Kaskade: From Dorm Room DJ to Coachella and SuperBowls

 

Ryan Gary Raddon, or better known as Kaskade, is a Chicago born and grown DJ, producer and remixer, who has been working on his craft since his early college years.  Most known for his wide variety of house genre DJ-performances at events such as Coachella in 2025 with Idris Elba and house mixes in collaboration with artists such as Deadmau5 for  conjoined projects and Drake for a two-weekend festival, Kaskade is one of the most notable DJ’s in the industry who has done it all from his humble beginnings in his dorm to performing at Superbowl LVIII.

As far as his creations go, Kaskade comments on how he fell in love with house music at 15 years old and collected records after records. He began building his own studio and DJing became a passion hobby for him. Kaskade would always try different things to “keep it fresh” and whatever was “inspiring him now is what he would work on.” Because music has so many separate parts all working together, Kaskade mixes and experiments using, combining, or taking out certain parts of his mix. One time it may be more drums and bass for a “bigger room feel”, another could be more live elements to make a mix sound more intimate or even adding vocals or sampling major pop songs to remix. For him, he tries to not spend too much time working on a song, “if it’s not working, I trash it and start over.” Some of his most notable releases include: “Disarm You” ft. Ilsey, “Empty Streets” ft. Becky Jean Williams, and “Never Sleep Alone”.

 

In Culture Care, Makoto Fujimura describes how the artists and creatives can be seen as “border-stalkers” who bridge gaps between communities and build connections using their arts. In an interview, Kaskade speaks about his legacy for his art and says he hopes that someone “can find something in his catalog that gets them through something, helps celebrate something, or inspires them to get better.” Kaskade’s sentiment can be felt in his upbeat, melodic, and progressive/electro inspired performance sets which aim to bring strangers together, build lasting relationships, and leave audiences feeling lighter and better than before his sets.

 

Discover more about Kaskade’s sound and performances with his 2025 Coachella Performance with IDRIS!