Ryan Raddon was born in chicago in 1971 and grew up in northbrook, digging for records at gramaphone on clark street as a teenager. he took the long way into house. brigham young for a year, a two-year mission in japan, then the university of utah for a communications degree, running a salt lake city record store called mechanized on the side.

the name came later. in 2000 he moved to san francisco and took an a&r job at Om Records, right as the city's deep house scene was catching fire. a co-worker liked "cascade," he changed the spelling, and Kaskade was born. his full-length debut It's You, It's Me landed in 2003 and put him on the map as a deep house guy in a scene that mostly wanted it harder.

the peak years were loud. back-to-back number ones on billboard's dance airplay chart, the deadmau5 collabs "Move for Me" and "I Remember," headline slots at coachella and edc, and america's best dj wins in 2011 and 2013. he has been nominated for a grammy several times, from Fire & Ice and Atmosphere through a run of remix nods, without a win yet. in 2024 he became the first dj to play throughout a super bowl.

in 2014 he went independent and started his own label, Arkade, named for the arcade-and-vinyl shops he haunted as a kid. more recently he teamed with deadmau5 again as Kx5, whose self-titled album arrived in 2023.

It's a boring, but crucial decision I made to prioritize my health.

kaskade to dj life magazine, december 2025