Diva Divo - Dance Magazine

Kaskade Discography Hark! What light through yonder window breaks?

'Tis the strobelite, and Kaskade is the rhythmic Romeo shining his beacon of beats on the adoring masses.

"I've been seduced by the strobe light,"says Kaskade, explaining how his own amorous relationship with music led to the artistic direction, sound, and title of his latest album: Strobelite Seduction.

"I was trying to think of how I got to this place in my life,"explains the DJ/producer with a hint of wistfulness, like a nostalgic romantic recalling his first love. "It was a metaphor of how I got into this whole scene... how I found myself in this spot.”

Since first being seduced by his club world calling, that spot has rapidly become a high-profile one, resembling the bright spotlight of a marquee artist as much as the flashy strobe light of a knob-twirling, lyric-penning lothario. Despite stepping on to the scene relatively recently (his debut album – It's You, It's Me – was released in not-so-distant 2003), Kaskade has quickly enamored an adoring fan base with his trademark House sound; the booth is his balcony, the studio his boudoir, and Strobelite Seduction, led by the euphoric single "Move for Me,"is a valentine to fans still smitten with one of the truly breakthrough artists of contemporary club music.

"I was completely and totally shocked,"says Kaskade of the most recent sweet kiss he's received from the industry: in April, he was named Best Resident DJ (Smart Bar, Chicago) by the Sixth Annual Club World Awards in Miami.

"I was like, 'Did they calculate that right?'"he says after topping fellow heavyweight nominees like Louie Vega and Richie Santana. "Typically, that awards show is pretty much dominated by New York and Miami DJs… that's their world… I was this weird dude from the west coast.”

He wears his humility as well as he does his handsome mug, and the Aw, Shucks vibe of this blissfully chilled-out artist – he who would rather wear flip-flops than Fendi when spinning a gig – has become as legendary as his stellar sets and instantly recognizable sonic style.

For those who missed out on the first part of the blissful relationship: Kaskade, born Ryan Raddon, was a good Mormon boy growing up in Chicago. Initially attracted to the music, atmosphere, and "open minded people"of the House scene, Raddon started DJing as a college student at University of Utah; and after moving to San Francisco, he went from being a paper-pushing, keyboard-clacking A&R Assistant at OM Records to being one of the label's biggest stars.

Strobelite Seduction is Kaskade's second release from his new home at Ultra Records, and his first artist album for the label following last year's Bring the Night compilation. It is a return to the shimmering, glistening sonic landscape that the artist helped define alongside other House heads – many hailing from that same City By the Bay – who have managed to meld the best traits of upbeat dance music with chill, meditative down-tempo. Arguably one of the most pronounced electronic music movements of the decade, some have dubbed it West Coast House, some Deep House, and many more by a different chosen moniker.

But a rose by any other name is still a beautiful, fragrant, balls to the wall, four to the floor, ass-kickingly good rose.

"Dance music suffers because people are so genre-defined,"says Kaskade. "I was reading some blog the other night… these kids were fighting about me online. About whether I was trance music or house music.”

"I got a good chuckle,"he recalls of the cyber-battle. "I was cracking up, because it was 20 pages of posts of these kids chiming in and weighing in… I'm like [thinking] honestly: Do we really care? Do you like the song? If you like it, cool. If you don't like it, cool. [But] who cares what it is?”

Who cares, indeed. Not Kaskade, who says that Strobelite Seduction reflects his current state of artistic mind: one unconcerned with neatly filling a category in a DJ crate. "I think I've just become a lot more comfortable with myself and my sound in music,"he says. "Before, I was concerned with 'Where do I fit? What other artists am I related to?' I'm not concerned about that anymore.”

Indeed, Strobelite Seduction sees Kaskade doing what he does best: pairing his melodic hooks with ethereal female vocalists – including Haley Gibby and Kaskade's Late Night Alumni bandmate Becky Jean Williams – and coming up with gems that delight sophisticated electronic music snobs and mainstream pop fans alike. But he also took some chances with his latest release.

“I felt a lot looser than in previous years,” says Kaskade of his approach, one that owes a debt to his aforementioned tenancy in the comfort zone of commercial and artistic success. “This is my fifth record, and I felt like I can pretty much do what I want. I’ve a great fan base out there that’s supporting me, so I can experiment a little bit more.”