New Jersey-based producer Kastra released his latest single ‘Without You” featuring Linney on Ultra Music. Following October’s ‘Don’t Stop The Music’, the new single finds Kastra ascending further towards synth-pop euphoria as he and collaborator Linney open up about how vital their respective relationships proved to be at the start of lockdown.
“Along with ‘Fool For You’, ‘Without You’ was one of the records I made during lockdown last year and I think it really captures the mood of how a lot of us were feeling,” Kastra elaborates in a quote. “It’s one of the more delicate pieces of music I have ever released but I think that makes the drop section even more impactful.”
“‘Without You’ is about finding your person,” Linney told Austin Kramer‘s Unreleased in a recent interview. “Someone who inspires you to live life to its fullest, take those risks. When you’re too afraid to jump, they’re there to catch you. When you’re too afraid to get hurt, they love you harder, they love you more. “Without You” is about how your person has helped make you who you are, and you love them all the more for it.”
Born Ray Decker, Kastra came up in the Jersey Shore scene, a community deeply rooted in music history, through his wildly popular SoundCloud account Kastra Bootlegs fusing popular hits with mainstage anthems. Building support from the likes of Martin Garrix, Tiesto, Avicii, The Chainsmokers, Showtek, Knife Party, and David Guetta among others, Kastra quickly began receiving attention and has released records on some of dance music’s top labels, including Armada Music, Spinnin Records, Enhanced Music, Dim Mak, and Ministry of Sound.
Among these releases, he’s collaborated with artists like Grammy Award-winner Fatman Scoop and DJ Mag Top 10 artist Timmy Trumpet. His record with Timmy Trumpet, ‘Wassup’, has racked up over 12 million Spotify streams and went to #1 on Australia’s Radio Metro. Later that year, Kastra released ‘U & Me’ with twoDB, which was selected by BPM on Sirius XM as a BPM Breaker. It went on to be his first top 10-charting record on the Billboard Dance charts, rising at its peak to the position of #8. Later that year, his cover of Fergie’s ‘Glamorous’ would give him his second top 20 record on the Billboard charts, rising to the #16 spot.
With official remixes under his belt over the breadth of his career for Ava Max, Showtek, 3LAU, Justin Caruso, Madison Mars, and Sultan + Shepard, Kastra maintains momentum with some of his most ambitious music yet. In this short amount of time, he’s gained support from the likes of Dancing Astronaut, This Song is Sick, Fresh New Track, Your EDM, and many more, noting him as “one of the most underrated house producers out at the moment.”
