Kevin Saunderson is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 electronic music

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 producer

Record producer

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

. At the age of nine he moved to Belleville, Michigan

Belleville, Michigan

Belleville is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 3,991 at the 2010 census. It is the sister city of Machynlleth, Wales. Belleville is southeast of Ann Arbor and southwest of Detroit.-Geography:...

, a suburb of Detroit where he attended Belleville High School and befriended two students, Derrick May and Juan Atkins

Juan Atkins

Juan Atkins is an American musician. He is widely credited as the originator of techno music, specifically Detroit techno along with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson...

. Saunderson, with Atkins and May, (often called the "Belleville Three"), is considered to be one of the originators of techno, specifically Detroit techno

Detroit techno

Detroit techno is an early style of electronic music beginning in the 1980s. Detroit, Michigan has been cited as the birthplace of techno music. Prominent Detroit Techno artists include Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson...

. He is married to Sharmeela Lamarsha Saunderson.

Biography

Although frequently associated with Detroit, Kevin Saunderson spent the early years of his life in Brooklyn, New York, before moving to Belleville, Michigan, a rural town some 30 miles from Detroit. As teenagers attending Belleville High School, Atkins, May, and Saunderson were fans of DJ Charles "The Electrifying Mojo

The Electrifying Mojo

The Electrifying Mojo is an American radio personality. He was a disc jockey based in Detroit, Michigan whose on-air journey of musical and social development shaped a generation of music-lovers in Detroit and throughout southeastern Michigan and Canada and was of importance to the development of...

" Johnson and the pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

, disco

Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

, and funk music he played. Atkins and May soon became serious about mixing others' music and creating their own, but Saunderson pursued other goals first, studying telecommunications and playing American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 at Eastern Michigan University

Eastern Michigan University

Eastern Michigan University is a comprehensive, co-educational public university located in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Ypsilanti is west of Detroit and eight miles east of Ann Arbor. The university was founded in 1849 as Michigan State Normal School...

. Atkins had begun recording with Cybotron

Cybotron

Cybotron was an early electro group formed in 1980 by Juan Atkins and Richard "3070" Davis in Detroit, Michigan. Guitarist John "Jon 5" Housley joined soon afterward...

 in 1981, but it was not until 1985 that May followed suit and made a record. Initially concentrating on becoming a DJ, Saunderson watched the six-month-long process as May completed "Let's Go;" he was inspired to create his own music.

Kreem

Atkins shared his technical expertise with Saunderson, and those early sessions led to a track called "Triangle Of Love." "I used to wake up in the middle of the night, go into my studio - which was in the next room - and lay down the ideas as they came to me. At the time it was all about experimentation and being a college kid" Saunderson writes on his web page autobiography. "Triangle of Love" was released under the pseudonym Kreem on Atkins' label, Metroplex.

Inner City

Inner City is a Saunderson collaboration that came about "by accident," according to Saunderson. In 1987 he recorded a backing track

Backing track

A backing track is an audio or MIDI recording that musicians play or sing along to in order to add parts to their music which would be impractical to perform live.-Uses:...

 in his home studio, but needed lyrics and a female vocalist. His friend, Chicago house

Chicago house

Chicago house is a style of house music, a genre of electronic dance music which emerged in Chicago in the mid-1980s. Stylistically, Chicago house has no widely accepted definition, but generally includes the first house music productions by Chicago-based artists throughout the 1980s, and any later...

 producer Terry ‘Housemaster’ Baldwin suggested Paris Grey

Paris Grey

Paris Grey is an American singer, most known for her work with the Detroit-based techno-music producer Kevin Saunderson, as Inner City...

. "Paris agreed, flew into Detroit, came up with lyrics and ‘Big Fun’ was born." Saunderson filed away the tape until, months later, UK dance entrepreneur Neil Rushton

Neil Rushton

Neil Rushton is a British journalist, DJ, record dealer, record label entrepreneur, event promoter and author who is closely associated with the Northern soul scene...

 came to Detroit in search of music for a compilation album, Techno - The New Dance Sound Of Detroit for Virgin Records. Neil enthusiastically included "Big Fun" on the album. It was soon released as a single and became a worldwide smash, only to be outsold by Inner City's follow-up single, "Good Life." A debut album, Paradise, soon followed. Over the years, and after three albums, Inner City had about 12 Top 40 hits in the UK and two Top 20 albums, with combined sales of more than 6 million.

E-Dancer

The E-Dancer project Saunderson creates music that is "more underground

Underground music

Underground music comprises a range of different musical genres that operate outside of mainstream culture. Such music can typically share common values, such as the valuing of sincerity and intimacy; an emphasis on freedom of creative expression; an appreciation of artistic creativity...

." The first E-Dancer album, 'Heavenly,' was released in 1998
to critical acclaim; Spin magazine named it “one of the ten best albums you’ve never heard.”

Recent Activities

Saunderson continues to develop his record label KMS. "The aim is to help and develop new talent and more importantly to continue to create and release great music," writes Saunderson.

Saunderson also sponsors traveling youth baseball teams, and helps coach and manage one of those teams, the Metro Detroit Dodgers. Also, his son plays on the baseball team A Green.

May 15, 2007, Kevin Saunderson made his Second Life

Second Life

Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs, or Viewers, enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars...

 debut performing live at a mixed reality event celebrating the Grand Opening of Detroit Life - The Motor City inside The Metaverse.

In 2007 Saunderson compiled a mixtape for Triple J

Triple J

triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...

, an Australian radio station

Radio station

Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...

.

Names

Kevin Saunderson has worked under a number of names, including:

• E-dancer
• Esseray
• Inner City (originally Inter City)
• Kaos
• Keynotes
• Kreem
• KS Experience
• Reese
• Reese & Santonio
• Reese Project
• Tronikhouse
• The Elevator

See also

• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart

External links

• KMS -- official site