“How can the grass be greener when there is no other side?”

Sam Carter writes what he experiences and he sings it to his own tune. This talented musician was in town last week with the collaboration of the British Council and Tehzeeb Foundation.

Songwriter, classical guitarist and vocal talent extraordinaire, Sam was born in the UK to parents who were well aware of the importance of rhythms and rhymes. Sam’s mother played the piano, although not professionally, while the guitar was his father’s choice of instrument. When he showed an inclination towards strumming at an early age, Sam was made to take classical guitar lessons and he started learning the craft formally. Like most teenagers with musical inclinations he formed rock bands with friends growing up and played what he calls “very loud music.” Although his own choice of music was bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, he has chosen to blend the traditional with the contemporary, with his distinct touch of songwriting. After the release of his first album, Keepsake (2009), Sam Carter has been on the radar of music lovers around the globe. He won the BBC’s Horizon Award for best newcomer in 2010 and then went on to release his second album, The No Testament.

Church and hymns were an integral part of Sam Carter’s upbringing and according to him gospel music has “seeped into his conscience.” Whereas mainstream Western music aims to a great extent break its bonds with tradition and strives to make a niche of its own, Sam’s brand of English folk, infused with narrative lyrics, seems to be hitting a chord, so to speak, with more and more people. He turns hymnal melodies into songs about common problems that plague all human beings. Waves and Tremors from his second album begins almost like a song about a higher being but in fact delineates the terrifying experience of being hit by a tsunami. The One takes a cynical look at the tradition of marriage while No Other Side talks about the human nature of always looking for greener pastures.

When he was in Karachi, Sam got to collaborate with the senior sitar player Sajid Hussain and Haroon Samuel, on the tabla, for two concerts. He was invited to give a workshop at the National Academy of Performing Arts where he found a lot of young musicians that were eager to learn from his experiences.

“I believe musicians are like oysters, they make pearls out of the sand that irritates them.”

He stresses that there is a lot that can be written about a situation that is volatile or painful just as much as the everyday mundane activities of someone’s life. He did enjoy his experience with his musical counterparts but at the same time wondered what magic they would weave if more instrumental musicians from the UK joined hands with Pakistani talent. His songwriting influences growing up were Bob Dylan and Neal Young, and he emphasises the fact that we are inadvertently affected by what goes on around us and therefore need a source to vent. He has written songs about subjects as intriguingly hackneyed as a conversation with a taxi driver and as poignantly relatable as his late sister and even his niece.

“If the legacy I leave is to inspire even a single person to write a song about their troubles I would be honored.”

Sam hopes to make further trips to Pakistan and to learn more about the musical tradition and classical raags of the subcontinent. He mentions his mentor Nitin Sawhney, a British Indian musician, composer and producer whom he says gave him the knowledge he has about the Eastern music scene. “I am still trying to get a feel of the raags and hope to be able to learn a lot more of it in the future.”

Even though he had to be driven in an armored car and spent a lot of his time inside the hotel, he was pleasantly surprised by the level of comprehension people have of the English language, which is essential if the audience is to be touched by a songwriter’s words. As for his capacity to heal with his music, he says that his contribution is “a drop in the ocean.” Whether it was the truth that rang out in his lyrics or the energetic yet spiritual quality of his music, he seems to have strummed his way into the hearts of the people he sang for.