Born in Evanston, Illinois Ryan Raddon began honing his DJ skills in the dorm room while attending college at BYU. Yea that’s right Kaskade went to Brigham Young University, the one and only, and I’m sure he had plenty of time to hone those skills in the dorms with limited female contact and strict no party rules. After his freshman year at BYU he served a two year mission to Japan for the Church of Latter-Day Saints, coming back he finished school at the University of Utah, BYU probably expelled him for playing techno music in the dorms… When attending University of Utah, Ryan owned and operated a local record store by the name of Mechanized Records. In the year 2000 Kaskade moved to San Francisco to become an A&R assistant for Om Records and shortly after began producing his own. What the hell is an A&R assistant you might ask? Well its an Artists and Repertoire assistant, who helps the record label with talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. Kaskade is arguably one of America’s best producers and has done some solid work with another American great Skrillex. I have seen Kaskade live twice, first saw him at EDC Vegas, which is where the pic above is from and then again at Red Rocks! I did a post a little while back on Alvin Risk who opened for his Red Rocks show, which was amazing with light rain, epic music, and the beautiful scenery!! Kaskade‘s remix of Little Boot‘s “Remedy” is one of my favorites, I absolutely love Little Boots, she has some great songs and a great voice! His remix of Justin Timberlake‘s “Lovestoned” is another great song with a very fun poppy beat along with Justin’s beautiful voice, lol, gotta love the JT. Next is Kaskade and Skrillex‘s collaboration ”Lick it” a filthy song with two very different taste’s going into it. Ames posted a great remix of the song by 3lau awhile back found here. Last soundcloud posted is a remix of Katy Perry‘s “Wide Awake“, which is actually a pretty nasty mix bringing in some heat to that original pop. His music video of “Turn it Down” with Rebecca & Fiona is an awesome song with a pretty cool video, I really like the black light makeup the girls have!
-BarneyFranklin
