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PEOPLE people over the years. On this record, Tiësto [“Only You”], EDX… People come to me and they’re like, ‘Hey, do you have any ideas for lyrics on this? Do you have an idea for the melody?’ I help these people formulate words, put stuff down to whatever music beds or music textures that they got going on. I think people really kind of associate my sound with songs that hopefully mean something to them and resonate with them and become a part of their life. What comes first the lyrics or the music? Starting out, I was coming up more with just beats, coming up with a rhythm… and I’d write over the top of that. I always use “4AM” as an example. I wrote that song after a show here in L.A. after this really successful night. There were a lot of people at the club —it was a very big moment for me. I was sitting at a diner at 4AM and came up with the idea about flying over the city and enjoying this euphoric moment. I came up with the concept first and wrote the music later. Now, I don’t feel like there’s any kind of perfect recipe. I just go with whatever works. What was your first big single? “It You, It’s Me” was my first one that people from the UK started emailing me about with, ‘Who are you? Do you have any more music? Or a label? Do you have an agent?’ All of a sudden, I started meeting people. That’s when I met her [motions to Stephanie] she’s been my manager for seven years. She’s like, ‘Did you make this record?’ I was like, ‘Yes. That’s me. Hello.’ That’s kinda when the ball started rolling. During college, you ran a record store in Utah, where you sold your own music, how did you go from the record store to really blowing up? I think a really big part of it was me moving to San Francisco. I saw the whole Chicago thing blow up and become this huge international thing. When I went to San Francisco, I saw the writing was on the wall… It was getting bigger.... I’m like, ‘I love this music. I should try my hand at making it and do my own slant on it.’ I think part of it, is being at the right place at the right time and being associated with the San Francisco sound and west coast, Deep house and New Soul. That helped me out initially, because people lumped me in with that group of producers that were coming up at the time. Then it was just writing a couple records that resonated with a lot of people. After that, it was just kind of like keeping with it, not just being satisfied, continuing to make more music and tour and expose people to what I was doing. I heard that the name, Kaskade, came from a nature book —is that true? [Laughs] I should’ve lied and made up a better story. I was working at a label at the time, I had sold them some music, and they were like, ‘What’s the art? What are you going to call yourself?’ I told them I don’t want to use my name. The night before I was leafing through a nature book and it said cascade in there. At lunchtime, they were like, ‘Dude! You have to give us the name. We have to finish the artwork.’ I was like, ‘Uh, what do you guys think of cascade?’ They’re like, ‘Yeah, whatever, that’s kinda dumb, but sure, why not?’ [laughs] Did you decide then to change the spelling? A guy was like, ‘That’s a dish detergent.’ I’m like, ‘I’ll just change the spelling, it’s cool. I’m just going to use k’s instead of c’s and that’ll be fine’ [he says light- heartedly with a laugh]. I did kinda feel it represented my sound as a very flowing euphoric sound. You’ve remixed songs for tons of artists, including Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga, how do you end up remixing their songs? Sometimes the artists themselves request that I remix it, but most of the time, it’s one A&R person at a label talking to a person at another label and they say, ‘Kaskade’s hot, man! You should have him remix it!’ I imagine this is how it goes [laughs]. I dunno. It’s like their manager reaches out to my manager. I just continue doing my thing and it’s kinda like, phone call, ‘Hey, do you have time to remix Justin Timberlake? He needs a remix immediately. You have 2 weeks. A lot of times it has to do with time restriction, if I can do it, if I’m not on tour or in between cities. Who would you like to work with that you haven’t yet? Uhhh, wow, long list. Um, probably Sade, first and foremost. I’ve written a lot of songs that I think, ‘Ah man, she would sound so awesome on this song.’ WHAT WOULD FANS BE SURPRISED TO FIND OUT ABOUT YOU? Umm [laughs], I’m fluent in Japanese. A lot of people are like, ‘Wait, what?’ One time we were in a green room and a Japanese guy walked in and I started talking Japanese and Alexandra Greenberg (his publicist) was like, ‘What? What are you speaking?’ I’m like, ‘Oh, I speak Japanese’ [smiles]. I lived in Tokyo for a couple of years 20 years ago. You have fans all over the world, is there any particular country or crowd that stands out? I have lots of memories. I played Carnaval in February and it was definitely the largest crowd I’ve ever played in front of [three million]. Definitely, the wildest thing I’ve ever experienced. It’s not like they were all there for Kaskade. I’m standing on top of this humongous semi- truck and it’s a sea of people in front of me. I knew it was going to be crazy, but when I got there, I was like, ‘Whoa, this is really completely out of control.’ Is that one of the moments when this all feels surreal? Yeah, but I have those all the time. I was just in San Francisco and played to my hometown crowd and it was crazy. It seems like I’m getting those more and more lately. How often do you come down to Miami? 3 or 4 times a year. I go out for W.M.C., of course. I played Mansion a couple times last year. Miami is awesome because they have this long history of loving house music… You guys have been riding the wave for a long time, whereas everybody else is maybe just catching on. Playing Miami is a treat. When I’m ready to play Mansion I’m just like, ‘Ahhhh, alright!’ whereas in some of these cities I’m like, ‘Uh, what do they want to hear?’ In Miami, I can do what I want to do. I know the crowd will follow me. Any spots that you just have to go to while you’re here? I always have to go to Nobu and Sushi Samba because we don’t have that here in Los Angeles, or do we? If we do, I don’t know about it. Setai is awesome too. Setai might be my favorite... And when you’re not busy touring and making music, how do you like spending your free time? Uh, hanging out on the beach —trying to be a better surfer [laughs]. ML MIAMI LIVING 83