Interview with Chuck Treece of McRad and Pro Skater

Chuck Treece is a rad individual, musician and skater in the purest form.  Doing it with heart and soul for the fun of it.  He's played/collaberated with artists like Bad Brains, The Goats, Bob Dylan, Mike Watt, Billy Joel, Pearl Jam and the list goes on.  In addition his groundbreaking skaterock band, McRad has been featured in the legendary Powell videos and more.  Along with skating for co's like Madrid, Gullwing, OJ wheels, Santa Cruz, and Airwalk.

How/when did skateboarding enter your life?

Age 13 I lived in Newark Delaware- in the suburbs. Bought a plastic skateboard for 15 bucks.

What was it like trying to come up in the skate industry being from theeast instead of Cali?

My friends and I didn’t focus on the East or west we just loved skateboarding and eventually made it out to see what the west coast was all about.

What pros did you look up to or influenced your style?

The pros that I looked up to were Marty Grimes, Shogo Kubo, Stacy Peralta, Freddie Desota, Jay Adams, Tony Alva, Mike Jesolowski, Steve Olsen, Steve Alba, Mickey Alba, Steve Hirsch, Christian Hosoi.

Coincidentally I'm also interviewing tom Groholski to launch the interview page and know you are friends. What were some of the best sessions or memories you had/have?

Every session with Tom was a great session. Never a dull session unless we couldn’t skate. We skated in the 80’s until now- when He comes in to town we skate.

Once you became Pro you brought a whole other dimension to the industry with your musician skills contributing to many videos such as the Powell Peralta Bones Brigade ones. Did you think both of these would merge in the skate industry?

I never thought that both of the things that I love to do would merge but because I had love for them equally, I made my own way.  

What was it like contributing music for the videos?

IT'S Amazing to work with Stacy he is the king of collaboration in skateboarding.

McRad is a must for any skate playlist, did you ever write a song in your mind while skating?

Tons of them- Weakness, McShred basically every song that I write has skating in it.

McRad played the 2009 Rock the Cradle Johnny Romano event in Houston, how did that come about?

Some people that were running the competition got in touch with me and I linked up with Lee who was in one of the bands that were playing. They made it easy for us to come play- let us use their gear and treated us great. 

Of course you took some runs in the park too. have you thought aboutdoing a skaterock tour with McRad and maybe some other bands where everyone would play and skate?

Yes- I would love to do a skatepark tour- it is a big dream of mine. To play all the skate parks all over the word and to be able to play benefits to build parks.

You have a McRad board out.  Tell us more about that.

The board was released on Keystone Skateboards. It was a goal of mine to collab with a Pa based company and to also have an awareness of what is going on in the Pa skate industry.

Any plans to enter a masters event?

I would love to enter a couple of master events.

Being accomplished at 2 creative activities is very cool. Tell us some of your best moments.

Best moments of music and skating is to just keep my mind and body healthy and my dreams healthy, my energy healthy so that I can keep doing it.

What's next for you as a pro, musician and McRad?

To release the next MCRAD record Neverending Dominant Force and also getting things ready for “How We Roll” a 6 month exhibit at the African American Museum in Los Angeles highlighting ethnic skateboarders. 

Any words of wisdom for aspiring skaters or musicians?

Words of wisdom- keep your head forward and keep focused on your life. Never back out of what you love to do just make sure you don’t hurt anybody or your self.

Final Comments.

Thanks to everybody for supporting me throughout the years and put a hand out when it was needed. I love music and skateboarding- they have taken me around the world.