'There’s a trust there': Kaskade and deadmau5 explain collab before hypnotic SXSW set

Fans of electronic dance music thronged the Moody Amphitheater on Saturday night to see supergroup Kx5, the power duo made up of EDM icons Kaskade and deadmau5.

The world-famous musicians headlined the final show of Billboard Magazine’s SXSW concert series in Waterloo Park just one day after dropping their first collaborative album, eponymously titled "Kx5" (the “x” is silent).

Throbbing beats and mesmerizing visuals kept the dense crowd swaying in the outdoor venue despite chilly weather. Multiple tracks evoked alien environments and futuristic elements, with vivid imagery that doubled down on the allusion.

The 16-song set opened with “Alive” from the duo’s new album, featuring alternative rock band The Moth and the Flame. Writhing metal tentacles twisted their way across the giant screens of the stage, punctuated by bright flashes of lighting and occasional bursts of fog.

Beyond a single bark of “Austin!” at the start of the show, the artists rarely addressed the audience, instead hyping them up with dramatic arm gestures and other body language. The artists often leaned in to communicate between themselves as they DJed side by side, occasionally sharing a smile or a laugh before turning back to their stations.

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Kx5’s passion for their craft shone through the performance, their nearly 60 years of combined experience evident in the polished blend of their sounds. Kaskade contributes more of the musicality, while deadmau5 brings his technical expertise to the production, the duo told the Statesman in an interview before the show.

Kaskade, 52, whose real name is Ryan Raddon, is a “very proficient songwriter” while deadmau5 is “more engineering side, sound boosting and finessing … the show production itself,” said deadmau5, 42, whose real name is Joel Zimmerman.

“We both have this mutual understanding that those are our respective jobs in this collaboration and we just take care of that,” deadmau5 said. “I don’t need to tell him what to do. He doesn’t need to tell me what to do and it just works, so we keep doing it. There’s a trust there.”

A programmer by trade, deadmau5 credits computing tools for helping him bring creative inspiration to life.

“I don’t have a particular end product in mind when I start,” deadmau5 said. “It’s just a process of experimentation. The process for me is always about starting something super basic, and experimenting to the point where it becomes something a little more in time."

“I’m similar,” Kaskade said. “Sometimes … I’m inspired by this song and I want to do that, but somewhere in the process, it always ends up totally different than what I was trying to make. I just go with that and embrace it instead of trying to force it to be something that it’s not.”

Kx5’s sets are “very consistently pre-thought out and executed,” the duo told the Statesman.

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“It’s very methodically laid out before we execute … because it would be very stressful if we had to wing it,” deadmau5 said. “I like things being taken care of first, then going up there … because then I can just kind of relax and not really think too hard about where you’re at.”

““It’s just a lot more work” to improvise on the fly, Kaskade said, “and I like the path of least resistance. I try not to overthink the process … just (share) whatever’s going on in my head and putting it out there.”

At Waterloo Park, Deadmau5 smoked and drank bottled beer throughout the hour-long set, once chugging half a beer to cheers from the audience. A few feet to his left, Kaskade stayed focused on his turntables.

Glow sticks and other light-up paraphernalia blinked across the sea of people in the audience. One fan sported deadmau5’s signature “maus5head” mask, which flashed various colors from time to time. Another wore a light-up marshmallow mask at the very front of the crowd, perhaps as a defiant reference to the DJ’s erstwhile feud with rival artist marshmello.

Concertgoers sported a wide range of outfits, from down-lined jackets and knit beanies to rave-style bikinis paired with glitter and platform boots that defied the mid-40s temps. A few attendees sported full costumes, including a Frankenstein spotted toward the right of the stage.

As the show approached its close, Kx5 performed its debut hit, “I Remember,” hearkening back to its first collaboration from the mid-2000s. “This song is old enough to vote!” deadmau5 shouted into the void as the duo wrapped up a show the audience would never forget.

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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Kaskade and deadmau5 explain Kx5 collab before SXSW set