We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kyle Nourse. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kyle below.

Hi Kyle, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I learned everything I know about leading worship in church – and singing in general – primarily by 1) being thrown in the fire at a young age 2) being surrounded by family who are also very musically gifted. It was very common for a family dinner to turn into one big choir when my mom’s side of the family got together. I don’t think I realized it then but I was taking notes and being impacted from a very young age.

Another huge part of developing as an artist was who I listened to growing up. Whether that was my mom playing the Saturday morning, cleaning playlist which included Fred Hammond and Kirk Franklin or the artists I would study in my own time. Me and my sister would try to sing every single note verbatim when listening to artists like Mary Mary back in the day.

I think having more opportunities to work with other upcoming or established artists probably would have sped up my growth and confidence as an artist. In many ways, I was held back partly due to wisdom and partly due to fears by my leaders at the time, that caused me to stagnate in my craft as a singer/songwriter. The most helpful skill I learned was the ability to be ready at any time. That could mean being called up to sing randomly in church or asked to sing something that came to mind at any given moment. These were instrumental in my development in agility. So much of being an effective worship leader is based on your ability to connect with the audience and invite them into the moment.

Kyle, 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?

Well, music has always been and will always be my first love. I believe that is my God-given gift/talent. It’s crazy to think there was a time that I doubted whether it was really a gift God gave me or just something I was decent at. I think what contributed to that doubt was the lack of exposure I was getting and feeling like I was just not moving forward. As I mentioned, music is something that I was surrounded by since I was born. That along with religion. Christianity was and is on both my dad’s and mom’s side. Mom’s father was a pastor of a church before he passed away. My dad’s mom is also a pastor of the church I grew up in. Both parents served on leadership in the church I grew up in. Needless to say, God and church is something I couldn’t run away from even if I tried.

I now serve as one of the worship leaders/singers at my current church. It is my favourite thing to do and I think when people see me on stage, they’re seeing the most truthful representation of Kyle. My previous years at my former church definitely served a purpose in my life. I’ve told a few people, my previous church birthed the musical artist in me and my current church is refining it. It’s been pretty cool seeing how it all ties together.

I think people these days tend to get confused about who Kyle is and what his favourite things are since I do a few things. Photography came into the picture very recently. In fact, I picked up a camera for the first time in 2017 during the first semester of my college program at Seneca College. Had no background in photography, no interest in it and definitely had no desire to become an established photographer. But, like most things in life, I was exposed to it, realized I kinda liked it and from there, I’d rent equipment from the rental office almost every weekend so I could gain experience. From having zero experience and skill to graduating in 2019 and fast forwarding to 2023, I now run my own photography business where I help clients achieve their vision; whether that be an album cover, a campaign, promotional material and the list goes on and on. It is a blessing to be able to say I love what I do within music and outside of it.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Yes, the goal for me is to make music my full-time job and creative direction/photography only a side-gig or passive income. The mission is pretty simple, I want to make faith-based music that captures people’s heart across the world. My desire has always been: travelling and music. So what better than to have a career path that would allow both and for me, all the credit will always go to God, the giver of the gift.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

There have been many hurdles on the road to being an entrepreneur. One being inconsistency in income. There’s great months and there not-so-great months. However, I never let that stop me from pushing. I’ve just always tried to think of other ways to generate income if one way doesn’t work. So, when word of mouth was only taking me so far, I’ve tried Instagram ads and when that only took me so far, I’d think of promotions that would attract people. Being an entrepreneur requires you to stay agile and creative.

Contact Info:

• Website: kbenjamin.ca
• Instagram: kylebenjaminphoto
• Youtube: Still working on it lol

Image Credits
Kyle Benjamin (myself lol)