Steve Aoki On NFTs And ‘Dominion X,’ Blockchain’s First Episodic TV Series

A veteran of Lollapaloozas Brazil, Argentina and Chile, DJ, producer and entrepreneur Steve Aoki was a highlight on stage last weekend at Lollapalooza in Chicago.

Following his return to the festival stage, Aoki continues to leverage a strong brand, focusing his sights on television via the blockchain.

In collaboration with Seth Green’s Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, Dominion X premiered this week as the first episodic TV series ever on the blockchain. Born out of Dream Catcher, Aoki’s digital art collection and NFT drop, the new series furthers the story of protagonist Character X, part of a series that ties together the worlds of stop-motion animation and digital collectibles.

I spoke with Aoki about returning to the festival stage at Lollapalooza, his respect for science, non-fungible tokens and launching Dominion X via the blockchain. A transcript of our conversation backstage at Lollapalooza, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows below.

Obviously, you’re no stranger to Lollapalooza. What’s it like being back? 

STEVE AOKI: It’s just amazing to be back playing a festival like this. It’s been a long time. I’m a little nervous – because I’m playing some new songs from my album that are not like clubby, banger records. I’m bringing out five performers on stage, five different artists – so it’s just a lot to handle on that alone.

But I have the best memories here. Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad caking with me last time we were on stage. And just Lollapalooza overall. I’ve had incredible experiences around the world. Because I’ve played all around: Lollapalooza Brazil, Argentina, Chile – everywhere, you know? 

I just posted this video from Argentina doing “Left to Right” where I’m just jumping. And it’s the crowd jumping – 100,000 people jumping with me. I still feel it. I watch that video and I’m like, “Aw man.” 

After the last 17 months, what’s it been like being back on stage – not on a livestream but in front of actual people? 

Aoki: Every day I’m filled with gratitude. Every day I’m filled with just the appreciation of where I’m at. At any point in time, this could all stop. And we all know that. It’s kind of like that expression, “live like it’s your last day on earth.” One show I was just straight up bawling. I was crying. Because I was just so grateful. I was also sad to realize how finite life is. I fell into this rabbit hole – there are some people who’ve passed away in my life. And you have to truly live in the moment and truly live for the things that you love. Because this could be it. This really could be it.

There’s this different feeling in the air – with the crowd and definitely with me. I just have a greater sense of life. 

I know that you have a real respect and appreciation for science – which is what has allowed you to get back on stage and for us to be here at something like Lollapalooza. At a point in time like this, how important is a general respect for science?

Aoki: Are you kidding? I don’t see it or hear it enough. I love when I hear people in the media, or someone they’re interviewing, say something like, “Shout out to the scientists that got us here!” Without them, we wouldn’t have vaccines that actually statistically have dropped COVID rates. Stop going to this misinformation down these TikTok conspiracy theories.

Look at the statistics. Just follow real, hard numbers. OK. You may not know who’s saying the truth. But just look at the statistics. Vaccines came out, over half the country was taking it and then COVID numbers just dropped. It’s simple math.

It’s also a question of do you want to live life and be out or do you want to be living in fear of the unknown? We’ve been taking vaccines for god knows how long as a species. It’s just crazy how fast misinformation can circulate to where it’s almost truth to people. Don’t believe everything you hear. Follow the statistics and follow science. 

At the end of the day, everyone can pray – and that’s amazing to feel that connection with prayer – but the science will get us there. The science will get us to where we need to go. 

I know you’ve been working on Dominion X, what can you tell me about that? 

Aoki: That’s a collaboration. I work with Stoopid Buddy Stoodios. And we’ve been working on this for a while. It’s based off my very first collection, the overwhelmingly successful collection I did called Dream Catcher – the main character being Character X. I breathe life from this logo, my logo, and I breathe life into making this really furry, animated, wonderful little dude. We did really well and I wanted to expand the universe of what that looked like – and make the very first episodic TV series on the blockchain. 

Because that’s the thing about NFTs. We are architects of the road map. We are creating as we go. That’s what’s so exciting. You can make something brand new that hasn’t been done before. The fact that there’s no TV series on the blockchain? When you say that out loud, it’s like, “I wonder why that hasn’t happened?” Because you can do anything! This thing will always live on the blockchain. 

Before we even got to that point, I was thinking to myself, how cool would it be… When you go back in time to when something like The Simpsons was developed, Matt Groening was doing The Simpsons and he was on The Tracey Ullman Show. He was making these little skits, right? He didn’t expect it to be a TV show. He was having fun with it. In a way, those skits were like the NFTs. They were kind of like in this space of like, “Let’s create something that’s really cool that we love.” And then, if it has legs, it’s going to become something.

But imagine if you had some level of ownership of those skits? Something like that that has legs and has a future. And to work with the number one stop-motion animation company in TV – of course Disney

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or Pixar are the best – but Stoopid Buddy doing Robot Chicken and what they’ve been doing for a long, long time – they’re the best.

Basically, for me, it’s like, we get to create something that has to be the best. It has to be something of quality with a high bar and a success rate in order for it to really make a splash and make a significant difference in the space. And really lead the charge. And, hopefully, we build the roads for other TV series to exist and catapult from the blockchain to TV – which is our goal. We’re going to grow this into a TV series and we want to sell it to whoever wants to buy it – Hulu, Netflix

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, Fox, what not. 

And that’s what [Stoopid Buddy Stoodios] has been doing. That’s their expertise: building and growing it. I have to say, a lot of the work went onto their incredible team. Because it’s very tactile. They full on did all of the handiwork to build stop-motion animation as like a full TV show. It’s not one digital artist doing it – it is a full team. It costs a lot of money and time. And it’s a huge risk. But we believe in it so much that I really, really think it’s going to be something that’s very expansive and broad.

Obviously, NFTs are a great new revenue stream for artists. You’ve done some in conjunction with Lollapalooza and you’re doing more with Dominion X. How important is it for artists to have that revenue stream at a time like this where touring has been off the table for almost a year and a half? 

Aoki: I’m not even thinking about revenue in the NFT space. In different collections, I’ve made some great money on it, yes, of course. But, for this moment, I’m not thinking about how much money I’m going to make. It’s more like, “Let’s do something new. Let’s kind of reinvent it. Let’s disrupt it. Let’s do something connecting to IRL.”

I always wanted to do something with the cakings. “OK, great. Live Nation and Lollapalooza? This is perfect! We’ll do it together.” It’s such a moment. We are back. It’s the first festival I’ve played and people want to get caked. People want to live for that moment and own that moment. Actually, I was planning on doing it anyways. But this is perfect to do it together. Let’s hold hands and go into it together at one of the greatest festivals on earth.

And I want to do more collaborations like that. Because, when I collaborate in the space, generally, it’s with other people inside the NFTs. I want to do things that bridge and bring in more, you know what I mean?

At this point in time, it’s like a start up, right? With a startup, it’s not about how much money you can make – it’s about just sharing the love of what you’re doing. And I really believe that NFTs – actually, let’s put the NFT word to the side. Digital assets and collectibles – when you say that, it makes it more understandable. And that side of things? That is the future. That’s where we’re going to be going. We are 100% going to be collecting digitally.