1995–2000: Early beginnings In 1995, Raddon was a DJ at his first monthly Monday night party at a basement venue called Club Manhattan. He used the additional income to purchase studio essentials. In May 2000, Raddon moved to
San Francisco with his wife where he got a job working as an A&R assistant to John Elkins at
Om Records, a
house and electronic label. To Raddon's benefit, San Francisco was an emerging site of a new
deep house movement. He took his stage name from a nature book when he saw a picture of a waterfall and a co-worker agreed "cascade" was a good choice, but he changed the spelling. His name is not from the
Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest as fans sometimes cite. After mixing the third volume in the Sounds of Om series, Ryan was offered a three-album deal for Kaskade. He kicked off the deal with a full-length house debut, ''
It's You, It's Me''. Garnering critical acclaim, spawning several singles, and receiving a prestigious Dance Star nomination for Best New Artist, the release put Kaskade squarely on the dance music world's radar. Concentrating on his DJing skills, Kaskade started to experiment and develop his own sound.
2001–2006: Debut single Kaskade released his first single "What I Say" on the label in 2001.
In the Moment was Kaskade's first top 10 single with "Steppin' Out" reaching No. 5 on
Billboard Magazine's
Hot Dance Club Play chart and No. 6 on
Dance Radio Airplay. The fourth single to be released from the album, "Everything", reached No. 1 on Billboard Magazine's Hot Dance Club Play. The first single from the album, "Be Still", reached No. 4 on
Billboard Magazine's Hot Dance Club Play. It also gave Kaskade his first number one single on this chart. The dance single became a crossover hit and reached number 71 on the Canadian Hot 100 as of February 14, 2009. "
I Remember", another collaboration with Deadmau5, became his first UK hit, peaking inside the top 15 on the UK Singles Chart. The video-clip which accompanied "I Remember" was filmed in
Manchester, England. The single became his second chart topper on the Billboard dance chart. The follow-up single, "Angel on My Shoulder" with
Tamra Keenan, was also a success on the dance chart, placing fifth on Billboard's Hot Dance Airplay Chart. His song "Step One Two" was the last single from the album, being released late in 2008.
2010–2015: Headlining UMF and Grammy nominations In 2010, he had another number one Billboard Hot Dance Airplay track with "
Dynasty", featuring Haley Gibby on vocals. In March 2012, Kaskade headlined at
Ultra Music Festival in
Miami performing before
Armin van Buuren on Sunday night. In April 2012, Kaskade played two weekends at
Coachella Festival in
Indio, California. In June 2012, he was one of the headlining acts at
Electric Daisy Carnival in
Las Vegas. Also in June 2012, he started the "Freaks of Nature" summer tour in support of his released album
Fire & Ice. In December 2013, Kaskade was nominated for two
Grammy Awards: the song "
Atmosphere" for
Best Dance Recording and the album
Atmosphere for
Best Dance/Electronica Album. In 2014, Kaskade was listed as the No. 8 highest paid DJ in the world according to Forbes, earning $17 million. In 2015, he appeared on
BYUtv's
Studio C. Additionally in 2015, he headlined Coachella alongside Drake for two weekends and, over the course of the two weekends, pulled in the two largest crowds the festival had ever seen.
2015–present: Automatic, Kaskade Christmas and Kx5 On September 25, 2015, Kaskade released his album
Automatic featuring collaborations with CID,
Galantis,
John Dahlbäck and Two Nations. On November 24, 2017, Kaskade released a
Christmas-themed album titled "Kaskade Christmas". In 2022, Kaskade and
Deadmau5 announced a collaboration project named Kx5, marking the fourth time the producers have worked together. The first single from the project, "Escape", was released on March 11. On January 27, 2023, Deadmau5 announced the self-titled album,
Kx5, would be released March 17, 2023. On November 17, 2023, Kaskade released his second
Christmas-themed album titled
Kaskade Christmas Volume 2. On February 11, 2024, he performed at
Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas both before and during the game, making him the first DJ to perform throughout the Super Bowl. He replaced
Tiësto, who dropped out after a family emergency. ==Other projects==