It’s Saturday night and Kaskade is standing in front of a crowd of thousands all singing his song as he DJs yet another set at one of the world’s top clubs. It’s a regular occurrence that is still a new phenomenon even to those who have followed his career closely.
“It’s crazy to play a song and have people singing it,” he says. “When I can lower the volume on ‘Angel On My Shoulder’ and have a crowd singing it back to me,” he is always pleasantly surprised. The track opens his latest mix album, The Grand, but also features prominently on his breakthrough artist album from 2008, Strobelite Seduction
With a fanbase like his, not only is Kaskade on the cusp of Tiësto-like stadium status, but he’ll be one of the few American DJs to take it there. This is a far cry from where his career was just four years ago when the man known to his friends as Ryan Raddon was signed to San Francisco house label Om Records, where he had worked before he started making his own music. When he jumped to Ultra Records there was speculation – from the artist himself even – about what exactly he would do next.
“That’s the good part. I have no plan and never really had a plan, so all of this is unexpected to some degree. I work hard and I do what I enjoy. I love making music and I love performing.”
Of course, the flip side of having such a wide audience is that it brings on some unwanted elements – wannabes, haters, hangers on, the like.
“Everyone has their own agenda about why they want to know me or affiliate with me or work with me. It’s interesting. And I can see why artists and people get fed up with this side of things. It’s hard to navigate all of this. A lot of people have interests that don’t align with mine. When you get people whose agendas are conflicting with mine, it’s hard. It’s hard to see through that right away. Now it’s getting easier. They’re so late in the game if they’re coming up to me now it’s like ‘dude, what do you want?’”
Remarkably, as Kaskade’s profile has risen, Ryan’s personality has stayed the same. He’s still a nice guy who hasn’t been turned into a d-bag on account of a higher ranking chart position. Now that his audience is larger than ever, the plan, if you can call it that, unfolds more clearly.
“I’ve always thought electronic music could reach a lot further than it’s gone,” Kaskade explains. “It’s always been this underground independent thing. And that’s cool, but on the flip side, I think this music speaks to a lot of people. Just because Clear Channel doesn’t pay attention to us, doesn’t mean you can’t play a show to 50,000 people. Tiësto has been out there carving out a niche to say this is relevant music.”
And it’s not just Tiësto either. Kaskade points out the notably more mainstream appeal of dance music lately, citing Lady Gaga as one of those who have brought it to the foreground.
“Thanks to the spotlight she’s shone on dance music, it seems like a lot more people that sell more records than dance artists do are suddenly interested in what’s going on in the underground.” This is hardly the first time for that trend. Kaskade mentions an era when Madonna and others were “stealing our production techniques. They took it and made it their own, which is cool. What is really interesting are the collaborations that are going on now. Independent, small credible dance artists are starting to collaborate with well-known pop artists.”
Of course, it was a collaboration that gave Kaskade his biggest hit. His songs with Deadmau5, “Move for Me” and “I Remember,” brought multiple nominations and chart success to the pair of unlikely partners. Unlikely because Deadmau5 (aka Joel Zimmerman) has a reputation for being a total ass.
“Joel has a different lifestyle,” Kaskade concedes. “I’m older, I have kids. What he does on the road, lifestyle-wise – we’re different people. But creatively, I would do it again in a heartbeat. When I heard his music almost instantly I was like, this guy is making music that seems very emotionally charged to me. That’s the kind of lyrics that I write, melodically that’s how I write as a songwriter.”
It’s that common ground that has been the source of their mutual achievements. “We’ve catapulted each other into this other realm, really. He might be in a different place as person than I am, but that doesn’t matter when you get in a room to write a song together. I’m sure there will be a time in the future when we link up again.”
For now, Kaskade is focused on an intense summer touring schedule and recording an album that will probably release in early 2010. While the musical direction is somewhat vague, we can expect a few unique guest appearances.
“I’m reaching out to a lot of people. Everyone form Sade to Esthero, Robert Smith of the Cure; anyone that I’ve loved as an artist that has integrity.
We can only imagine how grand it’s about to get.
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