In 2001, Om Records picked up the debut single from a promising young producer who’d made the move from Chicago to San Francisco. His name was Ryan Raddon, and the record was What I Say. With its unhurried groove and luxuriant vocals, What I Say set the template for the Kaskade touch.

From there, Raddon kept turning out vocal-led house that stuck in people’s minds: It’s You, It’s Me, Steppin’ Out, Gonna Make It and Keep On among them. His feelgood records were a godsend for DJs looking for that galvanising dancefloor moments – you couldn’t attend an early-2000s dance festival in Australia without hearing some Kaskade.

By the time Raddon released his fifth solo album (now aligned with Ultra Records), Strobelite Seduction, his sound had gone bigger and more electro-house inspired. His talent for vocals, however, remained undiminished, and a new phase of Kaskade’s career began to unfold. In 2011, he’s one of the most bankable DJs in the world – particularly in the US, where they can’t get enough of his now-stadium-sized house. Despite the upscaling of his sound, Raddon’s new double-album Fire & Ice is far from an anthems-only collection. As our reviewer succinctly summed it up: “We get two discs of the same songs, with one disc featuring the ‘fire’ versions and the other featuring ‘ice’ remixes; the idea being that the former is upbeat and dance-focused, in contrast to the latter’s more down-tempo and relaxed vibe.”

We got on the phone to Raddon for a too-brief 10 minute chat ahead of Stereosonic, where’ll he be playing on – you guessed it – the mainstage.

Do you think the second, more down-tempo disc of Fire & Ice will come as a surprise to people?
To my fans, no. I think my long-term fans will probably be delighted! [Laughs] They’ll be screaming, “He’s back!” To the newer fans who maybe found me in 2008 or 2009, they might be a little taken aback by it. I think the point I was trying to prove is that a song can be produced many different ways.

EDM producers tend to think, “I want to have this big, grand moment at 2am when everyone can put their hands in the air.” But I always looked at electronic music as more than that.

I think we’ve lost the groove a little bit. But I think it has to do with the commercialisation of electronic music in general. There’s a lot of positive things that have happened but that’s one of the downsides. It’s become very cookie-cutter…We’ve lost a little bit there.