We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Scherica Lockhart a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Scherica thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
Stepping into the music industry is definitely a risk. It requires financial investment into your projects, sacrifice of time away from your family, making good judgments in all areas and trusting the process.
I didn’t want to accept the calling upon my life to pursue music. I was content with my life working in Corporate America, being a wife, mother and singing on the praise team. I had a rough time with a job in Corporate America and I felt like things became very difficult. My manager challenged my faith, spoke to me with racist perspectives, he degraded women. The atmosphere was very tough and extremely uncomfortable, but I didn’t step out of character, nor did I lay down my salvation in response to his actions. I loved my job and the people I worked with for so many years before he joined our group. My coworkers were my family. One day I prayed and asked God to remove me or remove my manager from the situation that I was battling him in and in 2017, God answered my prayers. I was laid off from my job and it was devastating. I shed many tears due to not understanding what God was up to in my life at that time. The reality was that he took me away from the land of familiarity. I began to seek God for four hours a on a daily basis. While I was in pursuit of searching for my purpose in life, my brother was led by God to introduce me to a musical track that he created. I wasn’t into the track at the time because I was focused on to my role and responsibility as a wife and a mother. I didn’t want to accept, nor did I want to hear the music. I wanted another job to pay bills and to help support my family. However, I decided to listen to the music track and the music began to speak to me.
As I continued to pray to God the course of my life began to change, desiring “MORE” of God, he began to open doors for me to create music, and music videos. I released my first music single/video called “MORE” and received my first award in music of the Independent Recording Artist Award (IRAA) for “Music Video of the Year in 2018 and in 2021, my second music single / video titled “Victorious” was released.
This journey is like no other, I released my first music EP project this past July of 2022 “AMAZING GOD”. I am now a songwriter and a Christian artist/worshiper. The shifting of my life is definitely risky, when you have a family with small kids, the need of having alone time to write music is tough. I do believe it’s worth it for our children to see the beginning of the rough stages and witness the beautiful outcome of each music project. There were many nights I would make sure home is good before heading to record music late at night. Second risk is the financial part of being an independent artist. We used our own money to fund the Amazing God Project. My husband and I have invested so much into each project to ensure that it has a great sound and a professional look that is suitable to be presented to the world. Third risk, making good judgment and trusting the process was very hard to do. There were times when I wanted to give up because things weren’t moving at the course speed that I wanted them to move. I had to make a decision to pause everything and make sure the right people were onboard to help carry out the vision or to take it to the next level. The fear of taking risks may be holding you back but, I believe God has situations designed to push us outside of our comfort zone to step out and do what you were created to do. Take the risk!
Scherica, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I was born in Shreveport, Louisiana and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, I now reside in the Metro Atlanta area. Happily married, with two wonderful children who are loved dearly by their parents. I’m the oldest of five children and I was raised in church. I come from a very spiritual family, filled with talented musicians and preachers. I started singing at an early age, graduated from school of the performing arts and was ordained as a minister under the leadership of my parents Pastor Willie and The late Co-Pastor Shirley Gatson of Resurrection Family Ministries.
In the late 1990’s, I left home to embark on a career in the performing arts arena while simultaneously working in Corporate America and traveled the gospel theatrical circuit for ten years. During this time I developed my gifts of acting and singing. I was blessed to work with many known musicians, industry artists and personalities including: Shirley Murdock (God Sister), The late LaShun Pace, Ann Nesby, Dave Hollister, Jackie Clark Chisolm, Carl Payne, Charlie Wilson, Lamar Campbell, Morris Day, Alexander O’Neal, Montell Jordan, K-Ci & Jojo, Michael and Regina Winans, Raven Simone and many more. I also toured with Dottie Peoples (Songbird of the South) for several years.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is to witness a God idea come to life, completion of things that I never dreamed of doing and, receiving testimonies from people on how they were inspired, encouraged or uplifted through the music that we created from being obedient to following God’s process.
Is there a mission driving your creative journey?
My goal is to inspire people to worship God. I believe this music project is a continuation of reassuring the world of who Jesus is. Knowing the state of this world’s continuous battle and uncertainty, I’m very passionate about the message of the music project and I believe God has called me to bring a Pep Rally to the Nations. My mission is to declare that he is AMAZING, VICTORIOUS, a HELPER, and so much more.
Contact Info:
- Website: Schericalockhart.com
- Instagram: Sclockha
- Facebook: Scherica Lockhart
- Twitter: SchericaL1
- Youtube: Scherica Lockhart
Image Credits
Kevon Richardson and John Paul Moore