"When I'm in the U.S., I try to make it to church with my family on Sunday," Kaskade told The Salt Lake Tribune from Spain, where he was due to DJ a dance show.

Kaskade doesn't get to spend that much time at home. The dance DJ, a University of Utah graduate - birth name Ryan Raddon - is a legitimate phenomenon in the dance world.

The 36-year-old is touring the world to support his just-released fifth album, "Strobelite Seduction." Within the past year, he has remixed the works of Seal, Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. On top of that, his own song, "I Like the Way," was included on the top-selling soundtrack to one of the summer's hottest movies, "Sex and the City."

With dance music a growing niche market, Kaskade displays a golden touch. More than a half-dozen of his remixes have reached the No. 1 spot on the Billboard dance charts. And at the sixth annual 2008 Club World Awards in March, he won the title of Best Resident DJ for a stint at the Smart Bar Chicago.

"People are surprised when I tell them I'm from Utah," Kaskade said. "Utah is not horses and carriages."

Kaskade lived in Salt Lake City from 1992 to 2000, after growing up in Chicago in an LDS family. That's where he was exposed to house music, a genre that emerged from the Midwest in the 1980s, the rage of underground club scenes, and mostly ignored by mainstream radio and media. House music used programmed electronic synthesizers and sequencers to create a new type of dance music, where live traditional instruments were blended with often soulful vocals and a four-on-the-floor insistent beat.

"Chicago was recognized as the birthplace of [house music]," Kaskade said. "The scene in general enticed me. Now I don't even know if those teen clubs exist. Most of my [schoolmates] were trying to tap open kegs, and I wasn't into that."

Kaskade moved to Utah to attend Brigham Young University, then went on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Tokyo. When he returned from Japan, he enrolled in the University of Utah, and to help pay for school, began DJ-ing parties, sharing his love of the music he grew up with in Chicago.

After graduation, he co-owned Mechanized Records in downtown Salt Lake City, and began writing and recording music while DJ-ing parties at venues like Club Manhattan. In 2000, he moved to San Francisco with his wife, who is from the Bay Area, to see if he could make it big.

"I wondered if I could make it there," he said. "At the time, San Francisco had a second wave of house music bubbling up."

After eight years of growing success, Kaskade has become one of the most sought-after remixers in the pop music world.

The pop songs you hear on radio are more difficult to remix than one might think, he claims. "I still love it, trying to fit square pegs into round holes, turning songs into dance songs."

Most of all, he prefers to write his own music, collaborating with Finn Bjarnson, of Pleasant Grove, to write glossy, feel-good albums.

"He's definitely very driven," Bjarnson said of Kaskade. "He has a strong work ethic. He doesn't do drugs like the others do."

Kaskade's faith and approach to life seem to have served him well. "He's a very likable, affable person. He doesn't come off as arrogant, or a superstar," Bjarnson said.

There's another reason for Kaskade's success, too, and that's the simple allure of travel. "It takes a certain type of person to globe-trot like he does," Bjarnson said. "I'm a homebody."

David Burger can be reached at dburger@sltrib.com or 801-257-8620. Send comments about this story to livingeditor@sltrib.com.

Some of Kaskade's remixes

Pussycat Dolls "Don't Cha" (No. 1 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play)

Paris Hilton "Nothing in This World" (No. 12 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play)

Justin Timberlake "Lovestoned" (No. 1 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play)

Nelly Furtado "All Good Things (Come to an End)" (No. 1 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play)

Britney Spears "Gimme More" (No. 1 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play)

Seal "Amazing" (No. 1 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play)

Britney Spears "Break the Ice" (No. 1 Billboard Hot Dance Play)