Local 913: Kiera Zee
East Side native Kiera Zee has been singing for a long time, but only recently found her voice
“I started singing as a child. I used to go to church and I used to wanna sing with my aunts and grandma. Two of my aunts took singing seriously, so I would look up to them and they were inspiring. I didn’t start realizing I had a voice until high school. I was in choir at school and still in choir at church. I was starting to get solos. I started to realize that people actually liked my voice and wanted to hear it and it inspired me to keep going. When I graduated from high school I didn’t sing at all. People didn’t even know I could sing. When I went to college, I didn’t sing at all.”
After playing at a 2014 concert, her performance hiatus ended and Zee was inspired to pursue songwriting and recording. She released her EP Moonchild last fall, which includes “… To Love,” a song that she claims has taken her music to new heights.
“I was actually surprised that I made that song! I couldn’t actually believe I made a song that sounded that good. That was the last song I wrote [for the EP]. That was how I kind of progressed and my writing got better.”
The EP was funded by The UP & Coming Mini Grant Kiera applied for.
“And I didn’t even think I was gonna get it! That’s the problem, I need to believe in myself more. Yeah, I applied for it. I saw it on Facebook. I wasn’t even thinking of releasing a project because I was already trying to put stuff on Sound Cloud. Once I got it, I thought “OH! Now I actually gotta do this project and get it finished!” Because there was a deadline, it really pushed me. It was an opportunity for me to really grow. I was really grateful I was awarded the grant.”
For more on Kiera Zee, check out her Facebook.
