For Kiara Nicole Hicks, singing is a whole-self experience, one that involves her body, mind, and soul, always with the goal of glorifying God. Her growing career as a Gospel singer, songwriter, and musician is inextricably woven together with her relationship with Jesus and her heart for ministry.
I know Kiara from high school, where we spent countless hours together in band practice, musical performances, and conversations about life, God, and surviving everything from drama to homework. Her friendship has remained dear to me, even with so many years and distance between us. I was deeply encouraged by our conversation, which felt more like the sharing of testimonies than an interview!
Kiara will be celebrating the release of her second album, I Made It, later this year. She is currently a student at the Armstrong Campus of Georgia Southern University, where she is pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in English, with an Associate’s in Music. I caught her between classes for a chat.
Where did singing begin for you?
My mother and father are ministers and so I was born into church and born into ministry and music. And that’s where it started for me, just that it ignited a fire in me, hearing the choir in church. It’s like when you see something that’s bigger than you and you want to be a part of it. I’ve spent my entire creative career as a singer, trying to show God I want to be part of that “something bigger,” I want to contribute to it.
You have a very musical family. Your siblings play instruments and you also play the drums. Out of all the musical options, why vocals? What makes singing special to you?
From a child, I would wake up with these melodies in my head. At the time I couldn’t play any kind of instrument, so I would just sing them through my mouth. When the instruments are unplugged, when there’s no access for any kind of instrument, I embrace my own instrument. That’s what makes singing stick out for me because it’s something that God gave me and no man can take away. I wanted to embrace that sound. Nobody in my family knew I loved to sing, nobody knew.
Eventually your family did find out you love to sing and embraced that alongside you. What was it like bringing those melodies to your family and transitioning into the worship leader you are now?
That was a beautiful process! One day I was in the hallway at home and my dad heard me singing something. He was like, “Wait a minute, sing that again, sing that again!” Come the next Sunday, my grandmother was like, “You need to put her on the praise team, let her start using her gift.” It came from me playing in the hallway. From then on it was all about cultivating the gift.
How did it feel to have the opportunity to sing?
I was—Oh Lord, thank you so much, Jesus—I was excited! As I said earlier, from a child, I always wanted to contribute to that bigger-than-me thing, and that was my bigger-than-me moment. I was in middle school and was like, “Yes! I can finally contribute to the sound. I can finally contribute to this bigger-than-me thing that I’ve seen since I was little, that made me love music in the first place.” I was so humbled and honored, and I still am, in every opportunity to be part of that bigger-than-me movement—yeah, I’m going to say movement, because God’s kingdom is a constant movement. God’s done so many things since then, but it’s a cultivation process that’s turned into a lifestyle.
Say more about that—what do you mean by “It’s a lifestyle”?
I went from wanting to be apart of [the movement] to being apart of it to understanding it. Understanding the weight of His glory and the weight of what it truly means to be a part of His Kingdom and do work for Him. The significance and importance of it, it was a weight. Not like a weight as in a burden but a weight as in, “God I can’t mess this up; people are depending on what You gave me.” Every Sunday it’s like that for me, and it’s been that way every time I have the opportunity to minister through song. That’s why it became a lifestyle because of that urgency: I have to be ready. This may be a regular service for one person but for another person, it could be the day their life changes. For me, being in that position and seeing it happen, it placed a different urgency on my life. It’s not just that it’s bigger than me, it’s that I have to adapt my lifestyle to what I’m singing about.
How do you prepare for those weighty encounters and grow your musical gift so you can minister well, throughout the week and with the other demands on your time?
There are so many times where worship can become a cycle. It’s not a cycle; it’s a relationship [with God]. I want to keep that relationship pure and new each time I minister. What helps me most with Sundays and singing in worship services is keeping my personal relationship strong. Keeping that connection with God so He can impart in me what I need to be ministering on that Sunday. I want to be filled with what I need to be filled with for that particular service. I look at it that way: it’s about relationship.
As far as music and things—it’s kind of crazy because I’ve heard so many songs over the years. Lately, if God gives me a song in the morning, I just add it to my playlist. If I hear a worship song or there’s something on my heart, I download it and listen to it and it blesses me in that moment.
What’s the last song you added to your playlist?
I added to my playlist a song called Never Lose Hope by a Jamaican artist called Alkaline. I had never heard any of his songs before but he’s awesome. I think that’s a big plus for ministry in my life, that’s why I love the calling: musically speaking, I just love music, all-around love music. So I’m blessed not only from my genre of music or what I’m used to hearing, but new and different too.
What genre of music do you identify with the most as a singer?
I definitely am in the Gospel genre. That’s my main focus. This is something I feel needs to be said—my focus doesn’t take away from the gifts God has given to people who sing the blues and all those other things. It’s just my gift specifically was created for Gospel. So the songs I write, the message is the Gospel of God.
Do you feel any tension in your devotion to ministry and desiring commercial success as a singer?
Both commercial success and ministry success require you to be consistent. I just make ministry my lifestyle. And I’m branding my lifestyle, that I’m a worshiper and a child of God. When commercial success comes, it’ll come from being who God’s made me to be, not because I forced it and compromised.
What has your experience in the music industry been like so far?
In 2019, I released my first album, The Fresh Wind Experience. I’ve written more songs since then and God has opened up so many more doors. It didn’t fall in our laps—I had to do some work, I had to go through some things, but now we are blessed to be able to re-record those first songs in better quality, everything is better. I have my album I Made It coming out later this year, with the single “I Made It” dropping in the next month or so.
Walk me through that journey of creating your first album, The Fresh Wind Experience.
That album was inspired by my journey to get into college. It was my testimony. Let me just tell you how God works and how He will position you for the success and destiny He designs you to have. I knew I wanted to get into Armstrong because my brother and sister went to Armstrong. It was me just speaking in faith, I said, “I’m going to that college. I’ll be there the first week of school in classes.”
That summer after high school, I said, “God, You promise us if we speak it, we can have it.” I also knew that faith without works is dead, so I put myself on a 40-day fast. I would fast ‘til a certain time, I would pray, I would count it done. During that fast, in Bible study one night, God gave me a song called “Fresh Wind,” from Genesis 2:7 that says God formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed life into his nostrils.
“Fresh Wind” really describes my summer and the whole process of getting into college because things at first didn’t go as I thought they would. But if God says yes, you have to keep going until His yes can be manifested in your life. And that’s what I did. I did get into Armstrong. I was there that first week just as I said. There are some songs on the album I’d been writing for years but it all came together from that process.
What is it like to write a song, to have that nugget of inspiration and God moment and craft it into a musical track?
I love talking about this. The majority of my songs come through dreams. I’m telling you, it’s such a beautiful experience and this is why I worship God and I stay under His care because I never want to lose this. When I was little, God would wake me up with melodies, like I said earlier. As I’ve gotten older, He wakes me up with the lyrics to go with the melodies. It will be three or two o’clock in the morning, I’ll take my phone recorder and sing it and go back to sleep.
From that point, I get together with my dad, my sister, my brother. I already have the melody for the song, but they help me bring it to life. It’s a collaborative experience, but the initial song idea comes directly from God through my dreams.
The only song I ever wrote that was not from my dreams is called “Expected End.” One day, I wanted to write a song, but I was like, “Ah man, I have to wait for a dream!” I told God I wanted to try something, so I found my favorite verse, Jeremiah 29:11. Some versions read differently, but the version I read said at the end “to give you an expected end.” I kept hearing in my head: You can have the money / the power / the cars / the clothes / All I want is my expected end. Very soft. That’s how that song was birthed: I looked at that verse and my spirit had a desire to write.
It’s a lot to dig into because sometimes when you hear something, you’re like, “What’s going to go with this? This has to stay in my recordings, This isn’t gonna be anything.” But God is so great. I let my brother and sister hear it and they’re like, “Oh did you think about this?” And then it’s in the works.
How does your musical ministry connect to your recently-claimed title of “Gen-Z Pastor”?
Calling myself a “Gen-Z Pastor” came from me being part of Generation Z, being born in 1999. It’s really a symbol of God’s hope in this generation and me just being part of that bigger-than-me movement that I keep talking about. I have my musical ministry. It can touch people young and old, internationally even; God can use me in those ways if He desires. But my focus is on God and people my age. I want to see them blessed. I want to see them prosper. I use my life to do that. Speaking and singing about my story—God is my story.
Using the title “Gen-Z Pastor” is just a way of categorizing my mission. Helping me stay centered on the mission. I want to see people in my age bracket find that hope and adapt it for themselves. That’s what it means to me. For the receiver of the ministry, it’s to know, “This girl is same age as me, and look at her life.” I always say to God be the glory, I don’t take anything for myself; if people are drawn to me and are blessed, I just say, “It’s all God.” I’m just leading people back to God the best way I can in this generation.
Is there a certain message you feel your generation needs to hear, which you hope to communicate through your music?
A big thing for me I want people to always keep that in their hearts is that the things that are happening to you are happening for you. If you can be a good steward over your trial process, you’ll make it out, like I say in my new album, I Made It. You’ll reach the land of milk and honey, basically; you have to accept what God allows. And it’s a lot to take in: that the abuse, the hurt, the rejection, things that happened in the past, it’s happening for you. I believe in where God wants to take this generation and his people. No matter what you’ve gone through in life, you can still be used by God.
There seems to have been a rise in despair, especially in younger generations, and hearing a message like that can be difficult to believe or even discouraging.
It is one of the hardest places to be in, where people are constantly telling you, “It’s gonna be okay, the pain will be over, you’re going to make it out.” I have lived through trials like that, where my requests of God seem impossible. I went through one trial where it seemed as if it was the end for me; literally, I was at my end. I kept hearing, “God is able, you’re gonna make it through,” and it didn’t seem true. But I believe this message and share this message even at those lowest points because I understand that if I’m speaking life into people, the enemy is also speaking death. Saying, “It’s your fault. You’re not gonna make it out of this.” I realized that from my own trials. As God is trying to pour into you and bring you out, the enemy is trying to keep you where you are.
When you’re in those trials, you know it’s going to be good, but it doesn’t feel good. How do you keep going?
It seems like one of the hardest things to hear that it can get better when you don’t feel better. And it doesn’t happen overnight. But it’s about consistency. God’s Word cannot lie, cannot fail. There are certain people who I’ve been fortunate enough to cross who didn’t believe the same as me and didn’t have that knowledge of “It’s gonna get better.” The greatest thing I could do for them was be consistent myself. All the time, they’re trying to figure out, “Is what she saying true? But look at what I’m in, look at what is happening to me.”
God doesn’t just bring people into each other’s life for no reason. I believe that remaining consistent in your walk helps, even when it looks like things can’t get better. I make it my mission to fight even harder than my circumstances. It’s a struggle, I definitely get it! Some people don’t wanna hear it; they say, “I’ve heard that a thousand times.” But did you believe it a thousand times?
How would you connect these elements of feeling and believing with your music, especially in the moments you don’t feel or are struggling to believe what you’re singing?
Feeling and singing and believing, it all seems to be connected at times. There’s been times in my life where I have used one to connect back to the other. The Word declares that God has given us gifts. It’s like Him saying, “For whatever Katie was going through, Kiara was going through, someone was going through, I wanted to give this person a gift. If they’re in a rut, they can use this gift and feel better and reconnect with Me.” It’s a present from God to us, because He knew what we needed before we knew. There are times when I don’t feel it. I’m going through something. But the moment I start singing… It’s that joy. I’m like, “God, I’m going to make it through this.” I’ve seen other artists, they’re going through something and they start using their gift to help them get through.
There are so many different gifts that we can activate to get to that moment of pure joy. And it’s a gift that is given to us to give to others, which is such a blessing. Like, most people don’t know that you [Katie] really taught me how to play the drums. People have seen me play and I love it, but that’s from you. That’s a cool thing that is a big part of my life. I always say, you never know, being young and stuff, you never know what choices you make that will impact somebody’s life. That was me: I would see you play and I would say, “I wanna do this like Katie.” Having a heart’s consistency for God and for people, that’s what will be rewarded. For those we share our gifts with, like you and me, it’s something that doesn’t go away.
I would like to thank Kiara for taking the time to share her beautiful smile, presence, and testimony with me in this interview! Our conversation was both encouraging and challenging, and I look forward to seeing how God continues to craft her story and musical journey in the years to come.
There are many ways you can connect to and support Kiara.
- Get updates through Instagram (@kreativekiara) and Facebook (“Kiara Nicole Hicks”)
- Hear her music and ministry on her YouTube channel
- Be sure to FOLLOW so you get updates on her single “I Made It” to be released in the next month!
Remember, God gives everyone—including you—gifts designed to equip us for our unique roles in His bigger-than-us plan!
Tune in next month for another Chat with a Creative! Follow the blog or subscribe to Katie’s newsletter to receive an update as soon as it’s posted.
