Change may be the only constant, but blazing infernos tearing through Pacific Palisades, Kaskade’s home for the last 15 years, was a new kind of change for him.
After 24 days of burning, his entire life looked different. Between tours, the famed DJ and dance music producer, born Ryan Raddon, spent the majority of his time at Palisades hot spots like the Village. Now he frequents Santa Monica and Brentwood by force. Of the 30 families in his church, only four of their houses remain standing, including his. Unfortunately, his brother’s house was lost to the fires.
“The community is destroyed. It doesn’t exist anymore. It’s hard not to be angry,” Raddon says, remarking that he’s been wondering if he should stay in the Palisades. His three daughters grew up there. Does he take away their childhood home?
When asked how this sudden and unprecedented shift affected the music he made for “undux,” his first album since 2015’s “Automatic,” Raddon takes several moments to collect his thoughts.
“I’ve done quite a bit of press for this record, and you’re the first person to bring that up,” he admits. He made two attempts to write a new album in the last three years, but he was already going through personal struggles before the fires. Divorcing his wife of nearly three decades and watching two of his daughters leave home led to melancholy songs that didn’t feel right to release. Eventually, he decided to finish the body of work, no matter what.
“I need to just make this, see what it is and get through it,” Raddon says. He was able to complete it with the help of songwriters he’s known for years, such as Cayson Renshaw, Finn Bjarnson and Nate Pyfer. “It is therapeutic to sit down and work with another songwriter. [Telling them] I have a lot going on I want to write about.”
The title of the album is “undux,” pronounced “undo,” because everything going on left him feeling undone. The result is a collection of tracks that skews deeper and less euphoric than previous Kaskade albums.
Raddon ventures away from his standard four-on-the-floor house music and into broken beats on “Started Over.” Warm orchestral strings and Renshaw’s ghostly vocals serve as vehicles for big emotional builds over the scattered drums, painting a sonic picture of how messy the heavy moments can feel.
“If Only” is a clean, guitar-driven indie dance tune that directly recounts Raddon’s experience in the aftermath of the blaze: “It’s all ashes / What the hell just happened? / Somehow I’m still standing / But I’m asking what for?”
The title of Raddon’s album is “undux,” pronounced “undo,” because everything going on left him feeling undone.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
There is still music on the album befitting of Raddon’s dozens of main-stage sets he plays every year. The lead single, “DNCR,” coasts on banging piano chords and an energetic kick. But he wrote the upbeat songs after working through the taxing emotions he brought into the process.
“Any time you’re being honest, and you’re going into the studio, you can’t avoid that stuff,” Raddon says. “This was a hard record for me to make.”
When Raddon’s manager heard “undux,” he was glad Raddon was feeling better, but he also delivered a stern warning: Only die-hards would appreciate the softer approach. Labels echoed this impression before the Vancouver-based electronic powerhouse, Monstercat, signed the album.
“When I sent the record out, people generally weren’t having it,” Raddon says. “Labels that I had worked with in the past, and some other people that are making noise in the space right now, said, ‘Call us back when you’re doing dance music.’”
“Undux” includes dance music. But it’s not all peak-time bangers like his biggest hits, such as “I Remember” and “Atmosphere.” In the years following “Automatic,” most of Raddon’s output was that kind of music. Streaming shifted listening habits away from long players and toward playlists and algorithms, both of which favor singles. Singles in the dance realm historically do the best numbers-wise when they’re primed for live.
Raddon’s most extensive releases in this period were his five “Redux” EPs. The Redux project channels his earliest years of DJing, when he was focused on keeping the dance floor moving. Kaskade releases get people moving, too, but songwriting defines that music. Using lyrics and melodies to tell the type of stories he needed to share after the fires.
“Making a single’s neat, but when you sit down in the studio, there’s so much pressure. I need to be able to play this at 2 a.m. in my set. That’s a weird box to work in,” Raddon shares. “When I’m making an album, there’s no thought of that. Let me just write and create.”
“The coolest thing for me is seeing dance music get a little bit of respect. [There’s been] so much success in bringing the music to a wider audience. It’s been a long road,” Raddon says.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
It makes sense that Raddon spent so many years producing for the live space. Right around the release of “Automatic,” he started a historic run on stage. In 2015, he brought the largest audience to an EDM act in the history of Coachella. In 2021, he was the first artist to play for a public audience at SoFi Stadium. In 2022, he broke the record for the biggest electronic music headlining concert in North America at the L.A. Coliseum with Kx5, his collaborative project with deadmau5.
Raddon has also been called upon to bring his art form to professional sports. In 2024, he became the first Super Bowl in-game DJ, and that May, he was the first-ever starting grid DJ at a Formula 1 race during Miami’s grand prix.
Despite so many individual wins, Raddon is most thrilled about the positive change this “decade of triumph” represents for the entire scene. He became one of the first figures of dance music legitimacy when he broke through with his 2004 hit “Steppin’ Out.” Now dance music has three Grammy categories.
“The coolest thing for me is seeing dance music get a little bit of respect. [There’s been] so much success in bringing the music to a wider audience. It’s been a long road,” Raddon says.
Raddon has been on top of the genre throughout that long road, making him one of dance music’s only consistent superstars.
Raddon especially emphasizes the ability to adapt. He started DJing when vinyl was the only option, and he recalls when certain DJs refused to play CDs when that technology developed. Now everyone uses digital files. The same principle applies to making music. He is rather calm in the wake of AI tools (though he admits he feels at ease about it because he’s already found established success with his music).
“This train is moving. You’re getting on, or you’re not. There’s no fighting it,” Raddon says.
The loss of his community in the Palisades and the shifts in his family life may be the most difficult changes he has ever faced. But he’s still on the train moving forward with the help of the music.
