That co-sign from someone he so admired was enough. He declined the PhD programs, packed up, and drove to LA to run Dim Mak full-time. The label name came from his love of Bruce Lee: Dim Mak is the mythical Chinese death-touch martial art that Bruce Lee was said to have mastered — and which may have contributed to his mysterious death from a brain hemorrhage. There's something fitting about a kid who grew up idolizing Bruce Lee naming his life's work after his most mysterious power.
Steve Aoki launched Dim Mak Records with zero capital out of his tiny Isla Vista apartment, hosting 400 bands before getting evicted. He named it after Bruce Lee's mythical 'death touch.' The label's first breakthrough came when Allison of The Kills asked him to release their EP — and his decision to take that over a PhD program set the course for everything.
Steve Aoki was accepted to two graduate and PhD programs with a sociology and women's studies degree from UCSB. He chose music instead when Allison from The Kills sent him a demo that blew him away. The decision came down to one question: was this small indie label enough of a proof of concept? The answer was yes.
