Hello, Carter Sampson

Hey Carter, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions! Easy one to start with, for any readers that don’t know you, please introduce yourself.

Howdy, I am a singer, songwriter and guitar player from central Oklahoma. I like delicious pastries, things that smell good and my little Maltese dog named Bubba.

And, a bit tougher, tell me something about you that I won’t know.

I am a thrift store/charity shop junkie. I love digging through clothes to find vintage treasures. Some I keep and some I sell online and at pop-up events.

What can you tell me about your recent album, Gold?

My bandmate Kyle Reid and I started working on the album before the pandemic started in early 2020. I recently bought a 100+ year old house in the country and wanted to record there so Kyle brought a car load of gear and we set up in my living room. We recorded the A side there then the pandemic hit and we put it on hold for a while. Kyle has a backyard studio at his house and he rigged up a way that we could finish the record while still being socially distant and safe. He ran cables in and out of doors and windows so we were in separate buildings. The B side was recorded there in Norman, Oklahoma.

How did you come to choose the title track as the title?

I wrote the title track for my mama. I just wanted her to know that because she raised me and my brother well we will be ok and that she doesn’t need to worry about us anymore. She made us out of gold. To me it was the song that the record was built around.

What can you tell me about ‘Finger to The Bone’?

That old (by US standards) house I bought was originally built and then moved by mule to its current location in Luther, OK in the early 1900’s. It was owned by a pecan farmer who started several orchards in the town. This song is loosely based on that man, who proved to his family that money does grow on trees. Pecans are not cheap! I love the house and knew the second I walked in that it was for me.

‘Drunk Text’; where did that song come from?

Drunk Text is a true story about my boyfriend of eight years. We have given up drinking since then. [laughs]

How important to you is the track sequence? What with streaming and playlists I wonder how much you care about the order these days? Personally I exclusively listen to albums from start to finish but I guess that’s rare…

I also enjoy listening to albums start to finish and I did think about the order quite a bit. Somehow it worked best to keep the first 5 songs we recorded at my house the A side and the last 5 that we recorded in Kyle’s studio the B side. I think it is important that the album flows well and takes you on an adventure.

You were quite prolific with albums in 2016, 207, and 2018, why did you take the five year break?

Well that big break that the whole world took was a huge part of it. I was fortunate to work with Horton Records for my last two releases. They are a non-profit record label out of Tulsa, OK. I was ready to release it when the label built a team to help promote the album and they needed six months to work on it. I am so thankful for them and the work they did.

What’s the biggest difference in the way you make music now from when you started out?

Not a lot really. I have a wonderful band now but I still really love playing solo singer-songwriter style and getting to tell stories and connect with the audience. The band is really fun to play with though!

How important is budget when you’re creating an album?

Making an album these days is relatively easy considering all the technology we have. I have done Kickstarter campaigns in the past to help pay for albums but this one I paid for on my own. I honestly am so much more comfortable recording in spaces like we made Gold way more than a fancy expensive studio. Kyle and I pretty much made the whole record on our own and I enjoyed working closely with him and trying things I had not in the past. I made the album that I could afford to make and I am very happy with the results. I had major help from Horton Records with the printing and promotion of the album. YAY Horton Records!!

You played in Newbury when you were over in the UK in June, it’s just down the road from me, can you remember anything about it?

That was the first show of my month-long UK tour with Amelia White. We played at the Ace Space Arts Centre, the perfect spot for a concert or art show. I remember having a great show and then both of us panicking about not being able to work our UK credit card machine. We are pros now.

Ah yes, good old UK credit card machines, very flaky I hear! I live in a small town in the UK, what’s Oklahoma City like?

OKC is a large and spread-out city where I was born and raised. I now live 30 miles NE, right off the famous Route 66. My town is very quaint and quiet but if I need some city life I am really close by. I have the best of both worlds.

Tell me about the Rock n Roll Camp for Girls.

We are a non-profit organization that aims to empower girls, women and gender-expansive people through music education. For one week every July we have 50 kids between the ages of 8-17, they take instrument instruction in the morning from female volunteers and in the afternoons they form bands and collaborate on writing a song. The main goal for the week is that each band write a song and then preform it at a large local music venue for the public on the Saturday after camp.

We do two workshops a day from Be Your Own Roadie, Self Defense to Positive Body Image and DIY Band t-shirts. Most of our campers have no or little musical experience and it is truly amazing what these kids achieve in one week. The amount of self-esteem that comes from such an accomplishment is really what it’s all about.

I had been a volunteer at similar camps in Portland and Los Angeles and really wanted girls in my hometown to have the opportunity to attend a rock and roll camp so in 2015 I founded Rock & Roll Camp for Girls OKC. After a few years break due to Covid we just wrapped up our 6th summer camp.

That sounds like a really great initiative. Changing tack now, who’s another artist we should be listening to right now?

I really love Jared Tyler from Tulsa. He has a band called Saugeye that has a killer album out on Horton Records. He’s really wonderful.

What's the best bit of merchandise you have available?

The vinyl record is always great to have. I also teamed up with a local artist to make me some custom clothing items for my merch table. She made some really cool vintage corduroy trucker hats that I like a lot.

What’s your best story? Music-related or otherwise.

I have a song called ‘Rattlesnake Kate’ and it’s based on a true story. My favorite story. Katherine Slaughterback lived in Colorado in the early 1900’s, she was married and divorced six times, a single mother, built and maintained a working farm by herself. One day when she was out hunting on her horse with her three-year-old son, she came upon a rattlesnake and she pulled out her gun and shot it. The sound of that made another snake slither in front of them so she shot it and one more before she ran out of bullets. The snakes didn’t stop coming at them so she got off the horse and used her knife to kill 140 of them. She then dried them and made a dress out of the snakeskins with matching shoes and a necklace out of the rattles. She became known as Rattlesnake Kate. When I heard this story I just had to write a song about her and I love telling her story. What a badass.

To find out more about Carter you can visit her official website. Or you can check out what she’s up to on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Her album, Gold, is out now, streaming everywhere and available to buy on Bandcamp.