TUNING INTO THE HEAD RUSH: LIVE ON CHANNEL TRES
Photography by George McGuinness-Robson
The number three has always held great significance for Channel Tres(CT), responsible for some pivotal connections in his life. Spiritually, the number honours his great grandmother, who raised him as a devout Christian and brought him to Church where he became familiar with the Holy Trinity. As well as that, the Church was an important foundation in his musical journey, the first place he really began to understand and relate to music.
Closer to home, as a gamer, Channel three was simply the necessary channel you needed to hook your tv up to if you wanted to connect your console and play “video games” – a reminder that this is a universally American experience. “I’m into Madden and 2K,” CT begins, and I can’t help but jump in and speak about how I’m more of a FIFA (well, EA FC) player. “Oh yeah, I gotta get into FIFA, my songs are on there.” It’s not even said boastfully, more a passing comment, his connection to the game being established through his tracks 6am, Cafuné and Berghain all taking their place on the game’s revered tracklist. I ask him about what that’s like – if you know anything about the legacy of EAFC, a lot of that is connected to the discerning soundtracks they’ve had for the best part of 30 years. “It’s dope man. It’s one thing having a song that’s popular amongst my fans, but like now, it’s on a video game and everyone has gotta hear it regardless!”
When we speak, Channel Tres has just wrapped up the European leg of his Head Rush tour, and is acclimatising to being back home, and we discuss some of the influences that led him to occupying the sonic space he does. “I grew up in Compton, so naturally I was inspired by West Coast Rap, and you hear the undertones of that, especially in my raps,” CT begins. “But just from my experience with music, the stuff that stuck out to me was dance music, Kraftwerk, Daft Punk, Frankie Knuckles. That's the stuff that really stuck out to me.” I probe, asking what he thinks it is that really made the music stick in his mind. “I can hear the same techniques that’s used to make hip hop, I can hear it in house and dance music. But when I saw a motherfucker play a song for like eight minutes, same beat, and everybody is dancing? That stuff just sticks,” laughs CT.
“I’m a Gemini,” is CT's response to me asking about whether the influences and outputs are different for when he’s performing or recording as an artist versus when approaching things as a DJ. “I could channel the energy of some of my favorite artists, like Prince, when I’m on the mic. When I’m DJ’ing, I picture myself as a robot, just sending out frequencies and stuff like that.” continues CT. He speaks about how, because of the volume of music he does make, the DJ'ing is so important to him as the music he sometimes makes as an artist, feels more at home in a DJ set instead of a live performance, and allows him to access a range of different personalities in the studio – knowing that he can just make beats for example, as they’ll slot nicely into a set.
We move onto speaking about his debut album as a signed artist, Head Rush, and what the motivation behind the album was. Rather than overcomplicate the process, he simply did “whatever the fuck I [he] wanted to do” putting out all the things that he wanted to, with the plan of “getting to the other shit the labels want” later. “I had legends in the studio, man: Thundercat, Terrace Martin, DJ Quik, Ty Dollar Sign, it was really surreal. But it’s a testament to the work that has been put in – and it’s a reminder that sometimes you just need bigger goals.” says CT. He speaks about how meeting Pharrell was a moment that was almost bittersweet, it felt like a peak of career, but at the same time, checking that off meant that something bigger had to be on the checklist for him personally.
Our conversation then heads on many tangents, we speak about everything from UK musicians to American politics. CT then has to head off; he’s about to go and begin his Christmas break, spending time in the mountains of LA before he spends his January down under, as he tours Australia and New Zealand. Then, just after a show in Edmonton, Canada, he ends with somewhat of a homecoming, closing the tour in California.
After all of that travelling that’s certain to cause a head rush, we hope rest takes up a sizeable chunk of his plans.
