CHANNEL TRES
Channel Tres is teasingly pumping us all up for the release of his debut album “Real Cultural Shit”. Thrilling dance moves dominate his live shows and the November release of the tantalizing single ‘6am’ is just a taster of what’s to come. Channel is really giving us his signature joy-filled, community-fueled, new-wave-pop-House in its most blitzing form yet. Smart, kind, and a little bit tired, Sheldon Young (Channel Tres) spoke to us with a calm passion and pointed recognition of what music has done for him, and can do for others. Finding your own music, the resurgence of self-ownership in the Black community, and music allowing a celebration of everyone’s weird are the roots of his work. With this new album Channel Tres is reminding us that once again House music is something that enables us to move towards a more authentic world, with a lot of joy thrown in.
Talya Elitzer (founder of ‘Godmode music’ alongside Nick Sylvester) said she really believed in your mission to reimagine House music for a new community. What is it about the style and influence House music has, when was the first time you came across it and went “Shit, yeah, this is what I want to do”?
It was in college, I had to do a ‘Music and World Cultures’ project so I decided to study Dance Music. I studied it because it was based in Chicago and Detroit. I didn't necessarily know that it was Black people, my people, who created House. So I started doing research, and then it was like; it was connected to this white person's scene. But once I'd seen that it was people that look like me and they’re having a good time, I was, like, “ok I found something”. Usually how I grew up, you think like, Black people, Hip Hop, Rap, or, R&B. Then I see these Black dudes making electronic music on these instruments and all these different synthesizers and different things. And I was just like, oh, okay! Because I had a hard time, I was in an identity crisis, because, you know, either I wasn't Black enough or I was weird or some type of thing because I was just insecure about things. I felt kind of out of place most of the time. Once I found that then I started going to Chicago and Detroit and I started meeting these people and I was like “Oh, shit, they just like me”, you know, from the hood, and we like this type of music, you know? And then Moodymann was a bit was a big game changer for me too, because he's from Watts and I’m from Compton and they’re in the same area. And you know, he moved out to Detroit and started doing that type of music. So I just think that I that's how it kind of really popped out to me. Also, taking my influences of loving pop. I love it. I love pop music. Like, you know, I love like really good pop shows and like good production and I just love that shit. So taking my underground feelings, but also listening with the mainstream feelings that I have I kind of just merged the two together. And then that's how I channel what’s good.
Who is the new community you’re making the music for now? Do you want people to get out of it that same thing you felt?
I don’t necessarily want them to have the same feeling I felt. I want them to get to the feeling they feel. You know, what's good for me is just good for me. My goal is to inspire people to find what's good for them. I'm being myself, and I'm doing what's true to me. And I love what I'm doing. And I love myself. And that's just really just at the root of everything. For you to just love yourself and appreciate who you are.
“I don't know how long I’ll be here, but I know there are going to be people here after me so I might as well leave a good trail of joy and happiness. Then when people do come across a Channel Tres vortex they’re like ‘oh man, this is good’”
So the expression of joy that we hear in your music, that wonder, that’s just from you?
Yeah, find what you love doing. I've tried a lot of things, I've done a lot of things, I’ve been a lot of places. And at the core of everything it’s just; I like hanging out with my friends and dancing, I like listening to good music and I like being with different people.
If you look back at labels like Trax Records, House music has traditionally had its own collaborative community in terms of recording. Do you have your people that you're like, “right, this is it, we gel?”
James Blake is one of my friends where we just get together and every time we see each other or work it’s just like hanging out. And Ty Dolla $ign is one of my frequent collaborators. A lot of these people are into Dance music really deeply and you wouldn't know it. That's what's really cool about what I do, for some reason it just attracted all my idols. The people I look up to they just like hanging out and spinning and DJ-ing and stuff. It’s definitely opening up some doors. But I'm still learning who I like to collaborate with. I live in L.A and that's like, the hub, so everybody's around the corner.
Is finding these people where your motivation to move around and go to different places and do different things comes from?
No. The motivation is just being from Compton and being from the hood and not knowing what you're gonna eat the next day, or not knowing if you’re gonna be alive the next day. I had to grow up on survival and survival instinct. So making it out of that and being able to travel the world and like, look handsome. I never thought I could do that. You know, it took a lot to break down some mental barriers to get to this point. Just this morning I had to check myself like, “Yo, bro like you out here, you playing sold out shows, you dodged a lot of different things just to get here. So just kind of like, chill out, like, be grateful and enjoy it”. Because I'm always like, “What's the next thing?, or “Am I doing enough?”. So I have to calm down and be like, “Dude, you made it to 31 and you're living your dream. So just like …coast.”
I was at a show recently and the DJ was playing tracks that were at least 20 years old and the 18 year olds in the crowd were just frothing on it. Do you think there’s a resurgence in house music at the moment? Or do you just think the music is so good it has always been there?
I think it’s always there. I don't think house music ever leaves. So I don't see a resurgence. But maybe it is. I think there’s a resurgence in the Black community. Where I’m from I used to get made fun of a lot, you know, like, “bro you doing that shit?” Like just in my community, it's helping people see what it is.
That it’s not a weak form of music?
Yeah, there’s a lot of money in this motherfucker! So that's where I see the resurgence. And I think it's powerful in the sense that music is music is for everybody. So just accept it and own it, you know? And I think with the issues in America and being Black it's hard for us sometimes to own our shit, because there’s systematic oppression. So it's hard for people to really own things. It took me a while to even think that I was handsome you know? You know shit like that, or my skin and being okay with being dark you know? It took a while to really just accept that. So I think the resurgence is beautiful. And like with what Beyoncé is doing and what a lot of people are doing is teaching you to own if you are a different. Even what Steve Lacey is doing, you know, there’s just so much different talent. It just helps when you see yourself. That's a lot of my goal too, to be that example so that the next generation of people can love themselves. Because I don't know how long I’ll be here, but I know there are going to be people here after me so I might as well leave a good trail of joy and happiness. Then when people do come across a Channel Tres vortex they’re like “oh man, this is good”.
Are you happy with where you're at in terms of that? Because that can be insanely daunting.
I don’t take it home, I’m not God or anything, I don't take on what's not mine. I'm just here to be myself and be a good person and try to be the best person I can. I don't really believe in being a role model, just more in being. I want love. I want my mom and dad to be totally proud and shit like that. And I want to be a better human. So it just comes back out when you’re doing that. I don’t necessarily take on other people’s problems or the world’s problems. I can’t do that shit.
You recently did some music for an NFT with an artist called ‘omgkirby’ and it was described as something that would “flip the definition of generative music and ownership on its head. ” Historically the music industry has been kind of obsessed with genre. Do you see that breaking down at the moment because people like yourself are bringing in musical influences that make you happy or inspired, rather than things that are all inside one genre?
I mean I know a country song when it’s a country song, I know a rap song when I hear a rap song. I think there’s genre bending artists, and I think I'm kind of like one of those people. I think it depends on the artist, like Michael Bublé, I know his shit is his shit. I mean, people think they know my shit but if you listened to my discography or my project “i can't go outside” or like, my B tapes or something you'll know I have this bag, or this vortex where I know how to go and make a straight ass house song, I know how to make a rap song, and I know how to do different things. I started off as a producer, so like we learn everything. House music was just what popped off for me. But I like it all.
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