After winning ‘The Voice,’ Carter Rubin shifts to studio work with first single set to be released in fall

Like so many other kids his age, Carter Rubin has spent the beginning of summer vacation by enjoying time with his family, doing a little bit of traveling and attending to a summer job.

Whereas most kids his age might be busing tables at a restaurant or working as a camp counselor, Carter has been hard at work recording and writing music set to be released later this year. The Shoreham teen skyrocketed to fame last December after winning the 19th season of NBC’s “The Voice,” which landed him a recording contract as part of the grand prize.

Nearly seven months have now passed since confetti rained down on stage around Carter as the 15-year-old celebrated the momentous win alongside his celebrity coach, Gwen Stefani. After friends, classmates and neighbors congratulated Carter with a drive-by parade past his house after arriving home from Los Angeles, life began to return to a bit of normalcy after an initial culture shock once the hoopla in L.A. subsided. Now, as pandemic restrictions have eased and Carter’s work in the recording studio comes together, the spotlight will soon shine back on the talented teen as he begins the next stage in his musical career.

“I’m very excited to move into the next chapter,” Carter said in an interview this week. “I have a team of producers and writers in New York and a management team out in L.A. and I’m still in touch with Gwen. So things are definitely lining up.”

Carter, who’s working with the New York City-based label Recording Records, plans to unveil a single in the fall, his first new music since the show ended.

While he couldn’t divulge too many specifics about the song just yet, he said it’s a different vibe than what viewers saw on the “The Voice,” showing more of maturity as he continues to develop his sound as he grows older.

He said the process of co-writing the song and recording it took a couple of months.

“It’s definitely been a fun process,” he said. “Before that I was never really part of the creative process in the studio. All the producing and writing and recording, it was tons of fun.”

Carter spends time at the studio in Westchester while also undertaking virtual training sessions from home with Trelawny Rose, the head vocal coach from “The Voice.”

She helps assist him with the technical side of music, he said. Since he is so young, Carter has already seen some changes in his voice. He noticed his voice begin to drop just after he got home from the show.

“I’ve been kind of adjusting to this lower part of my range that I now have,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of improvement in that area.”

On top of the singing, winning the show has been a crash course into the business side of the music industry. Carter admitted he didn’t quite know what to expect once the show ended.

Ms. Stefani, who rose to fame in the ‘90s as part of the band No Doubt, connected Carter with a business manager and lawyer. He also has a talent manager that’s part of his L.A.-based management team.

In New York, he’s worked alongside a team of producers and writers and inspiration can come at any time. Once he feels like he has a good chorus or verse, he begins to record.

“It was a really fun process,” he said.

Ms. Stefani encouraged Carter to begin writing music and he’s taken on the challenge.

“It’s definitely a bit of a challenge at times when you have a creative roadblock,” he said.

The process, he said, is made easier by the team he has around him who have vast experience in music writing and can help come up with ideas and fine-tune his ideas.

“We kind of create something beautiful together,” he said.

There haven’t been too many live performance opportunities just yet, but Carter did get to sing four songs last month in Riverhead as part of the opening day festivities at Splish Splash. The performance with School of Rock Port Jefferson had been delayed due to poor weather on Memorial Day weekend.

Carter will perform before the largest live audience to date when sings the National Anthem at Citi Field prior to the Aug. 14 New York Mets game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Carter said he’s not much of a baseball fan, but was thrilled when the team reached out about the opportunity.

As he begins to take the next step his career, Carter will transition to a home schooling program and no longer attend Shoreham-Wading River High School for his final two years. That will allow him to travel with greater ease and bounce between L.A. as needed.

When his new single is released, fans (including his nearly 65,000 Instagram followers) can find it on all major platforms like Apple Music and Spotify.

“I’m very excited for everyone to hear,” Carter said.