Belleville High School

CLASS OF 1982

Kevin Saunderson is one of the godfathers of techno but he’s never rested on his laurels.  He has dedicated himself to electronic music for over three decades, creating timeless records that have consistently kept him at the cutting-edge of club culture.

 This forward-thinking approach comes as no surprise from an artist whose name is synonymous with the futuristic sound and attitude of Detroit.  Kevin is written into dance music history as one of the Belleville Three and he continues to focus on introducing the new generation of club kids to real house and techno.

 The impact of his projects and his styles - Inner City, E-Dancer, the KMS record label, his invention of the Reese bass and pioneering remixes (his reworks of Wee Papa Girls were some of the earliest rap/house crossovers) continue to be felt across dance music culture thanks to legendary records like ‘Good Life’ and ‘Heavenly’ and, crucially, because Kevin is still active and committed to the craft of house and techno.  Inner City, which now includes Kevin’s son and creative counterpoint Dantiez Saunderson, recently reaffirmed their status as house royalty with their fourth album ‘We All Move Together’ (which included an incendiary collab with Idris Elba) and a stunning remix of Aluna and Jayda G. e-Dancer has been on a rich run of form, releasing jackin’ tracks that come accompanied with a mind-boggling live show, as experienced when Kevin blew the roof off Printworks in London.  And the KMS imprint moves into the future by releasing the highest quality productions from artists in Kevin’s orbit, from legends like MK and Chez Damier to legends-in-the-making like Patrick Topping.

 Kevin’s relentless creativity means he’s in the spotlight for pushing the music and the culture forward.  He was recently on the cover of DJ Mag, featured in GQ and stood up for Black Lives Matter in Rolling Stone and Mixmag, highlighting the Black roots of house and techno.  Hollywood came knocking when he was asked to soundtrack the nightclub scene in the new Batman movie, alongside Patrick Topping.  And, yes there’s been some nods to his Godfather status - the Belleville Three took part in Detroit’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2022.

 As Kevin moves into his fourth decade at the helm of house and techno, he refuses to let up.  KMS is about to be relaunched, more e-Dancer music is coming and a new Inner City live show, which will include exclusive B2B sessions with Dantiez, is in the works.  There’s only one mission:  to keep spreading the original message of Chicago, Detroit and New York to the world.