NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CBS News) — The melody started with a hum and a snap.
“There’s something there,” 17-year-old Kingston Kharif remembered thinking as he pieced together the rhythm in a Nashville classroom. “Eventually it ended up turning into ‘time,’ and I was like, okay, great.”
That small moment became “Here,” Kharif’s first original song — a hopeful reflection on growing up, chasing dreams and making the most of time before his senior year of high school begins.
“I want to make sure that if I’m singing something, you feel it,” Kharif said. “I want feelings to linger.”
The Metro Nashville student has loved music since kindergarten, but says his passion for songwriting truly took hold in third grade.
“I wanted a piece of paper and a pencil and I wanted to write it down,” he said. “Now I’m hearing music and thinking of songs and lyrics all the time.”
Inspired by artists like Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, Kharif wrote lyrics rooted in his own experiences. Sitting at the piano during rehearsal, he sang lines about time moving quickly and cherishing each moment.
“It feels hopeful,” he said. “It turned into, ‘What do I want out of senior year? What do I want out of the time that I have?’ It’s really just precious.”
Kharif’s song is one of seven featured on the second student-produced album created through Metro Nashville Public Schools’ Songwriters Summit, a summer arts program led by Director of Visual and Performing Arts Franklin Willis.
“Many people don’t want to work in the summer,” Willis said. “These kids give up their summer.”
The program encourages students to step outside their comfort zones and use the arts as a form of self-expression.
“Many times we want kids to fit in a box, and I throw away the box,” Willis said. “I say, ‘Come as you are.’ When we do that, students realize, ‘Oh, you care about me.’”
Kharif wrote, produced and recorded “Here” in just two days.
“It’s almost like they put a canvas in front of me and gave me paint and a paintbrush,” he said. “They gave me what I needed and said, ‘What are you going to do with it?’”
When Willis first heard the song coming together, he knew Kharif had something special.
“I stood there and said, ‘Boy, you cooking. You are cooking. Keep on cooking,’” Willis recalled.
Now, after an emotional live performance of “Here,” Kharif says he’s thinking beyond high school and toward a future in music.
“I want to keep pursuing the arts. I want to keep making music,” he said. “The ultimate end goal is, I want to be one of the greats. I just want to be great.”
