From his days at Munro College in the late 1960s, Sam Carty knew he was destined for a music career. Back then, he was a member of the school band, which whetted his appetite for bigger things.
Carty became a singer in the 1970s, recording for producers, including Lee “Scratch” Perry and did a stint with The Astronauts, a duo synonymous with the festival song contest. His latest role is managing the privately owned Sun Sun International Production House in Kingston.
The multidimensional facility, located at Lyndhurst Road, opened recently.
“My role will be recording artiste/producer and director of the business at large. The studio is all-encompassing, and will not only give quality recording/engineering, but will offer the gamut of transfers of old material to digital, even from a cassette,” Carty told the Jamaica Observer.
“Analogue recording tape machinery exists to update old recorded material and there is space and facility to accomodate Internet broadcasting by selected persons.”
Operating a recording studio is virgin territory for Carty, who is in his mid-60s.
“This is in fact my first time engaging in the actual business aspect of studio operations, and because of the diversified approach, we take it a step further to production house,” he said.
Also at Sun Sun International Production House is audio engineer Junior Sinclair, a veteran technician who started at Dynamic Sounds then had fruitful partnerships with producers George Phang and Sly And Robbie.
A trained teacher, Clarendon-born Carty did the rounds as a vocalist with Perry and Dickie Wong (of Tit For Tat Club fame) before moving on to Dynamic where he met The Astronauts.
While recording for Dynamic Sounds, organisers of the festival song contest thought it was a good idea for him to join The Astronauts for the 1981 event in which they placed second with the punchy Festival Jamrock.
One of Sun Sun International Production House’s objectives is recording songs for the multilingual market which suits Carty fine, as he is also fluent in French and Spanish.
“I find my prospects on the Sun Sun brand exciting because of the straight marketing potential of the label, not only in English-speaking but other territories as well, as l will be recording in other languages,” he said.
