Tiera

“The EP is a reintroduction,” Tiera tells Apple Music. “I feel like, for the first time, that I'm really just so in love and connected to every single song.” That love is palpable across the five tracks that make up Tiera, a fun, fresh collection from one of country’s most exciting emerging artists. The Alabama native signed her first publishing deal in 2020, a milestone that served as a springboard for releasing this first proper collection of original songs as well as facilitating collaborations with other songwriters and artists, like featured guest BRELAND (“Miles”). Opening track “Found It in You” shows off Tiera’s penchant for weaving R&B and pop influences into her brand of country, and on the infectious anthem “Not Your Girl,” she declares her independence, both from unworthy romantic partners and from the artistic constraints often placed on up-and-coming musicians. Below, Tiera tells the stories behind each song on the EP.
Found It in You “‘Found It in You’ is the song that started it all for me. It was the first song that I wrote with Cameron Bedell, and he's also my producer now. He has R&B and country sensibilities when it comes to writing and his production. And I didn't really know what I wanted my sound to be until we wrote that song together.”
Not Your Girl “This is the first one that was more pop-heavy. And we just wrote this song about how, when I first moved to Nashville, it was really important to me to figure out what my sound was and what the look was and just the brand overall before anybody else could tell me what it is. I really want the song to be inspirational for anybody out there to just stay true to who they are and not let anybody change that.”
Laid Back “We were going off [Corinne Bailey Rae’s] ‘Put Your Records On,’ that kind of vibe, when we wrote this one. It was a sunny day in Nashville, so we were just all feeling good. It's a song that you just turn on on a Sunday morning, just chilling out with your honey on the couch. And this was the last song that we picked for the EP. I felt like it rounded it all out so well.”
Miles (feat. BRELAND) “The whole song is just a metaphor for love. And when we wrote the song, we knew that we needed a male voice on it. [BRELAND] wrote his own verse for the song and sent over the vocals and it just all came together so perfectly. And it's my first collab that I've ever done. I've always admired how he rides that line—it's country and hip-hop and pop, just blending so many genres together.”
Shut It Down “It's the party song, and I feel like it rounds out the EP so well. We wrote that one at the end of the year, and by that time it's like, we're all burnt out from writing and we just want to write something fun and easy. I definitely jam to this one in my car, so I hope that other people do. I feel like my whole goal for music is just to make people feel good. And I think this is the epitome of that.”