The Gods They Made have today premiered their new video for the single titled ‘Awaken’, from their latest EP of the same name. The Gods They Made clearly didn’t get the memo that indie alternative rock is supposed to stay comfortably inside its own little box. With ‘Awaken,’ the Geneva based four piece delivers a wonderfully restless slice of guitar driven alternative rock that starts with an infectious groove and gradually takes you somewhere considerably more interesting.
Bass and drums establish an immediate rhythmic swagger, giving the track an almost danceable quality that feels like British indie rock after a particularly productive night out. It’s catchy without being annoyingly obvious, accessible without sounding like it was assembled by a committee of radio executives, and confident enough to know when it’s onto something good.
The real fun begins when the band starts expanding its sonic territory. Daire O’Doherty’s vocals provide a compelling center while the guitars, keyboards, synthesizers, and electronic textures create an increasingly layered atmosphere around him. There’s a little post punk attitude, a healthy dose of alternative rock muscle, and enough melodic sensibility to keep things from disappearing into an experimental fog.
Thankfully, The Gods They Made understand that adding electronics doesn’t mean sacrificing personality. Instead, the additional textures give the song a different kind of momentum, making it feel simultaneously familiar and refreshingly unpredictable. Imagine that, a band actually willing to evolve instead of endlessly photocopying its previous record.
And then there’s that ending. Rather than obediently marching back to the chorus for another round of predictable musical handshakes, ‘Awaken’ lets the guitars take control and stretch things into an expansive instrumental finale. It’s atmospheric, absorbing, and arguably one of the track’s strongest moments. The transition from infectious rhythmic rocker to something altogether more cinematic gives the song a satisfying sense of movement.
It’s the sort of conclusion that makes you want to immediately start the track again, partly because you enjoyed it and partly because you want to hear that ending one more time. No complaints here.
‘Awaken’ represents an exciting step forward for The Gods They Made, and it’s particularly encouraging to hear a band embrace new influences without throwing away the ingredients that made its earlier material worthwhile. Recorded at MoonStudios with Laurent Berger handling production, mixing, and mastering, the track benefits from a thoughtful balance of atmosphere, melody, and punch. The band isn’t reinventing alternative rock, nor does it need to. It’s simply making the kind of music that reminds you why independent bands are often at their best when they’re following their instincts rather than chasing somebody else’s expectations.
If this is where The Gods They Made are heading after their 2024 debut album Breathe In, we’re more than happy to follow along. Consider us awakened.
About ‘Awaken’
Awaken starts with a tight, infectious groove, with bass and drums providing the backbone for a song that feels unusually immediate. There is something almost danceable about it, closer at times to the rhythmic side of British indie rock than to the band’s earlier material. It’s radio-friendly and radio-ready. The chorus brings a more expansive melodic approach, and the instrumental ending stays with you. Rather than returning to the vocal hook, the guitars take over, stretching the song into a longer, atmospheric conclusion. It begins as something you could dance to and ends somewhere quite different.
With Awaken, The Gods They Made’s melodic instincts are still there, as are the guitars and the darker shades of alternative rock that have been part of the band’s sound from the beginning. But the four tracks on this EP suggest a band increasingly interested in what happens when those familiar elements ar pushed in different directions. The change is noticeable, though not necessarily where you might expect it. Electronics have become a more important part of the arrangements, the rhythm section has acquired a different weight, and the songs seem more willing to follow an idea without worrying too much about where it might lead. There is still plenty of guitar-driven rock here. It just has more company.
All four tracks were recorded during the same sessions at MoonStudios, with Laurent Berger producing, mixing and mastering the EP. The band made greater use of synthesizers and electronic pads alongside the traditional drum kit, adding another dimension to the rhythm section without abandoning the physical character of the original arrangements.
The guitars and keyboards remain central, but there is more space for different textures and approaches to coexist. There are traces of indie rock, post-punk, classic alternative rock and something more contemporary running through the record. None of them tells the whole story, and that’s probably a good thing. Awaken is not a dramatic departure from TGTM previous album Breathe In. It’s what happens when a band takes the sound it already has, gives itself a little more room, and sees what comes out. Some of it was planned. Some of it, clearly, wasn’t.
About The Gods They Made
The Gods They Made are a four-piece indie alt-rock band from Geneva, Switzerland, a city that sits between scenes rather than inside one.
The lineup is Daire O’Doherty (vocals, guitar), Irwin Law (keys and strings), Mario Ottiglio (drums), and Michael Dillon (bass). They all moved to Geneva from very different parts of the world, which gives the band a certain restlessness: sonically and lyrically, they tend toward the unsettled rather than the comfortable.
The band writes collectively: every song is built in the room, by all of them. It’s an approach that shapes the music in ways that are hard to fake: there’s no single point of view, no one narrative, just a shared instinct about what a song needs.
After a run of singles in 2023, The Gods They Made released their debut album Breathe In in May 2024, recorded in London with producer Steve Lyon (Depeche Mode, The Cure). The record established the band’s sound: layered, textured guitar and synth arrangements built around Daire’s vocals, which carry weight without announcing it.
After the release of Hypnotic as a single in June 2026, the band has released the Awaken EP, including three more songs marking a step forward sonically and produced by Laurent Berger at MoonStudios, who also mixed and mastered the tracks.
LINKS:
https://www.thegodstheymade.com/
https://www.instagram.com/tgtm_band
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHDKRSwtXxfyh0NTMPMTKSw
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2uN4dd7tBiaXozm0P25t5M
https://thegodstheymade.bandcamp.com/