Popular American DJ Kaskade was here for the seventh edition of The Sunburn Festival. He told Iknoor Kaur that he was more excited about Indian food than his performance
In the past few years, India has witnessed an impressive number of international electronica artistes including those from France, Netherlands, Germany and UK. While te common understanding of the genre is restricted to Electronic Dance Music (EDM), American DJ Kaskade, feels that the genre is more than just that. At opening the seventh season of Sunburn in New Delhi, the artiste had one request of the Indian audience, “Come with an open mind and leave a changed person.”
Rated as one of America’s best disc jockeys, Ryan Raddon, better known as Kaskade, started his career in a dorm room following which he started his own record studio. To fund the studio, in 1995, he began DJ-ing at a basement venue called Club Manhattan. Since then, he has produced over a hundred tracks and eight albums.
He has a unique way of describing his music, “If you listen carefully to my remixes and originals, they have one thing in common. They have a Kaskade feel to it. What do I mean by thatIJ It’s euphoric, melodic and progressive!”
Kaskade will be performing in Bengaluru and Mumbai as a part of the Sunburn festival, today and tomorrow. He said he was more excited about eating Indian food than performing. “Since it is my first time touring there I am really excited. I have heard so many incredible stories from other DJ’s about how great the crowd is I am happy to be able to finally experience this myself. But, how can I forget – The food!” he quipped.
like many other international artistes, Kaskade too thinks India is a growing destination for dance music. However, he feels EDM all over the world has evolved. “Ten years ago, no one really listened to dance music but now the scene has exploded globally. The youth culture has been a vibrant and rebellious driving force. Not just House, people are also getting into the lesser-known genres. I’ve heard that Dance Music is booming in India and many top artistes have made India a part of their international tour. I’ve also heard that the crowd here is insane,” he said.
The 42-year-old feels that some of the Chicago played an important role in fuelling his career. He shared, “Chicago played a huge part in making dance music popular to the masses. Some of the legends like Kraftwerk as well as Wax Trax Records came out of Chicago. While new wave stuff like The Cure, The Smiths, Depeche Mode went on, I started getting into House music which helped me get radio exposure in Chicago.”
Kaskade recently collaborated with Skrillex and Deadmau5. He said, the experience was mind-boggling, “Actually it’s unbelievable. Deadmau5 and I did not meet during the whole process. I hit him up a couple of times on My Space because I didn’t have his contact. I was like, ‘Hey, this is Kaskade and I’m really into what you’re doing.’ I got one of his tracks and I had an idea for the verse, lyrics and melody. I went ahead and wrote vocals, got it recorded and I was playing it out in clubs, testing it out. I mashed up an idea I had over one of his tracks and it totally worked. Skrillex on the other hand asked me to remix one of his songs.”
In spite of his top rankings, the dance musicholic doesn’t think DJ lists and rankings matter. He said, “If you see my profile, I don’t promote it as vociferously as other guys do because I feel that as long as I love what I play, I am doing my job right. These things do matter to upcoming artists as it helps them get new shows. But that doesn’t mean you compromise on the music that you love. People definitely come to know if you’re playing something you don’t love.”
Kaskade is all set to release his new album Atmosphere after the India tour. He explained, “The album is an introspective look at my life and the moments that have made it incredible.”