Kid armed with the power of song

After Carson Taare got up and sang at his school, the kids who didn’t talk to him before do now.

The way he sees it, that’s the power of just one song.

The year 10 Palmerston North High School student says the connection he can have with people through playing his guitar and singing is ‘‘pretty cool’’ and he’s been taking his talents out to the city lately.

Carson has been busking at markets and just landed his first proper job singing at Cafe Royale. He has earned enough money to buy his own keyboard which ‘‘feels pretty good’’.

‘‘My mum always told me that if you want something you’ll find you’ll enjoy it more if you have paid for it yourself. It’s good knowing I have done that but it’s also cool going out there because you meet new people and you sort of see what it’s like to be singing in front of people you don’t know. I’m always nervous at first but then I sing the first song and I really get into it.’’

Carson has started to write his own songs and he says he isn’t in to writing about ‘‘surface stuff’’.

‘‘I write about things that come from within and worldly things as well. I had a sister that died of cancer and I have just started to write a song about that and the easiest thing about it is that you are able to write what you are thinking, you don’t have to try to make something up. You just let it pour out into a song.’’

Carson says his family isn’t particularly musical but the music his grandparents listen to has always inspired him.

‘‘I really like Elvis. I listen to all those people and I think that’s how music should be.‘‘

Carson would love to have a career in music and he says for now he will keep on singing in public because he enjoys seeing the way people react.

‘‘It’s funny, before you get started people look at you and you can just imagine what they are thinking ‘oh here goes another wannabe, he’s going to start singing Hallelujah like everybody else and then you sing the first note and they are like ‘woah’.