Name: Godsticks
Members: Darran Charles, Dan Nelson, Gavin Bushell, Tom Price
Interviewee: Darran Charles
Nationality: Welsh
Current release: The new Godsticks album This Is What A Winner Looks Like is out via Kscope.

If you enjoyed this Godsticks interview and would like to find out more about the band and their music, visit their official homepage. They are also on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter.  



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

Truthfully, I have no idea. Though I know it’s vital that anything I write – whether that’s writing articles for magazines or writing music, creating guitar parts – is of my own creation. Part of the reason I’ve never been in a covers band is that because it isn’t satisfying for me to perform music that someone else has written.

I don’t tend to place any value on anything - whether it’s saying something funny in a conversation, or writing a social media post, or guitar review – unless it’s purely of my own creation. I probably feel a sense of pride in creating something.

Although I’ve enjoyed playing in other bands other than Godsticks in the past, unless I was able to make a creative contribution then I could not muster the enthusiasm to continue with those bands. Again, it just holds no value to me whatsoever playing something that I had not in some way contributed to creating.

But that’s just me; its certainly not a judgement I make of others, and I’ve no idea why it means so much to me.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

Usually it’s a guitar riff or a drumbeat that begins the process of creating a song, but it can also be the direct result of transcribing or studying something that has accidentally provided me with an idea. Practically every song on the new album is born from a single guitar idea.

The song ‘Mayhem’ was created from discovering a particularly unpleasant dissonant chord.



It’s not often I can visualise a song in its entirely once the writing process has begun. The feel of the riff / intro / verse determines whether I think there should be a bridge or whether the chorus comes in after verse 2 etc. It’s very much a visceral thing, but I’m also conscious of not repeating myself.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

I find it almost impossible to sit down with the sole intention of writing something. That creates a sort of clinical atmosphere and consequently I’ve gotten clinical results. Inspiration is definitely the calling card and you can never prepare for that.

If anything, the least prepared I am to create something, the more chance something will emerge. I’ve found that it’s at the most inconvenient times a song idea will miraculously present itself!

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

No. Although its always important for me to have coffee to hand regardless!

When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

The music always determines the lyrical content, and the phrasing of the lyrics is determined by the improvised vocal melodies. The sound of the words is vital, and I often improvise gibberish based on what vowel or consonant sounds I think suit the music.

I eventually turn this gibberish into actual words by figuring out what word it sounds like, and only after the song is finished will I eventually put a lyrical theme together and replace words to form a proper narrative. But even then the sound of the word takes precedence.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?

For me personally, if I don’t notice the lyrics then I would consider that successful! I like lyrics to be abstract and listeners interpret them how they see fit.

Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

Once a germ of an idea has been formed I will try to imagine where I want to take it and what the eventual song might sound like. It’s a lot of back and forth.

I generally just free improvise a few takes and listen back to see if I can hear something that would take the song forward. The only natural talent I feel I have is that I can detect, in amongst a sea of noise, melodies that are hidden and can be developed.

I actually find it difficult to play a lot of the ideas I hear in amongst the improvised madness because it’s my ear imagining what it wants to hear. So I have to transcribe what that is and subsequently learn to play it properly because often I’m hearing chords and melodies that I’ve never played before. It’s a strange process to describe.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

Anything goes. For me it would be silly to impose restrictions. If I’m improvising an idea for say a verse, then I leave the session recording and see if I can improvise a structure in real time. So I suppose in a sense it is out of my hands as I’m not consciously taking the music somewhere; I’m being led by whatever my hands end up doing on the guitar neck.

A similar thing happens with vocals. I will play the entire verse / chorus and improvise sounds and melodies over the entire passage. I’ll then listen back and see if there’s anything I like and develop it from there.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

I’ll generally explore any idea that comes to me, and if it goes in a direction that I find musically stimulating then I’ll go with the flow. But I don’t tend to flog a good song idea by going off in a tangent. But again, it depends on the song and the ebb and flow I want to create.

I’m not restricted by pre-ordained structures; if something doesn’t require a chorus then I won’t put one in, for example the song ‘Wake Up’ from This Is What A Winner Looks Like.



There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

Music has been the closest thing to a religious experience for me, in the sense that it’s sort of inexplicable why something that is essentially physical airwaves stimulating your ear drums, produces a feeling that itself is inexplicable.

But it’s the music created rather than the experience making it that is the rewarding element for me.

Especially in the digital age, the writing and production process tends towards the infinite. What marks the end of the process? How do you finish a work?

I’m very aware of overproducing something and whilst I like to put together a sonically high-standard demo, I leave it to our producer to produce. It’s an entirely different skillset to writing and I often find that many artists who produce their own music tend to overproduce – it’s often very clean, compressed, and lacks dynamics. Of course that isn’t exclusively the case and I’m not mean enough to mention who I’m referring to!

With writing melody and creating guitar parts all I need to be is confident that it’s the best I can do and if I genuinely enjoy listening to it, then I’m satisfied.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

Once an album is mixed and mastered, I purposely avoid listening to the finished results because I don’t want to hone-in on any newly perceived imperfections, especially when I’m then in a position where I can do nothing about it! So when rehearsing the new songs for live performance I tend to consult earlier pre-mastered mixes.

But as the months go by, I will eventually listen back to it, but more as a listener than composer, and it’s rare that I don’t hear something that I would consider doing next time. I think I’m constantly evolving as a songwriter and still feel like a novice but ultimately all I ever try to create is something that I enjoy listening to.

Therefore if I now hear that a particular song has a particular section that I would these days consider superfluous, I mentally log than information. And I’ve got a great memory for anything negative it seems!

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

The mixing and production is almost as important as the song itself as it determines what kind of impact the song will have. I like to think that the demo mixes I put together are of a really good standard production-wise, but once James Loughrey (our producer) starts putting the initial mixes together following our studio recorded performances, I soon start to realise I’m a hopeless amateur in comparison.

His mixes bring the weight and ferocity to the guitar riffs, depth and power to my vocals, and an incredible drum sound that provides the foundation for everything else to shine on top of. I value what he brings to the sound of the band immensely.

I’m sure he would tell you that I’m a pain-in-the-arse when it comes to mixing because I am constantly fixated on the volume and panning of certain instruments, and it’s usually about 7 mixes of each song before I eventually sign off on it. But one thing I tend not to do is comment on the vibe of the track because he always nails this.

When I first heard ‘Don’t Say A Word To Me’ and ‘If I Don’t Take It All’ – the first mixes he sent through – I was blown away by how powerful he had made them sound. It more than exceeded my expectations.



After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

I would imagine there can be for some people, but I prefer to always move forward without dwelling on so-called achievements. So, after an album is finished I move onto something else, whether that’s rehearsing for live shows, studying, or writing new music.

I like to keep busy and I’ve never been at a point in my life where I feel I’ve achieved anything significant so have never felt an urge to sit back and appreciate anything.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Creating a great cup of coffee takes skill, a good palette, and deftness of touch so arguably there’s a very creative element to it. Whether it takes as much skill and requires the same investment of time as learning to play an instrument and compose is debatable.

I think the accessibility of technology and the ability to create music and videos coupled with the advent of social media has easily shown how creative the human race is. A quick flick through Instagram reveals just how much talent there is out there.

Creative pursuits are no longer the domain of the people fortunate to possess the tools with which to create anymore.