From ‘Z-List Celebrity’ to House Music Hit Maker, Channel Tres Talks Debut Album ‘Head Rush’

Channel Tres took his last shot of alcohol in 2021. During a music session a couple of months later, he smoked his last blunt, albeit with funk music pioneer George Clinton (“I got high with George Clinton. I don’t need to get high anymore,” he says.) Tres spent his formative years using substances to avoid his trauma growing up in Compton but these days, with a crib in California and gigs playing in front of packed crowds at the legendary club Berghain, Tres is choosing to be high on life. “I’d be on tour and I’d be meeting my idols and different people, and I’d be high and drunk,” Tres tells Rolling Stone . “It was like ‘dude, you did all this work to get here, now you’re gonna let some substances and stuff distract you or make you miss out on it?’”

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Instead, Tres says he feels high when he’s working out, jamming in the studio, window shopping for watches, or taking his two dogs — a shih tzu named Willow and a miniature schnauzer named Jeremiah— out for a walk. The Compton-raised house music producer and rapper introduced listeners to his warm baritone and pulsating beats back in 2018 with his breakout hits “Controller” and “Topdown.” The following year, Tres released his second EP Black Moses, and has since worked alongside Kaytranada, Thundercat, and Tyler, The Creator, among many others. On Friday, Tres released his debut album “Head Rush,” a 17-track project that chronicles a recent heartbreak, his survivor’s guilt, the death of a close friend ( August 08 , who co-wrote DJ Khaled’s chart-topping track “I’m the One”), and his journey from rags to riches. His latest album also features artists like Teezo Touchdown, Ravyn Lenae, Estelle, and Ty Dolla $ign.

Tres began working on the album while he was on Thundercat’s North American tour in 2021, making three beats a day as they stopped in Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and other cities. After taking a break from touring last fall, Tres treated studio time like a full-time job and spent the next six months recording, freestyling, and collaborating with friends. “This album and this concept is a specific story that I know is going to live on and help someone,” Tres says. “It fed my soul to make it.”

Rolling Stone spoke with Tres about survivor’s guilt, writing his final track in one take, and collaborating with low-key legend Kaytranada.

The following questions and answers are edited for clarity.

What does Head Rush mean?
The general definition to me is it’s a euphoric feeling. You get a head rush maybe when you’re partying or when you do some drugs or drink or something like that. You get that head rush. Some people get it when exposed to nicotine, depending on what you do. The way I get it these days is through music and dancing, walking my dogs, the things that make me excited.

Your first track “Head Rush” delves into growing up in Compton. How do you handle survivor’s guilt?
I don’t know if that’s my Gemini or whatever, but I always have these two things fighting each other like, ‘nigga you made it’ but, ‘oh, you don’t deserve to be here’ or ‘why do you get to make it and then you have relatives who are still struggling?’ I’ve always had those conversations going on in my head. I don’t really know how to reconcile a lot of that. I go to therapy. I do help out when I can, but I also recognize a lot of the hard work that I put in and I just try to keep going forward.

Did you always plan to use music to get out of Compton?
I never thought I could really be an artist. It was something [that was] always far fetched for me, even though I was a very musical kid. But, I thought everybody was better than me. I never really looked at myself as somebody who was dope. Now I’m getting better at acknowledging that I’m dope but I just always had a hard time.

When you came into the office the other day, you called yourself a Z-list celebrity. That’s what you call yourself?
I don’t believe I’m a celebrity. I live a regular life. I know if I pop out to certain places, people will know who I am. But celebrity to me is Michael Jackson shutting the mall down.

You dedicate your last track, “Here” to your friend and producer August 08, who died in 2023.  Do you think that this album may have been healing for you or helped you in any way?
For “Here” specifically, I was recording this album when that happened. I was doing my 9-to-5 sessions and we got the call two days before. Niggas ain’t going to church like that, so I told everybody to pull up to the studio and before they came I was already in that mode and I was talking to [record producer] Terrace Martin and he was like, ‘Bro I know this shit is traumatic.’ He was just like, ‘just put everything into the music bro. Just put everything into the music. Even if it sucks just put everything into the music.’ And, I just did that.

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I wrote it off the top of my head. It wasn’t thought out. All that stuff is just true.

What specific verse did you write off the top of your head?
The whole song. It’s like a freestyle, and I didn’t change anything or do anything. It’s one take.

How long have you known him, and what was it like in the early days making music with him?
My sixth grade year, I was the school drummer. I would drum for the choir, I did all the assemblies. So seventh grade was starting, and I would get there late because we would all meet in the drum room. I would be in the band room every day at around six in the morning, and we would have jam sessions before we went to class. The staff would come in and play, the security guards would come in and play, it was just a thing.

The next year, my seventh grade year, I had missed a couple days at the session, and everybody was telling me like ‘yo, there’s this new kid who’s dope,’ and I was like ‘what?’ The next week, I came in and I caught him and the kid that they were talking about was August. He was just in there jamming. That’s how we met. He was a church kid, and musician, and I was the same way. It was like finally I met somebody that was able to share in the nerdiness of being a musician.

Who are your music idols?
Moodymann, I learned the use of space from Moodymann, being yourself on records, not doing too much. Talking in your phone voice, talking in a low tone, and just letting the record breathe. Kanye West production, he was my favorite producer [and] also a genius. You don’t just have to be one thing, you could be a producer and an artist. Don’t let people put you in a box. Not a box, I love boxes, but you can take people where you want to take [them]. If you want to be this, all you have to do is put the work in, and you can be that. That’s what I learned from Kanye. Andre 3000, style; Pharrell, style; Prince, musicianship; George Clinton, funk; DJ Quik is a mixture of Prince and George Clinton, but his rhymes are crazy. There’s a lot in there.

You mentioned Kanye. I’m sorry I have to talk about it. Despite the controversy around him, he’s still an idol? You’re able to separate the art from the person?
I don’t really get into it. I met him for the first time this year. He was cool. He was cool as fuck. He offered me some sushi. I met [his wife] Bianca [Censori] and it was all cool. We were talking about music for like a couple of hours. I got more important shit to do than get involved in other people’s lives. Trying to sort through something that’s fabricated or real, you just never know.

You were also featured on Kaytranada’s new album Timeless. What was it like working with Kaytranada, who just graced Rolling Stone’s digital pride cover ?
Kaytranada’s my homie, man, he got me through a breakup. That’s my dude. He’s just cool. Kay doesn’t talk much; he’s a man of few words but when he talks it’s very impactful. That fool got beats. I’m just a person that likes making music and that’s how I think about Kaytranada; that’s where we vibe at. It’s really about the music and being good people and taking our families out of their situations and having better situations. That’s the core for me.

The album dropped amid Pride Month and Black Music Month. Was there any significance there?
There’s no meaning behind it but, I’m somebody who knows what it feels like to be out the loop or be the person that’s getting picked on and bullied on. So anytime I do something, I really hope that the people that ever felt like that know that you can make it out because there’s a lot of bullshit that I had to go through. I was the least expected to be where I am in a lot of circles, so you just got to get through it.

I think both you and Kaytranda are making great music for the queer community, the Black community, the ragers in Germany…
Love is the core of all this and people want to talk about love, bro, love is not judgmental, love is not none of that. It’s accepting of everybody, so I tried to get down to the core of that. The safe spaces that were provided for me is the reason why I’m where I am. So, I just want to also be a safe space for anyone.

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