Steve Aoki says let them eat cake.
For fans headed to see Aoki and Datsik at The Sugar Mill in New Orleans on Saturday, dinner is included with the show — sort of.
Aoki, a DJ and producer, has generated buzz on social networking sites like Twitter for dumping salads and throwing cake at his audiences.
“I have a song called ‘No Beef,’ and the song is all about vegetarians,” Aoki said of showering his audience with greens. “I want to make sure they get fed their nutritional salad.”
Concert-goers can also expect dessert at the show. Aoki has crafted a way of “Dim Makifying” audience members by pushing a cake iced with his record label’s name, Dim Mak, into an audience member’s face.
But the food is just a small component of his raucous live show – a show Aoki is ready to bring to the Crescent City.
“I’m excited because I feel like I haven’t had a really solid show in New Orleans,” Aoki said. “I’m really happy to come down there and do a proper show.”
Aoki said his current tour is one of his biggest. He cited performing with dubstep artist Datsik, who he recently signed to his Dim Mak record label, as a transcending experience.
“Playing to his crowd and to my crowd, verging two different genres of sound and crowds is amazing,” Aoki said.
One gets the sense that Aoki enjoys mixing sounds not just as a DJ or producer, but as a collaborator. His new album, “Wonderland,” features collaborations with a diverse group of performers from Weezer lead singer Rivers Cuomo to rapper Lil’ John and hip-hop artists Chiddy Bang and Kid Cudi.
Despite the long list of artists Aoki has worked with, his appetite for collaborations may be insatiable.
“I’d still like to work with Zack de La Rocha, Chester [Bennington] from Linkin Park, Hayley Williams from Paramore, Jay-Z – there is a list of people,” Aoki said.
The Dim Mak founder has produced many successful bands since the label’s inception more than 15 years ago, but he said he still has no set formula when deciding whether to sign a band.
“It’s a gut feeling, really. You have to believe in the artist almost unconditionally,” he said. “It’s an emotional experience.” 
Aoki said evolution is key to the future of Dim Mak.
“[Electric dance music] at this stage right now is at its fastest growing place, not just with the audience and people getting involved, but with the pace of how people are accessing music and creating new genres of music,” Aoki said.
Aoki said fellow electric dance artist Skrillex may serve as the epitome of rapid evolution in the music industry.
“Three or four years ago, you wouldn’t have heard of an artist growing as fast as Skrillex did,” Aoki said. “Skrillex is the perfect example of an artist that redefined a genre and created their own genre by producing a number of remixes and making it real.”
Aoki offered the advancement in technology as a possible explanation for the acceleration in musical evolution.
“People aren’t getting their music from radio or TV as much. The Internet is the main crux of why things are changing,” Aoki said.
Despite his sizeable influence in the electric dance music world, Aoki didn’t anticipate his current career path when attending the University of California, Santa Barbara in the late ‘90s.
“I didn’t even know who Tiesto was. I wasn’t even a DJ. I was just a punk kid — a hardcore kid playing in bands,” Aoki said.
But it’s not difficult to imagine how Aoki got to where he is in the music business, given his tireless work effort and solid staff.
“I depend on the support of my team. If I didn’t have a team I wouldn’t be where I am,” Aoki said. “It’s all about picking the right players and fighting the good fight. It’s been a long ride, but we have a lot more to accomplish.”
 
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Contact Josh Naquin at [email protected].