Steve Aoki Spills on Creating “Waste It On Me”, Trading Fashion with BTS, and more
Steve Aoki just released new track “Waste It On Me” featuring BTS that has, of course, blown up all over the world.
He recently chatted with Radio Disney about the collab, his relationship with the boys, and some cute stories from their time together.
Steve shared that when they first met in 2017, they instantly clicked over fashion and Steve got a beatbox out and shared some of his beats with them.
“Awesome guys! On the first encounter, just awesome. They’re just so nice.”
— Steve Aoki
“Waste It On Me” came from Aoki wanting to work again with BTS after producing “The Truth Untold”, which they were all for.
“I had this idea of what ‘Waste It On Me’ [was], the foundation of what it was and I sent it to them and they loved it.”
He revealed that they did not meet up IRL to record the track. Steve created the music in his studio and they recorded the vocals when they were in Korea.
One of his fondest memories of BTS is when he was wearing a specially customized KOLONY sweater, aka merch from his album ‘KOLONY’, and RM took a liking to it.
“I had sewn patches on the sleeves and on the back and made it all custom. And RM loved the hoodie like, ‘yo that hoodie’s dope’ and I was like ‘yo bro, you can have it man, I’ll give it to you!’
In exchange, RM took off his jacket and gifted it to Steve!
The song is also BTS’s first full-length song in English, and Aoki said it was incredible because of the way they sang it.
“When you hear it, you really visualize them singing it…you could really hear and feel that they’re singing from their soul. When I first heard them sing their first take, there’s no way I was gonna send it back and comp out different parts.”
He told them that that first take was exactly how the world needs to hear it. Beautiful. Amazing.
It’s safe to say that Steve Aoki would love to collaborate with BTS again!
“I love them, they’re amazing. They’re great guys, great friends, so talented. We have such a very fluid, awesome relationship musically that there’s no boundaries so who knows what can happen.”
Steve ended the interview with a long shout out to ARMY as well!
“I love you guys! BTS ARMY are incredible, you guys are absolutely phenomenal. I’m just so happy that you’ve allowed me into your world…it means so much to me that you guys supported ‘Mic Drop’ in such a big way. That we made phenomenal records, we broke records with that song. And, Truth Untold, just switching it up doing the ballad and you guys really picking that up and making that song so special. And now, ‘Waste it On Me’, it’s only a few hours since we launched the song, 7 a.m. today we launched the song and you guys have made the song such a smash hit around the world!…Thank you so much! You guys are absolutely incredible. Thank you.”
Check out the full interview here!
