The world is evolving and so is the capital of country music, Nashville. Long forego are the days that women were being pushed aside to make space for their male counterparts. One of the artists leading this revolution is Tiera. The 23-year-old Alabama native has been shaking up her new home of Nashville. In the past few years, the youngster has appeared on ‘Real Country’, where she was praised by the legendary Shania Twain, was honoured to be one of CMT’s Women of Country 2020 and is signed to Nicolle Galyon’s publishing company ‘Songs and Daughters’, all the while staying on top of her constant stream of new music.
With Tiera’s, self-titled EP she is trying to reintroduce herself to the world. Throughout the 16 minutes, we are taunted by the immense feeling of love, as the adoration comes off effortlessly after just becoming engaged in March. “You love me a whole different kind of crazy” is just one of the countless lines she sings about her fiancé and with all of the commotions of adoration an outsider would nearly forget about the feminist kick Tiera gives to ‘Not Your Girl’, a duality that plays up well with the gentle yet powerful personality she is. Although she presses on to say that ‘Not Your Girl’ is not just for women but rather for everyone who feels like they need to have a reminder that they can be strong, it’s a track that’s meant to be empowering for everyone who lays their ears on them.
“I just really wanted to make my stamp on country music my way, and be able to release the songs that I felt that I loved, and that I felt other people would love,”, expresses Tiera whilst going on about how she is so grateful to have been going through this process as an independent artist. Being authentic and knowing the effort that goes into every step of the way has been at the forefront of her mind. This doesn’t mean however that all of her tracks come from personal experiences. “To me, being able to make up a story as part of the songwriting process, is so cool,”, she admits as she is expressing that her upcoming music is not all going to stem from her own personal tales.
Being a symbol of what the new Nashville represents is something Tiera never set out to be. “I wasn’t really intending for this to happen, I was just being true to myself and I think that I was just a little different compared to what other artists were doing in town,” is how the Nashville inhabitant remembers the evolution of her becoming the face of change. Her discography isn’t meant to fit a box and neither does she want it to be. Tiera’s music is influenced by R&B because that’s the music she heard around the house growing up whilst also including some pop references yet at the core, it will always be country because of “the storytelling perspective” she says.
A way that Tiera applauds other artists that might not necessarily fit into a box or some rather obscure tracks that have been on her personal playlist is via her own radio show on Apple Music. The 23-year-old recently started to present ‘The Tiera Show’ and is loving the reaction fans have been sending her, telling her that the show helps them discover new music instead of listening to the same things over and over again.
I just really wanted to make my stamp on country music my way, and be able to release the songs that I felt that i loved, and that i felt other people would love.
Throughout her blossoming career, Tiera feels like she has had tons of support of the people residing in Nashville and hopes that eventually, she can also take new people coming into town under her wing, “Because you know, it’s scary, moving to a new place, and also just like getting into the music business. I hope I can kind of be a shoulder to lean on for the other artists yet to come.”
Tiera’s positive outlook on life translates back into the music she writes and the way she sees the world. “I just always want to be able to make music that can connect people on all kinds of different levels,”, is what she pressures on to say. Although she is only at the start of what once will be known as her legacy, Tiera has created fans out of people who previously never listened to country before whilst transcending the stage of being a crossover artist. Tiera is not just a unique musician but also the reason flocks of people are giving country music and Nashville a new chance.
Follow Tiera on Instagram, Twitter and Spotify.
Written by: Lauren Dehollogne // Photo credit: Kamren Kennedy
GEM Magazine 