"Smooth chillout grooves."

"Ambitious, visionary and ultimately gorg… Read Full Bio ↴"Smooth chillout grooves."

"Ambitious, visionary and ultimately gorgeous.
Charlie North is the Gods' nectar of ambient music."
Nick Luscombe, Flo- Motion, London's 104.9 Xfm

Charlie North creates music, film, and multimedia projects from his studio set in the heart of the English countryside. He uses generative techniques, custom built software, and traditional tools to create rich ambient sounds, original visuals, and ambitious multimedia that have earned him a loyal, worldwide fan base.

Raised in Yorkshire, Charlie grew up surrounded by music. He started playing in bands and performing at concerts from an early age. A chance meeting with a record producer meant that he pressed his first record at the age of 11. “We sold the record to the other kids at school, it taught me a great deal and showed me that there’s a lot more to the music business than just making music” notes Charlie.

After school (and armed with two diplomas in sound engineering) Charlie took up residence as studio manager with the influential dance label UDG. Based in Leeds (and distributed via Eastern Bloc) this extremely successful time saw the label release a series of highly influential underground hits. Tracks such as ‘On Your Todd’ and ‘Freebase’ would go on to receive critical acclaim from both the underground and mainstream music press.

He has worked in some of London’s best-known recording studios, engineering and producing at Abbey Road and Mixdown studios. He was also lucky enough to be one of last musicians to ever perform live at the original Marquee Club.

In 2003 Charlie graduated from the University of Greenwich with a First Class Honors degree in Multimedia Technology. After graduation he worked with organisations such as the BBC, Sony and Nintendo. In 2004 he developed the online computer game ‘Hackers’, and directed the short film ‘Hungry Ghosts’.

By 2005 Charlie wanted to travel and develop his music, but it wasn’t until a compulsory purchase order on his North London flat that he put the idea into practice. “Working with computers can give recordings a cold, digital quality. I’m always searching for sounds and performances that can introduce a warmth and emotion into my music.” He therefore seized the opportunity, packed his laptop and started on a journey to New Zealand, via America, and back through Europe.

This journey resulted in his first album Find Your Own Space being released in 2006. It is a chilled mix of world music, down tempo grooves, and imaginative production, drawing on a diverse blend of influences including tribal beats, techno, ambient, Arabic, and dance.

During 2007 Charlie started experimenting with generative music systems. He began to code Artificially Intelligent music programs and experiment with the whole recording process. Charlie says he "started to arrange and code a variety of different rules for the computer" and after a while found that he could "press play and never quite know what would happen". He goes on to say that "I found I could jam with the computer and add new ideas into the mix, in turn the computer would react to what I did."

Key elements from this period would later form the basis for his second studio album The Spaces In Between. Released in 2008 it would later be described by Digital Chill as "a collection of exotic, atmospheric textures, weaving and twisting over wide angle production values".

As well as promoting his new work Charlie is currently expanding his distinctive style into the world of film, Web TV and computer games. He is also currently in demand remixing, DJing, and producing a variety of musical projects.

Can't Stop
Charlie North Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

We can′t stop now
We've come too far
There′s a light up ahead but it's not where we are
And I'm no good at being on my own
Well together we′re worse off than being alone

It′s hard to face
But we can't go on like this

Can′t you see us burning down
All it takes is everything we've got
But somehow we can′t stop

We can't stop now
We′re as good as gone
Yeah we pulled apart when we used to belong
Fortune finds those who wait
Yeah we knew what we had
We just got it too late

It's hard to face
But we can't go on like this
Can′t you see us burning down
All it takes is everything we′ve got
But somehow we can't stop
We can′t stop
We can't stop
Oh yeah

Oh it′s hard to face
But we can't go on like this
Can′t you see us burning down
We're burning down
All it takes is everything we've got
But somehow we can′t stop
No somehow we can′t stop

We can't stop now
We′ve come too far
There's a light up ahead but it′s not where we are

Can't Stop Now
Tyler Hilton

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Charlie North's song "Can't Stop" hint at the difficulty of letting go of a past relationship and moving on. The line, "We've come too far," suggests that the couple has invested so much time and effort into the relationship that they feel they can't give up now. They are holding out hope that they will be able to overcome their problems and find their way back to each other, despite the fact that they have drifted apart. The line "And I'm no good at being on my own, well together we're worse off than being alone," expresses their fear of being alone, which makes them unable to let go of one another.

The lyric "Can't you see us burning down, all it takes is everything we've got, but somehow we can't stop," serves as a metaphor for their failing relationship. They know that the relationship is slowly tearing them apart, but they are powerless to stop it. Despite their awareness that their love is self-destructive, they can't seem to let go of each other. They have a strong connection that is stopping them from ending their relationship, even though they know that it's not what they need.

Overall, the song deals with the complex emotions surrounding the end of a love affair. The lyrics express a mixture of hope and desperation, as the couple struggles to hold onto what they once had while wrestling with the truth that it is no longer a viable option.

Line by Line Meaning

We can't stop now
We have to keep going

We've come too far
We have already invested too much time and effort to give up now

There's a light up ahead but it's not where we are
We see a better future, but we are currently not in that place yet

And I'm no good at being on my own
I am not good at being alone

Well together we're worse off than being alone
Our partnership is not working and is causing more harm than good

It's hard to face
It's difficult to confront the truth

But we can't go on like this
We cannot continue in our current state

Can't you see us burning down
We are slowly self-destructing

All it takes is everything we've got
We are giving everything we have, but it's not enough

But somehow we can't stop
Despite the danger, we cannot bring ourselves to stop

We're as good as gone
We are already doomed to fail