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Kevin Saunderson
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Kevin Saunderson is an American DJ and producer and one of the creators of techno. He was born in 1964 in Brooklyn, New York, and as a child moved to Belleville, a town near Detroit. At high school he became friends with Juan Atkins and Derrick May. The three listened to Kraftwerk and to the radio DJ The Electrifying Mojo, and were later called the Belleville Three. Saunderson first studied telecommunications, but saw his friends making records and wanted to do the same. With Atkins's help he made Triangle of Love in 1986, under the name Kreem. A year later he started his own label, KMS.
Music and breakthrough
His greatest success came almost by accident. In 1987 he recorded an instrumental track at home and looked for a singer to go with it. Paris Grey wrote a lyric and so Big Fun came about. The song was released in 1988 under the name Inner City and became a worldwide hit, as did its follow-up Good Life. Inner City joined the hard machine rhythms of Detroit to house, disco and soul and so made techno suitable for the charts.
Influence
Under other names Saunderson continued to make rougher work. As Reese he released Just Want Another Chance in 1988. Its deep, growling bass line, made on a Casio CZ-1000, later became a building block of jungle and drum and bass. With the project E-Dancer he made more underground techno, such as the 1998 album Heavenly. In this way he has one foot in the clubs and the other in the hit parade.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 2017Heavenly Revisited
- 2025e-Dancer
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 7: The 1980sNL Reader
- Mixtape 8: Electronic MusicNL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- Detroit techno Genre
In Belleville near Detroit, Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson grew up with the radio show of The Electrifying Mojo, who played Parliament alongside Kraftwerk.