Kaskade Quotes

"A lot of people see electronic music as a flavor of the week, but it can be more than that - has to be more than that."

"To do more of a concert thing, it takes so much preparation. You don't just show up and wing it. You're putting countless hours in the studio, not just to write and produce stuff, but to come up with edits and special things for the show."

"I think how Chicago plays a role in my life - it had such a role in my youth and the decisions that I made as a kid and formulated who I am as an artist early on."

"It's interesting: in the late '80s, there was this really random mix of new wave, industrial, and these early house records. And a lot of it was coming out of Chicago because of Wax Trax! So I always visited Wax Trax Records."

"People don't listen to terrestrial radio. They don't find their music that way. They don't get their news that way. They go to blogs. They go through Sirius/XM. They go through all these different places."

"I studied communications, only because I could get my own show on the campus radio station. I never thought of it as a career. Music was always a really passionate hobby - it was like collecting DVDs or stamps."

"When I graduated college, I had a fairly successful weekly club gig and was buying more studio equipment and writing my own music. I realized I didn't want to work."

"I'm not the best singer in the world, but the albums have always been personal. They're stories about me and what I'm going through."

"I've always been a big advocate of making shows affordable because a lot of these bottle-service clubs and events are geared toward really expensive experiences. Club music is for everyone, and it drives me crazy that people are getting priced out."

"When I can control my own show, I want the price to be affordable so fans can actually see me. It's a challenge because I have to do a lot of navigating to make the production stellar but do it on a realistic budget."

"Club culture is about leaving your cares behind, and I am trying to create that environment."

"If you listen to a Deadmau5 record or a Skrillex record, I really enjoy that stuff because, as aggressive sounding as the Skrillex records are, they're still musical, and that's why they have such a broad appeal."

"I'm more of an artist and a songwriter than I am a DJ. That word seems a little bit - well, it doesn't really describe what I do."

"Blending tracks and weaving and manipulating prerecorded music to create this mood, some people do it much better than others."

"When you go see a good DJ, you'll know it, man - you'll know it in your bones. Between the guy who's phoning it in and the guy who's obsessively working it to give you the best show of his life."

"I travel a lot. I spend close to 300 days a year on the road."

"I don't feel that electronic music has to stand on the back of urban artists or anyone else to be recognized. It's great music."

"I think people in electronic music are trying to get these big features: 'Oh my gosh, I'm gonna get the biggest pop star to feature on my track.'"

"For me, 'Atmosphere' was more about looking inwards and reaching out to people close to me. To emphasize the fact that I'm singing on the first single, this album is really more about me and songs that I've written instead of collaborating with people."

"I do feel like there's a level of ridiculousness going on in electronic music... It's getting borderline absurd out there."

"Music leaves such a big impression. I always wondered, 'Man, if I grew up in Nashville, would I be making Country records now?' I honestly feel like Chicago had such a big impact on me."

"I think that most people who hire me to do a remix just want it to work in a nightclub, whereas when I'm writing my own album, I don't have to worry so much about 2 A.M."

"I think people look at dance music and see it as kind of a bad thing, and bad people hang out in nightclubs, but it never felt that way for me. Growing up in Chicago, music was the thing that saved me, that kept me on the straight and narrow."

"The art of DJing is sharing music with one another... The technology's definitely taking it into a new direction to where it's really becoming performance-based."

"The producers and writers of dance music are becoming the stars, not so much the DJs."

"Mix CDs are interesting. I'm known more for my artist albums and less for my mix CDs."

"Music evokes a lot of different emotions and triggers different senses."

"I'm a person who has always been clear about my love of music and vocal about trying to live in a way that lends itself to health."

"Listening to music is such an uplifting, spiritual thing. It's far-fetched to some - I understand that. But the way dance music brings people together, it's not a big stretch from hymns."

"I've always had a passion for music, but I never saw me as a musician for a living. I never thought that I could make a living. It never dawned on me."