Kevin Saunderson: Party Leader
Kevin Saunderson - architect of the Reese Project, internationally acclaimed DJ, pioneer of Detroit House and Techno, mastermind of the Music Institute and KMS records, and, of course, the man from Inner City. Now, with old cohorts Derrick May, Juan Atkins, DEMF originator Carl Craig and other Detroit Electronic Music pioneers, Saunderson is at the wheel of Movement.
Why Detroit?
Besides the fact that my family's here, I still have a lot of hope, a lot of passion for the scene, and a lot of hope for developing young talent, young producers, young DJs. I want the scene to move - to continue to develop and grow, and I feel like I'm still connected and still needed. It's as simple as that.
Why Movement?
I felt like we were already an important part (as performers) of what was called the Detroit Electronic Music Festival. I didn't want to see it stop being here. At one point the city was talking about not having the festival at all, and I thought that was a shame - I think it's good for the city.
When we started back in the '80s - we'd go over seas and have our success, and when we came back home nobody knew what we were doing. And then all of sudden, to have something like this happen, millions of people coming here, it gave me extra inspiration to want to keep it going.
And to get another shot at it, to have more hands on control with it - I thought we (the artists) could do some things with it that probably hadn't been done. We travel all around the world, we see just about everything, (we) put a lot of energy in playing and performing in different festivals around the world. And in trying to kick start it, I just thought no one could do it better than we could - we can really make a big party.
What do you think about the future of the City?
It's good to have a scene, to have a festival, to have a club - all of it plays a role in building and developing the music - and radio's important too.
There's a bunch of guys out there doing stuff, that are always finding ways to develop music. Guys like Gary Martin are still unrecognized: There's a lot of talent out there. 3 Chairs are doing some really good stuff ...
It's good to have a scene, to have a festival, to have a club - all of it plays a role in building and developing the music - radio's important too. And I get tons and tons of demo tapes. I can't even get through them all, 'cause I get so many, but there's all these people out there trying to get the next level and do what we're doing, so I know people are still inspired to do electronic music in Detroit.
When the festival happens, it's amazing - you have all these great parties, people are out all day, all different ages. Hotels are full, there's not enough transportation to get people around, So there's all kinds of things going on in the city that we need, that we just haven't seen here until the festival.
WHAT ABOUT THE FUTURE OF MOVEMENT?
It can only move forward, and expand. We have tons of ideas - from parades to block parties to seminars. We're getting fashion involved with it this year, so we're going to expand into some things that will get it more exposure. And we'll keep developing talent and bring in people from around the world, and breaking cutting edge music.
That's a very important part of it - introducing new music. You've got to think about what happened to us with (legendary FM freeform DJ) the Electrifying Mojo. When he was on the radio, he was breaking music that nobody ever heard, that inspired people like myself, and Derrick (May) and Juan (Atkins). Somebody has to (continue) to do that - and we feel like we're the right people to do that. Who knows what will happen and what will come out of that, you know - what next young DJ or producer or talent?
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