If people think of Switzerland, they think of green meadows, clear water, snow-covered mountain tops and fresh air. In the world of electronic music they think of soulful house music and a history of great parties and clubs. It is in both these environments that Marco Biagini aka KELLERKIND grows up in. In the small and rural town of Solothurn KELLERKIND discoveres Chicago house music in the local clubs and becomes fully infected with the virus of house music.
15 years later, KELLERKIND has become an irreplaceable figure in the Swiss electronic music scene. When it started, it was fun. Now it is passion. After many nights spent on the dancefloor at Solothurn’s then only good club “Nachtschicht”, KELLERKIND starts to DJ, first in the bedroom and soon in the clubs in and around his home town. The warm and soulful music of Chicago and deep house remain his biggest influences when he starts to blend together his favourite tracks on the turntables. Very quickly he starts to play out in all of Switzerland’s big clubs. His clever arrangements of tracks, but even more so his constantly pulsating and grooving sets become a trademark that can still be heard in his DJ sets today. “It’s all about the groove”, he claims for himself.
By 2007 Marco has already played the biggest and most important clubs in Switzerland from Zurich’s Hive, Rohstofflager, Rote Fabrik, Zukunft to Berns Formbar. However, his career really kicks off with his first release “Bergluft” in 2008. Since 2001 KELLERKIND has been producing music. His name, which translates as “the child from the basement”, can be taken quite literally, as he spends hours and hours creating his warm house sounds and arranging tracks in his basement studio in Solothurn.
In 2007 KELLERKIND meets the guys behind Swiss house imprint Sirion Recordings and in 2008 he releases “Bergluft”, a track that gets worldwide feedback. It is played by many famous DJs, charts at number 5 of Beatport’s minimal charts and is played by John Digweed on his radio show on UK’s Kiss100. After this debut release things happen quickly: Florian Meindl releases his first EP “Keller EP” on his label Flash Recordings, of which the tracks “Natural Juice” and “TomTom” chart very high in various different techno charts. Later the tracks are re-released on vinyl as the “Don’t Go Home” EP, which charts highly with record retailers such as decks.de.
In 2009 KELLERKIND first starts to work with Oliver Koletzki producing a remix for his track “Since you are gone”, which receives great feedback within the scene. Since then he has already released his own EP on Stil vor Talent together with Niko Schwind, a homage to house music with a modern approach to dance music. And there is more to come. Since his first release KELLERKIND DJ career has taken a sharp turn: he has played Berlin’s famous Watergate, frequently plays at Hive Club in Zurich and many other international dance venues.
While taking the energy from the club on to his records, KELLERKIND enjoys the contrast from the weekend during the week: he produces his tracks in a small wooden hut somewhere tucked away deeply in the Swiss countryside. It is here that his warm and soulful tracks are produced, it is here that he replenishes his batteries from long weekends spent between Zurich and Berlin.
“Most of my influences still come from weekends spent in clubs”, he states and one can hear that in both his DJ sets and his productions. There is always this pulsating groove, this unstoppable energy that makes KELLERKIND music so unique, and so danceable.