Gospel artist Indiana Norfleet’s vast musical background fuels her musical process, and she credits family for her passion for song.
Norfleet’s late parents, Evangelist Sarah E. Hall and Junious Norfleet, have played a major role in her love for music, because her father was a musician and her mother was in the music businesss.
They continue to influence her as she has watched them throughout their own musical careers. A native of Chicago, she said she began to take notice of her father’s work when she was 3 years old.
Her father was a part of the Norfleet Brothers, the first black syndicated Gospel group at that time, she said.
Indiana was inspired by seeing the Norfleet Brothers on television. She saw them on a show called Jubilee Showcase, which she said was popular in Chicago.
Her mother was also part of the music scene. Indiana said her mother could be heard on the radio as an emcee for 32 years at WNLA. Indiana said her mother brought many popular musical acts to the Delta when she was on the radio.
Indiana knew she wanted to be part of the business, but there was one difference between Indiana and her father. She wanted to sing alone.
“I didn’t want to be in a group, because I didn’t want anybody to tell me what I had to sing,” Norfleet said. “I just wanted to sing.”
Following in her family’s footsteps, Norfleet got the opportunity to sing at her church in front of an audience of 5,000 people when she was 5 years old.
“That was a big moment for me,” Northfleet said.
Impressed with her vocal ability, her family enrolled her in a fine arts school in Chicago.
She studied theater and learned how to do monologues and improvisations. She also learned how to play the piano and worked more on her vocals.
Indiana received a scholarship from Alcorn State University in 1991 to study music. She later went to Delta State University to sing in the university’s choir.
She went to Mississippi Delta Community College and joined the choir there as well.
She finished off at Mississippi Valley State University.
In 2008, she released her first album, Cries of a Sinner, and placed twice on the contemporary Gospel charts.
Unfortunately, that was the same year her father passed.
“If you ever lose a parent, you really lose a lot,” she said.
Unfortunately, Indiana’s mother passed during the production of her second album in 2019.
Her mother had many connections to the business that Indiana had come to love.
“Knowing all of these people, being in that circle,” Indiana said. “My mom was able to maneuver with these people and also include me in that rim. So she was able to promote me.”
Indiana said she considered her second album to be a rebirth of her first album.
“It’s letting you know that transition that happens from 2008 up until now, losing both of my parents that were basically my number one fans,” she said.
Indiana was able to use her grief in her musical process.
“Music became more of a therapy for me without having my mother,” she said.
Indiana said her music is more for the masses now. She said she begins her musical process by assessing whatever problems there are in the world.
“Basically my emphasis when I create music is capturing what is going on with me and how can I inspire or help someone else through my lyrics,” she said.
Indiana said her advice to up-and-coming artists would be to love what you are doing, take criticism and be consistent.
“A lot of us can start things but we don’t know how to finish them,” she said.
Indiana has been in the music industry for 30 years, and she emphasized that sometimes you don’t get paid.
“Sometimes you have to learn how to help people with your craft,” she said. “If it inspires people, you might not get paid but what is the value of you doing it?”
Indiana feels it is important to reach people through music.
