Chicago, IL · progressive house · electronic

Kaskade

2 upcoming festivals ↓

One of American dance music's steadiest hands — two decades of melodic, unapologetically emotional progressive house, from blog-era classics to stadium residencies.

Ryan Raddon was born in Chicago in 1971 and grew up nearby in Northbrook. After a year at Brigham Young University he spent two years on a mission in Japan, then completed a communications degree at the University of Utah, where he and a friend also ran a Salt Lake City record store called Mechanized.

He built early DJ residencies in Salt Lake City, including a Monday night party at the venue Club Manhattan, before moving to San Francisco in 2000 to take a job as an A&R assistant at Om Records, the label through which he began releasing music as Kaskade, starting with the album It's You, It's Me.

Singles such as "Steppin' Out" and "Everything" reached the upper and top spots of Billboard's dance charts in the early 2000s, and his 2006 album Love Mysterious produced further hits including "Be Still," featuring vocalist Sunsun, and "Stars Align." A remix of his song "Sorry" later earned a Grammy nomination.

Kaskade was voted America's Best DJ by DJ Times in both 2011 and 2013, and was ranked among DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs as early as 2009, recognition that came before his shift toward the arena-scale melodic sets he is now best known for.

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progressive houseelectronic