-I'm influenced by my faith, for sure,
'cause it's like, you write about who you are
and what you're experiences are, so there's no way --
I can't escape that when I'm writing lyrics.
So it comes out in my songs,
but it's not -- There's nothing blatant.
It's not like somebody would listen to my music
and pull out my lyrics and be like, "Oh, my gosh!
This guy's a Mormon! What?"
Da-da-da, SoulPancake
-Hey, SoulPancakers. Hi.
Please welcome,
in a house-music, kind of dubstep way,
Kaskade!
[ Dance music plays ]
Why -- How did you become a deejay?
-Growing up in Northbrook. Chicago was one of those cities
that was very hip to house music early on.
They started the revolution.
That was it -- some kids in Chicago, downtown.
-Now, I'm a guy --
I like music of people with broken hearts
and they have a wooden guitar and they sing
and they have lyrics and they sing about their lives.
And I'm not so much into the house-music scene.
What is house music?
I know everyone knows except me, but just --
Do you make any music, or do you only sample music?
-Yeah, yeah, I'm a songwriter. I make music.
I mean, I think the idea is that it's all computer-based,
but what's weird is now the guys who are strumming the guitars
and, you know, the broken-heart singing --
we're recording them on computers.
So now the worlds are just mending and melding.
Most of us are just guys
that were sound designers, songwriters.
You know, we make beds of music.
Or guys like me -- I love writing songs, lyrics.
-So, one thing that is intriguing about your story
is that you grew up a Mormon
and you're a member of the Mormon Church.
What is the interplay
between your religious faith and background and what you do?
People would view them as a dichotomy.
I mean, I can picture you going [Imitates record scratching]
and people just, "Aah!" and debauched.
-I once had an Australian guy ask me, like, "Dude,
it's like you're a vegetarian working at McDonald's.
You can't do this. It doesn't work."
And I'm like, "Ah, listen, if you love the music,
then all the stuff that's going on around it
is -- it's ancillary.
It's just -- whatever. It's secondhand."
I think there's a lot of people now
that listen to electronic music that have grown up loving it,
they see it for the art that it is,
and it's not so much just a bunch of people on Ecstasy
running around naked.
Because people assimilate this with debauchery and drug use,
but it's not that.
I mean, right now, the largest music festival
in the world is for electronic music.
I mean, I think we have the top five or six
largest festivals in the world.
They're all based around electronic music.
And the thing that's so interesting -- a guy like me --
I mean, I gig 200 shows a year.
I travel the world.
I'm not signed to a major label.
I mean, my marketing budget
is, like, what I have in my pocket.
It's mainly all through social media,
and I think people are intrigued by this
and fascinated that the audiences are so large.
I mean, my last show here in Los Angeles
was at the Staples Center -- sold out.
-You're kidding.
-Yeah, you know? -That's amazing.
-But I think that's electronic music --
'cause any of us never saw this as a way to stardom
'cause it was such an underground thing.
-For the love of the... -Yeah, we just loved music.
And now that everyone's pay attention to us,
it's really weird.
And there's something so insane
putting, like, a very simple, rhythmic idea out there
and having all those people kind of go at the same time.
It's fascinating 'cause there is a connection.
There's something happening.
-We could unite the world in a much better way
if the whole world just danced together.
Thanks for sitting down with me.
You are a really awesome dude.
And I am a new fan, and I'm gonna --
You sell any, like, CDs out of the trunk of your car
or anything like that?
-No. Just go to iTunes, iTunes to punch in "Kaskade."
-Seriously? -K-a-s-k-a-d-e.
-Seriously? I f-cking sit down you,
I interview you to put me on your website,
and you're like -- you send me to iTunes?
You send me to iTunes? -I'm a terrible self-promoter.
-Get out of -- -My gosh!
Dang it. -Get -- Get out.
-Throw this guy out. Aah!
-SoulPancake Subscribe