Turning the Channel (Again) Channel 3

There's a whole generation of little punk rockers that would put Green Day and Blink 182 on their Mt. Rushmore of punk rock.

But there's a whole slew of stellar punk rock vets out there that paved the way for today's spiky haired rebels. One of the most important, but underrated of that group, is Southern California's Channel 3.

Founded by Mike Magrann and Kimm Gardener in 1980, the band found a way to mesh both hardcore and the more melodic punk rock of bands like The Ramones and The Clash.

After a number of releases in the 80's - including the song "You Make Me Feel Cheap" - the band kept a low profile for most of the 90's. Thanks to a new documentary on the band, a release of their early demos and some recent touring, the group is back.

Magrann was kind enough to put up with some questions recently.
 
Let's start from the beginning. What inspired you guys to start a punk band in the early 80's?
 Well, the old cliché' about hearing The Ramones and deciding, "Hey! We could do that!" It's true. We grew up listening to all those nutty 70's mega groups and the live music experience was about sitting a half mile away from a stadium stage.  So to be able to finally see a band close up, in a club or garage, inspired us to pick up the guitars as well.

You've guys saw a lot of prejudice from being punk rockers. You talk about that a bit in the documentary.
Yeah, honestly I am surprised. It was a violent, underground thing that seemed to burn out after the late eighties, but the Internet and teen cash changed all that. A lot of guys will rewrite their history and say, "Hey screw that man!  Punk never died, look at all these poseur kids now, we've been in the squat the whole time, blah blah..." But we never had a chance to play proper shows and tours, and get paid a fair amount from what the clubs were making off us.  So, yeah, pleasantly surprised at the chance to play the music for people that would've written us off before.
 
So what are your thoughts on the contemporary punk rock scene?
You can really make or take the scene in any way you care to, really.  Some kids identify themselves as punkers, and think Blink and Green Day is old school hardcore. Some kids are full on crusties that know their Crass history way better than we do!  I guess the blessing and the curse of the instant information age is that all things are available to all people.
 
TKO just put out your early demos. How long have you talked about doing that?
I'd have to give Mark Rainey at TKO and Kimm credit for the idea--I would've never thought there would be much interest in hearing the stuff we did so long ago.  I mean, this stuff was written and recorded before we hit drinking age, and before the Posh Boy hit making machine took over. But we are getting some really nice responses to it.

You kind of kept a low profile through most of the 90's. Did you officially break up or just take some time off?
We did take a bit of time off after the whole bloated five piece thing fell apart in the late eighties... But Kimm and I got back to the four piece structure pretty quick and kept playing in the garage for laughs... venture out now and then for a little gig.  It was really the CD reissues and Web site launch (www.chthree.com) that brought us back to a full time touring outfit again.
 
How many original members are still in the band?
Just me and Kimm, that's all you really need right there.  We've always had a pretty high turnaround rate with drummers and bass players, so it's nice now that we have the longest lasting and hopefully last lineup in place!  Alf Silva's been on the drums for years now, same with Anthony Thompson on bass. 
 
Have you been working on new music? Any plans to record again soon?
Yeah, we always have some new tracks floating around, though it's hard to figure out what to do with them, you know?  We just did a cover of the Nils' "Scratches and Needles" for the BYO anniversary compilation, and have a lot of loose tracks out there, so might be time to wrap up an album's worth and throw it out there, eh?
 
How did the documentary come about?
Seems like you have to have some video presence on the market, but we really weren't interested in just doing a stock concert DVD.  We met Erik Carreon, the director of the DVD, and he was really interested in the story of Kimm and me growing up together and staying pals against the backdrop of the So Ca hardcore scene.  There's a lot of in depth stuff about what it takes to stay in a band when you're growing ever older, but lots of rockin' in there too!