We had the good fortune of connecting with Charles Goold and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Charles, have you ever found yourself in a spot where you had to decide whether to give up or keep going? How did you make the choice?
I always know to keep going when I think about my future self and my reaction to regrets. To me, there is no worse feeling than regret and I’ve always tried to make decisions today to save my future-self the feeling of regret. With that in mind, I always make sure to take a day to internalize and provide space to whatever struggle I’m dealing with, allow those emotions to come out, and then move forward learning from the experience.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a professional musician, specializing in the art of playing the drumset. I was lucky enough to come from a musical and unique family, my father and brother are both musicians, and my mother is an immigrant from the island of Haiti.

With this upbringing I see now that I was able to grow up seeing the world from a different perspective than a lot of my peers. I definitely took a winding path to get to where I am professionally as a professional jazz drummer. The usual track that jazz musicians have traveled since the mid 90’s was to go to youth jazz camps, meet musicians who were teaching there who then placed you on a pipeline to go to a conservatory or notable jazz program and from there meet your peers and teachers who would give you opportunities. I learned music from playing with my father at jazz clubs as a kid and young teen, I then went to school for sports and dropped out, subsequently moving to New York City and trying learn out in clubs and on gigs. Not having a drumset or place to practice, I went out to jam sessions every night to play and network. I overcame the challenges of not being in a school setting by being persistent, going every night, learning from my mistakes and watching older drummers who were way better than me. Now I’ve been entering a new phase of my career where I want to get into music production which I fell in love with when we all had that pandemic freetime. It’s a new set of challenges and struggles I’ve never dealt with and I’m excited to fall on my face and learn from other people who’ve been doing it for years. I want the world to know that I’m always searching for new ideas to combine with my unique experiences and the traditions I’ve gotten to learn growing up in a musical family.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If I had a friend visiting me in New York City I would break things up into daytime activities and nighttime. Obviously you have to experience the great lawn in Central Park and have an equally pleasant time in Prospect Park. Then I would have to take my friend to the Lower East Side for some good cheap food, Punjabi being the crown jewel of unprententious incredible Indian Food. Then of course we have to go to Joe’s Pizza for a proper New York PLAIN slice. Then at nighttime we’re going to the jazz club basically grew up in, Smalls Jazz Club, to hear some of the best live jazz the world has to offer. Once we’re tired of jazz we’ll go around the corner to newly reopened, Arthur’s Tavern, to hear some authentic live blues and old school funk. The next night we’ll go to back over to the Lower East Side to see my friends spin either at Public, Nublu or newly opened Ding-A-Ling, they always have some fun disco going on. You also can’t leave New York City without hearing some good salsa! My favorite place to go in Manhattan is Gonzalez y Gonzalez, where you can see 10 piece bands blasting latin music along with a huge dancefloor.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
First and foremost, I want to shout out Darius Christian Jones for connecting me with with The Shoutout series, he’s a very giving individual and I’m privileged to call him a friend. I want to shoutout my parents, Ned and Margarette for always supporting my crazy goal of becoming a professional musician. Lastly I want to shoutout all of the older musicians over the years who given me a chance to play and learn from them on and off the bandstand.

Website: charlesgooldmusic.com

Instagram: Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/chuckgeezy/?hl=en

Linkedin: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-goold-2563b4152/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charles.goold/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/1989dnb

Other: Facebook Band Page – https://www.facebook.com/CharlesGooldDrums Hot and Loud Creative Studio – hotandloudcreative.com TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@charlesgoold

Image Credits
Lauren Desberg

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