UNC sophomore Chase Carroll to debut first album

Chase Carroll, a sophomore Kenan Music Scholar, did it for love.

It started when he recorded a song, “In Love,” for his girlfriend at the time for Valentine’s Day. The song described little things his then-girlfriend did that made him believe he loved her.

He said she loved it.

“She was crying,” he said. “I was like, ‘That’s awesome,’ but didn’t really think anything about it. But later on I realized I had other songs written but nothing to show for them so I wanted to compile them into something.”

More than a year later, on Feb. 21, Carroll recorded an album — his first. He took eight hours to record 10 tracks, eight of which he wrote.

And on Saturday, Carroll will release it. The Perfect Problem will be found on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music and his website.

“Music is a universal language, and I want to use the language to speak about another universal language — love,” he said.

The album is a collaborative effort drawing on a range of genres including jazz, pop, spoken word and rap. Carroll allowed two of his friends to include their compositions on the piece.

“I was shocked when I found out he was creating an album” said Kristen Marion, a sophomore music and public policy double major and one of Carroll’s friends featured on the album.

“He’s incredibly talented, and it’s one thing to be talented, but he has a lot of drive,” she said.

Carroll began producing the album over the summer.

Once he had the songs and the musicians, he said the only other thing he needed was the money to fund the album.

The album cost $2,600 to produce, $800 of which was raised through Carroll’s GoFundMe page and the rest through donations and a part-time job.

“It was great process to see everything come to fruition, and after that everyone has been really excited,” he said. “They keep asking, ‘When is it coming out? When is it coming out?’”

Carroll said he began playing at a young age, but discovered his talent for jazz organically.

In the summer before Carroll’s junior year of high school, he was one of 10 students accepted to the Eastman School of Music’s Summer Percussion Institute.

When he first arrived to the Eastman School he felt discouraged until he was introduced to jazz.

“Despite being the worst classical player, without having any jazz training, I was the best jazz player there because I could just feel it,” Carroll said.

“It came naturally to me.”

Carroll’s natural musical talent caught UNC jazz studies and composition professor Stephen Anderson’s attention at a summer music workshop. Anderson now acts as a mentor to Carroll.

“I push students I care about and I push him very hard — those who I think can make a career from their music,” Anderson said.

“Chase is a vibraphone player, which is not as common to have, but it’s even more unusual to have one that plays so well.”

Marion said she has been inspired by what Carroll has accomplished.

“He has a great musical ear. Listeners will find it aesthetically pleasing— it just sounds nice.”

@rebekah_cockram

arts@dailytarheel.com