FEATURING ESTELLE, RAVYN LENAE, TEEZO TOUCHDOWN, THUNDERCAT, TORO Y MOI, TY DOLLA $IGN, AND WATR
ANNOUNCES RELEASE DATE OF JUNE 28TH VIA RCA RECORDS
SHARES MUSIC VIDEO FOR “CACTUS WATER”
“CACTUS WATER”
LISTEN: https://channeltres.lnk.to/CactusWater
WATCH: https://youtu.be/L4sTmELrDp4
(June 11, 2024) – Hot on the heels of his new single “Cactus Water” and featuring on KAYTRANADA’s new single “Drip Sweat,” both of which were released last week, Channel Tres is back to detail his forthcoming debut album Head Rush, which is now set for release on June 28th via RCA Records. In addition to Barney Bones, who is featured on lead Head Rush single “Berghain,” the album will feature contributions from Estelle, Ravyn Lenae, Teezo Touchdown, Thundercat, Toro y Moi, Ty Dolla $ign and Watr.
The album’s information arrives today alongside the release of the Aris Chatman-directed music video for “Cactus Water,” which sees Channel serving up a taste of the choreography from his acclaimed live show. Watch the video above now.
Listen to “Cactus Water” above now and see below for Head Rush album art, track listing with all features and for more about the album.
Channel Tres
Head Rush
(RCA Records)
June 28, 2024
1. Head Rush
2. Black & Mild
3. Joyful Noise
4. Traffic
5. Cactus Water
6. Candy Paint feat. Thundercat
7. Berghain feat Barney Bones
8. Holy Moly feat. Ty Dolla $ign
9. I’m Him
10. Chain Hang Low feat. Teezo Touchdown
11. Need U 2 Know feat. Ravyn Lenae
12. Two Ways
13. Aspen feat. Toro y Moi
14. We Hungry feat. Estelle
15. Type
16. Gold Daytonas feat. Watr
17. Here
About Channel Tres and Head Rush:
For Channel Tres, the decision to finally drop an LP is a deeply personal one. As the visionary artist prepares for the release of his debut full-length record, Head Rush (out June 28 via RCA Records), he explains that the path he followed to get here was one that ran directly through the deepest recesses of his psyche. “There were things about my story that I didn’t know how to express, musically or lyrically,” he says. But after a sometimes trying period of growth, he’s finally ready to articulate this chapter of his life: “I would say my artistry has grown to a place where I’m comfortable sharing this much at one time.”
Channel Tres was born Sheldon Young in the spring of 1991 and grew up in Compton. In many ways he embodies his hometown’s renowned musical spirit: deep grooves and an innate sense of melody colored by the grit and danger that lurks, always, at their edges. “I grew up a street guy you know,” he says of this balancing act, but has always been adept at bridging different scenes. Tres’ ability to subtly manipulate the world around him was immediately apparent with his breakthrough 2018 hit, the hypnotic “Controller.” At first it seems as if his deep voice will be the song’s steadying element, the control in the experiment, but over the course of three-and-a-half minutes, the voice itself is imbued with so much character and variation that it seems to be warping the atmosphere in real time.
For the half-decade after “Controller” was released, Tres enjoyed a remarkable run of success—a half-dozen EPs, more singles that burrowed into packed nightclubs and listeners’ brains, plus collaborations with (and deep respect from) his peers across genres.
But all this success, and the stress and lifestyle changes that naturally accompanied it, began to take a toll. “I was moving really fast,” Tres says of this initial supernova burst. “When you put out a record, and you have some notoriety, it’s just about getting in front of people. It’s really about grinding.” That breakneck pace, though, can’t continue indefinitely—especially if an artist is not taking steps to protect their mental and physical health. “I came to the end of that last year, and I was just really tired.” In addition to this professional grind, Tres was beset by loss: he went through a difficult breakup and suffered the death of a close friend.
The gauntlet that his life had become forced Tres to confront the sort of identity crisis that public life makes inevitable. “I’m this guy when I pop out, but there’s this juxtaposition with this person I am when I’m not on stage,” he explains. “I had to learn to be OK with that duality.” He built for himself a routine that prioritized stability, presence, and mindfulness. And perhaps most importantly, he made his intentions clear to those who are close to him. I work on music all the time, it’s just a practice,” he says. “I already have songs and ideas that are just floating around. But this time, I called my homie and said, ‘I’m gonna work on the project.’ I told my team I was gonna work on the project. I didn’t do shows, I didn’t travel. It was a conscious decision. I scheduled the time. I told myself I was gonna treat it like a 9-to-5.”
The project in question, of course, is Head Rush. “I came to a point where I couldn’t focus on too many things at once,” he says. But the biggest thing Tres discarded from his mind was the noise outside his head, outside the studio—the imagined pressure from people who only wanted to see him as one thing instead of a conduit for many. “In the past, I felt boxed in by the way people knew me,” he says. “I learned very early on that if you want to push a narrative, it can be pushed. You have to direct people. I know if I play a minor chord it’s gonna make you feel sad.”
He also knows how to trigger in people much more complex and invigorating emotions. Head Rush is a richly layered record, but one that feels totally intuitive, without a trace of doubt or self-consciousness. The way “I’m Him” shimmers is balanced by the Estelle-featuring “We Hungry,” which nearly growls; the spare, percussion-forward Ravyn Lenae duet “Need U 2 Know” (the stylization of its title a nod to Prince, one of Tres’s major influences) at delightful odds with the easy ride of “Gold Daytonas.” Head Rush shows the staggering array of styles Channel Tres can evoke. But that versatility is not the point in and of itself—the point is that all these component parts can be reassembled into something that feels uniquely personal, and unprecedentedly honest.
Through his career, Tres has blended recognizable genres, textures, and points of view into a truly singular form all his own. Longtime listeners will recognize in Head Rush the hallmarks of a Channel Tres record: a mastery of rhythm, the rare ability to make songs sinister and fluorescent at once. But this LP also opens a new sonic world, one rife with unexpected terrain and hairpin turns—see the way “Type” takes what sounds at first to be a simple romantic boundary and stretches it out into an alien landscape. Or take “Berghain,” a song that nods to the kinetic live shows also became must-see events—a crescendo of interest that included his momentous Coachella 2022 performance and culminated, at least symbolically, with his early 2023 set at Berghain, the legendary Berlin club that has long been a musical hub of the Western world. “Berghain” is delirious but thumps almost impossibly hard, in line with the album as a whole—always molting, always ready to turn from the claustrophobic to the communal, as the pivot on “Joyful Noise” accomplishes so seamlessly. Head Rush also features some of Tres’s most deeply felt vocals to date, like the veritable bloodletting on “Two Ways.”
And so the record, which also features Ty Dolla $ign, Thundercat, Teezo Touchdown, Watr, Barney Bones, and Toro y Moi, marks a new era for Channel Tres, personally as well as artistically. “I’m older now, and the things that I’ve accomplished tell me I’m ready to do this,” he says. “You’ve worked your whole life for this, you’ve been able to do these shows and walk into these rooms and make these songs. There’s no reason you have to live by the same insecurity that you had to use in years past.” Shedding that baggage accomplished exactly what it was meant to—lightening the load so we’re free to get heavier than ever.
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