Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak teams up with Downtown Records :: Music News :: Articles

If you’re the son of the founder of Benihana, even the onion volcano stops being impressive after awhile. So what do you do? Well, you step away from the hibachi and become a world-famous DJ and club promoter. Perhaps you even start a record label.

It turns out that that’s exactly what happened to one Steve Aoki, who occasionally DJs as Kid Millionaire. But even a childhood exposure to dangerous, flying knives could not help Aoki run his own record label as successfully as he wanted. Aoki told the Los Angeles Times that Dim Mak, the label, wasn’t where he wanted it to be: “There was a lot of talk around the industry the past couple of years that Dim Mak was looking for more money, but what I needed was infrastructure.”

Now, Aoki’s got it in spades. Dim Mak is partnering with Downtown Music, which has released albums by some little-known, commercially unviable acts like Gnarls Barkley (don’t forget to read Paste’s April issue for lots of Gnarls gnews) Cold War Kids, Mos Def, and the soon-to-be Madame Président herself, Carla Bruni. (All of these artists are, for the record, nether little-known nor commercially unviable.)

Dim Mak will look for new and exciting artists that will then get the full Downtown treatment (complete with Warner Music Group distribution). Aoki told the Times that “our artists have the potential to write big songs and not ones limited to a certain indie scene. Now they will get the support they need.” And best of all, no sharp objects involved.

Thanks to The Daily Swarm for the tip.

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