Cherie Oakley began singing at the age of three with her family in full time evangelism. By the age of six, she had already finished a record, signed with a talent agent in Atlanta and a manager in New York. From there, she performed in hundreds of churches, theaters, fairs and festivals throughout the United States before making her television debut as a junior vocalist on Star Search.

After having toured with the Gospel Music Hall of Fame group TRUTH, Cherie moved to Nashville and began developing her skills as a songwriter and session singer. Soon after moving to Music City, Cherie began touring and singing sessions as a background vocalist for some top artists such as Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Amy Grant and Martina McBride.

Cherie joined Team Xtina on the premiere season of The Voice on NBC and celebrated her first #1 hit as a songwriter with Turn on the Radio, released by the legendary Reba McEntire. Most recently, Cherie signed with Number One Group and began working with Paul Worley.

In this interview spotlight, I chat with Cherie about her latest project, challenges, technology and more.

Full Q&A along with links and music below.

Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.) 

I was born in Indiana but I grew up in evangelism, I feel like several places are my home. I’ve been in Nashville, the longest.

What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?

 I was born into it with parents who met in the theater and performed together all of the time. I grew up performing, surrounded by performers and never wanted to anything other than perform. It’s all I’ve ever known and all I’ve ever dreamed of doing.  I believe God gave me a gift and wants me to use it. I think it’s my love for it and my passion for it that keeps me motivated to keep going, because there has been plenty of rejection believe me …  

How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific? 

I have never released a full body of work before. I have put only a couple of “songs” out over the last few years. It took a long time of praying for the right people to collaborate with, praying for the right time in my life and career, the right people who would support me and become my “team” and it took a while to develop as a songwriter and artist in the ways that I wanted … It was so important to me that when that time came, I would know who I was as an artist musically, what I wanted to say, what sets me apart and my how to make my music really feel like “me” … Feeling like this EP truly represents who I am artistically was definitely what I wanted to accomplish … Couldn’t have done that without Dann Huff. I’m really proud of this EP and of every ounce of hard work and time spent that went into it.

Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)? 

Well, I think the #1 challenge is what you just named … It’s overly saturated! It makes it feel overwhelming at times when you see the amount of music millions of people, (indie artists, small label and large label artists, anyone who knows how to press record) are releasing constantly and trying to figure out a way to peak through that and be heard and noticed, it’s an enormous challenge. 

 I think the #2 challenge all indie artists face are the politics that stand against us. As if it isn’t hard enough to know the major label and publishing artists will always get the advantage, the ones who have more of a political “in” in certain ways have an unfair advantage as well, and there are always political “ins” in every type of music that can be released.   

What was the last song you listened to? 

Ha, my own called F.I.M (Fight In Me) but not because I’m egotistical, because I am rehearsing right now 🙂

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s? 

Depends … if it’s Christmas time I prefer Vinyl, any other time I prefer CDs with the booklets

How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why? 

Oh boy! lol … Well, I am not a fan of the way anything digital has effected and continues to effect the music industry financially, but I would choose Apple Music out of that list

Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?

Any of my social sites since I’m always posting links to everything: FB: Cherieoakleymusic IG: probablycherieoakley Twitter: Cherieoakley 

Anything else before we sign off? 

Thanks always for the opportunity