Starting at OM Records, Kaskade has long been associated with the San Francisco house sound. What that is is hard to explain because the SF music scene is so diverse. A stream of critically-acclaimed albums and the hit club singles "Steppin' Out," "Everything," "Be Still," "Stars Align," and "Sorry" led the way for his music to cross onto radio as well. His most recent CD, Strobelite Seduction, features productions with Deadmau5 and has spawned a number one dance radio hit. With hit remixes of Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Plumb, and the Pussycat Dolls, Kaskade has shown that he can rework pop hits for the dance floor. Not a shock especially since he won Best Resident DJ at this year's Club World Awards.
DJ Ron Slomowicz: So you recently moved from San Francisco to LA?
Kaskade: I'm in the process of relocating right now.
RS: What was the motivation behind that?
Kaskade: Just a little more space. I've been in the city for a long
time. It was time to get a house, move out of the condo. It's very
sad, but some more space.
RS: Set up the studio.
Kaskade: Set up the studio at home … it was just nice. No more
running back and forth, but have it in my house. That's definitely a
huge moving factor, for sure.
RS: In your studio, how many computers do you have? What software
are you running? Doing any outboard gear?
Kaskade: The technical side of things… I'm a ProTools guy, have been
for something like fifteen years. It's been a long time, but since the
Digi 001 came out, it's been my primary sequencer for everything. I
start and end with that. That's where I feel comfortable. When people
ask what instrument I play, I'm like, ProTools. Obviously that doesn't
count, but in my mind it does. Outboard gear… a Juno 106, not a lot of
stuff plugged in. It's pretty much all in the box these days. It's
just so much easier, it sounds good, it works for me.
RS: You're also touring a lot right now.
Kaskade: Always. It's kind of neverending. That's the DJ world, I
guess. Every week there'd be some club that needs a DJ in it, playing.
RS: On the road, are you playing CDs, are you doing laptop?
Kaskade: I am doing the CDs right now. Definitely sick and tired of
burning CDs, so I'm considering moving into the computer realm. We'll
see how it breaks down. I'm waiting to see how it kind of settles
with all this technology out here. What's going to be best? But I feel
a bit stagnant. I'm ready to make the next move. I feel like there's a
lot more creativity that could be done with the performance with
things, like Ableton Live and Traktor and Serato. It's getting to the
point where it's making the show better.
Working with Deadmau5
RS: Congratulations on number one with your single with Deadmau5
"Move 4 Me." How did the two of you collaborate on that?
Kaskade: Thank you. I was working on my album, getting near the end
of the album, and I reached out to him on MySpace. It was like, 'Hey
dude, I love what you do. Your music's amazing. Let me know if you're
ever looking for vocals. I'm a songwriter and your music is very
inspiring, we could be a good match.' Anyway, I didn't hear anything,
no big deal, whatever. You know, MySpace, you never even know who's
reading that stuff. But I saw him on instant messenger – a friend of
mine gave me his IM. I'm like, 'Hey dude." I'd actually recorded. I'd
written and recorded a singer on top of one of his tracks just because
I thought it was cool, screaming for a vocal, you know. So anyway I
was like, 'Hey dude, this is Kaskade, what's up? Here's this track,
check it out. It's your song, and I wrote over the top of it.' And he
was like, 'Who is this? This is awesome.' And the rest is kind of
history. We just sent some files back and forth, and collaborated on
those tracks. It seems like other people also liked them, because
they've done really well.
RS: Have you ever actually worked with him in the studio?
Kaskade: No, no. We actually didn't meet physically or speak during
the entire process. He's in Toronto, I was in San Francisco. It was
very virtual, very 2008. I do that with a lot of people, just post
stems, people grab them, and work with it in parts. It was not until
two or three months later I saw him at Winter Music Conference and I
walked up to him and I was, 'Joel, Ryan, Ryan, Joel.' He was like, 'Oh
hey, what's up?' You know, he's kind of looking at me strangely, and I
was like, 'My cyber buddy, what's up?'
