Kevin Saunderson Interview

Kevin Saunderson Interview

17 May, 2007 | 2.35AM

• Section: Music News
• Written by: Terry Church

“Techno has grown like a virus, infected every country, changed shape and form and branched out into different genres,” so explains Detroit legend Kevin Saunderson, one of the originators of the sound in the 1980s.

Kevin, along with his two college buddies Derrick May and Juan Atkins can justifiably claim if it wasn’t for them, techno might not exist.

The trio, known as the ‘Belleville Three’ primarily developed the sound in Detroit in the 1980s, and developed and nurtured the genre before it became a global phenomenon.

And just think. If Kevin and his friends hadn’t fooled around with drum machines and synths, would any of the sounds that came after it – progressive house, tech house, trance, minimal – exist today?

How different the world would be.

“Yeah I’m proud of what we’ve achieved,” Kevin Saunderson says in his infectious Michigan accent.

“Back then it was a lot harder to make music.

“We had to use tape machines ‘n’ razor blades to slice and splice tapes together to make tracks, you know.

“The kids making music these days wouldn’t know how the hell to do that.”

Time has moved on since those days. New technology has arrived, superclubs have come and gone, and vinyl, the original and much-loved DJ format, is slowly being replaced by digital formats.

The landscape of clubland too has shifted each year since the dawn of techno, as more and more countries have joined the cause and added their own momentum to a spinning unpredictable electronic music world.

The beats have fractured, and break-away factions have formed around different genres like breakbeat, hard house, trance and progressive, with their own DJs, producers, labels, fashion sense and club nights.

Did Kevin ever imagine back in the 1980s, that all this would happen?

“Techno was just a hobby for me, I wanted to be a football player,” he reveals.

“But DJing turned into a career, you know.

“I never thought about the bigger picture, I was just concerned about making sure I had produced enough tracks for my DJ sets.

“The scene was so much smaller back then and more unique.

“But I always had a feeling that this thing we were developing would get bigger.

“We believed in it and wanted it to grow.”

As techno grew in popularity, so too did the demand for Kevin’s production and DJing skills.

He set up his own label KMS Records, and introduced us to groundbreaking acts like Kreem, Reese, and Inner-City (later to become Inner City).

He also pioneered the art of remixing - his very first remix for The Wee Papa Girl Rappers ‘Heat It Up’ went on to pick up DMC Remix of the Year in 1988.

Kevin’s project Inner City also became a global success, and the group notched up 12 Top 40 hits in the UK and their 1989 hit ‘Good Life (Buena Vida)’ became a No.1 club hit in Europe and entered the UK’s Top 10 chart.

To this day Inner City remain one of the most successful dance acts of all time.

An old and successful superstar DJ he might be, but rather than rest on his laurels and abandon dance music for Hollywood like Paul Oakenfold, or retire and move into the restaurant business like Danny Rampling, Kevin Saunderson is still DJing in clubs, week in week out.

“Techno still excites me,” he tells Beatportal.

“I still get excited by playing other people’s records.

“Sometimes I hear an amazing track that inspires me to go into the studio and emulate it.

“When clubbers come up to me after gigs and tell me that my music has changed their lives that excites me.

“If I create a cool new record, I get excited to play it out.

“Of course, occasionally I’ll get three or four bad gigs in a row and will feel a bit uninspired but suddenly I’ll play at a kick ass party and I’ll be back.

“Right now, I’m so inspired, I’ve got itchy fingers to get into the studio.”

Over the last few years, only a trickle of records have been produced by Kevin Saunderson, but this year he plans to release a “ton of material”, because he’s been bitten once again by the techno bug.

On 21st May 2007, a new mix compilation is due from Kevin – ‘EKSPOZICIJA 07: The Detroit Connection’ – features 29 tracks of cutting-edge deep techno from the likes of Petter, Mike Shannon, John Dahlbäck, Guy Gerber & Shlomi Aber, as well as from Kevin himself.

Saunderson’s recent remix for Claude VonStroke’s massive ‘Who’s Afraid of Detroit’ was also widely praised by the dance community.

All this means Kevin Saunderson still has so much to offer techno and the community.

“God gave me a gift, that’s how it is,” says Kevin.

“Sometimes I go back and listen to my old tracks and go ‘Wow, I made that!”

“That’s when I know I can’t be doing nothing else.”

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