'I'm not a composer but I've created a lot of music with other people. Much of the music for my stage shows was devised through workshops sessions with other singers and players. When you've got the right musicians around you then there's a kind of alchemy.. the music emerges.

Sometimes I'll start with a folk song that someone has brought along, often I'll have the DNA or seed of a song that's arrived in my head. Sometimes I dream them, sometimes they just pop in out of nowhere. Stockhausen used to say they came from a planet called Sirius.'

Charles has devised music for several operas and films including The Mysteries, The Beggar's Opera, The Snow Queen, U Carmen e Khayelitsha, and the film Son of Man.