For more than 30 years the Belleville Three has been a vague umbrella moniker for Detroit techno pioneers Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins and Derrick May. Now it's an official group name.
The trio -- whose name comes from the Detroit suburb where they met as youths -- played at this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and will celebrate its union at Detroit's Movement electronic music festival this month over Memorial Day weekend with both a main stage appearance and an after-show party. The Belleville Three has tour dates booked throughout the summer and Saunderson tells Billboard this is only the beginning of much more to come.
"Right now it's a DJ tour, some electronic drum machines involved but nothing major," he says. "Our goal is to evolve to a complete live show and not just do festivals but do theaters around the world where people get to experience us playing our music live, with the whole visuals and impact of our vision of how we want to be seen or portrayed."