March 19, 2025 • 14 mins
Join Kahn Ellmers on Adventist Waves as he welcomes Kemy Ogendi, a singer-songwriter who found solace and expression in music while navigating life between Kenya and Central Australia. Kemy's unique sound blends the charm of 1950s ballads with the uplifting spirit of gospel anthems.
She shares the inspiration behind her song, "Bring It To Me," and discusses her recent EP, "Lullaby for Grown-ups," a collection of soothing tunes designed to calm the anxious mind.
Explore Kemy's music, including "Bring It To Me" and her EP "Lullaby for Grown-ups," on her Bandcamp page: https://kemyogendi.bandcamp.com/. Support her work and experience the soothing power of her music!
Next week on Adventist Waves, we'll be featuring another incredible Adventist musician with a unique story and sound - Kendol Bacchus!
Donate now to support the production of our next season of Adventist musicians stories.
This episode was brought to you by Blue Vineyard Audio. It was produced, edited, mixed, and mastered by Kahn Ellmers. For professional audio services, visit bluevineyardaudio.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Adventist Waves.
(00:12):
Bring it to me.
I started writing it at my home church in Alice Springs just with some aunties and uncles around the piano.
It was from that place of finishing a service, looking around at everyone in the room and being like, wow, we're going to leave this sanctuary this afternoon.
(00:50):
Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of Adventist Waves.
I'm your host, Khan Elmas, and make sure to stick around and subscribe to this podcast.
Please share it with your friend if you like it.
Make sure to tell them and yeah, post it on your social media.
We always like to have a five star review as well.
So wherever you listen to the podcast, make sure you give us a five star review, drop comments as well and the director us would love to hear your feedback.
(01:17):
So today you're going to hear from Kimi Ogundi, who is from Kenya, currently residing in Australia.
And so let's just dive into her stories today.
(01:41):
Thank you, Kimi, for coming onto the podcast.
Thank you for having me.
No worries at all.
Could you like share with us who you are and where you're from and just tell us a moment that you felt inspired to be a musician.
Yeah, sure.
I'm Kimi Ogundi.
I come from Central Australia in a small town called Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
(02:05):
I first felt inspired to make music as a small child in family worship, watching my uncle play piano and singing with my family and just growing up around music, hearing music all the time.
Yeah.
(02:26):
Nice.
Tell us a bit about what that's like, like sitting with your family and playing music.
Everyone sings.
Everyone sings.
Even when people don't feel like they have the best voices or they're in tune, everyone still sings.
My uncle has a theory that if you can talk, you can sing, which I think is beautiful.
Yeah.
And so we would just sit, if family worship and sing songs.
(02:52):
And that's probably my earliest memories of making music as a kid.
How did that evolve into your songwriting journey?
From that, how did that inspire you to be a musician?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ah, good question.
When I was 14, I went to a youth camp in South Australia and somebody gave me a CD for an artist called Melissa Otto.
(03:22):
Okay.
And she wrote this album called Ogund.
It was so personal, like the way that she described God was so intimate and so personal.
And I think I remember listening to that album and like flicking through scripture and being like,
I've read that lyric somewhere here and there and just getting so excited and seeing the Bible through new eyes because of that music.
(03:47):
And so that might have actually been the first time that I started dabbling in songwriting myself.
And I didn't really write anything that stuck.
But that was the first time that I realized that music has the power to really shape the way that someone sees God.
Yeah, yeah.
It's just such a young age.
You had that encounter with that music of Melissa Otto.
(04:09):
For those people who don't know who Melissa Otto is, can you like give a summary of her type of music and how that impacted you?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.
Ogund was the album that changed my life and my walk with Jesus.
Melissa Otto is an Adventist artist from the East Coast of Australia.
A lot of her stuff at that time was very like acoustic folk, vocals, warm harmonies, guitar, you know, like maracas and just like songs that were very personal.
(04:44):
A lot of the songs were prayers, personal prayers between her and God.
And that was the kind of music that taught me that I can actually speak to God like a friend, you know?
Beautiful.
So that kind of helped to shape your music because that's so interesting.
And what way has that impacted the music that you make today?
(05:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, great question.
For sure. I've heard someone say that the music we listen to in our adolescence, really like it sticks because our brains are like wet paint or wet concrete at that stage.
Super, super malleable. And so the stuff that we ingest at that time can really affect the way we approach things later in life.
(05:33):
I think, oh, so yeah, maybe like the sound, the sound of music, I still find myself being really drawn to folky, like, guitar, harmony type music.
But I think more importantly, the thing that I really care about when it comes to writing music is I want to communicate to whoever's listening just how good God is and how much he can be trusted and how much he is a part of like our lives in the mundane,
(06:06):
everyday things, not just the three hours at the end of the week when you might go to a church service, but and not just the 45 minutes that you might spend in the morning in your Bible, but like literally the two seconds where you're looking for a car park and that split second where you're having a conflict with the loved one or when
you're looking for something that you've lost or you're like, I lost my phone just before this interview and I was reminded, I can pray to God about that.
(06:33):
Like, I can talk to God about anything because like, I don't know, just the king of the universe has said pray without ceasing, which to me it just blows my mind.
It blows my mind.
And so I guess that's what, that's what I feel impressed and really passionate about.
I asked you if you could share one piece that like really describes your music and reflects who you are as a musician.
(07:03):
Can you bring us to the place where you created that particular piece?
Bring it to me.
I remember, I think I started writing it at my home church in Alice Springs just with some some aunties and uncles around the piano.
(07:32):
Again, it was from that place of like finishing a service, looking around at everyone in the room and being like, wow, like we leave this, we're going to leave this sanctuary this afternoon.
(07:53):
And God will be with us in the car on the drive home and he'll be with us when we go to bed tonight and he'll be with us tomorrow morning when we open our eyes and as we brush our teeth and as we get ready for work.
And as we like, you know, like we can give him everything, everything.
Yeah, so that's where that song came from.
(08:23):
If you think it's too big, bring it to me.
I ain't ever restarting the sky.
If you think it's too big.
Yes.
You had that idea.
(08:44):
Yeah, yeah, I think I think actually the sermon that day, my uncle preached that day and it was like he was preaching about bringing your burdens to Jesus.
You know, come to me or you two were weary and heavy-laden. I will give you the rest to take my yoke upon you and like learn from me from gentle and lowly and heart.
(09:06):
My yoke is easy. My burden is light, you know.
He was preaching about that passage and then straight after that, that song started for me.
Bring it to me.
(09:34):
Wow, so take us to the time when you also like started like, I guess, composing the song, arranging the song. What was that like?
Oh, that was a really frustrating process.
And if I could be honest with you, even to this day, I sometimes listen to the song.
And while I feel really passionate about the message and the lyrics, the composition, I'm still like wrestling with it.
(10:00):
And I think being like, oh man, I could do this differently, change that.
Yes, there was a lot of chopping and changing. There was a lot of, oh, maybe this, or maybe that. Oh, nope, that doesn't work.
A lot of going back to the drawing board. Yeah.
Did you have any creative input from others?
I did. My auntie, Sarah, a lady from church, Fiji and lady from church helped me with the song.
(10:29):
And a friend from church called Ralph Neuval, who plays violin and sings and plays piano and actually sang on the track.
Katie Harder came in and sang vocals on the track along with Dave Crowe, who produced it in Alice Springs. Yeah.
(10:50):
Wonderful. Tell us what you want people to take away from that song.
Um, God wasn't joking when he said in his word, pray without ceasing.
Like, if the most important person on the planet that you can think of right now, whether it's the president of your country or the best sports person or athlete that you can think of, or, or the CEO of the place where you work said to you,
(11:25):
talk to me all the time. I want you to talk to me all the time. You would, you would, you would floor it. You might even be a little disturbed.
You'd be like, you'd be besides yourself. Do you know what I mean? Like, and the king of kings and the Lord of Lords who said pray without ceasing.
(11:46):
You know, you'd be pretty flabbergasted, wouldn't you? That's insane. It's actually crazy.
It's a great privilege to hear us. It's a privilege. It's a privilege. Yeah. How amazing. And like, cash it on it. Like, talk to God about everything all the time, anytime, anytime, anywhere, all the time, you know,
(12:11):
I just, it's, it's, I'm still learning how to live that out myself, but it's, it's such a game changer. It is, because I think sometimes we wait for the really good things or for the really bad things.
But like, God's like, I want all of it in between, up, down, whatever, like, talk to me, listen to me, you know. Yeah, sometimes you think that, like, we just bring the big things to God.
(12:38):
Like the things that, like, we are really concerned about. But God is interested in the details of our lives. Yeah, he said, he said, I, I, I've counted every hair on your head. The hairs on your head are all numbered.
I, there is not a sparrow that falls without me noticing it. And if I cared that much about a sparrow, I bled for you. How much more do I care for you? Like, please, we're just, we're sitting on a gold mine.
(13:07):
We just need to open up to God, doesn't it? He just wants us to open up to him. He's right here. He's right here right now. It's amazing. Like, praise him. Like, he's so good. He's just amazing.
Yeah.
So yeah, that's, that's what I'd like.
(13:28):
Yeah. Yeah.
Bring it to me, right? That's the message. Yeah. Yeah. And what piece we would find if we brought everything to him.
Oh, what a friend we have in Jesus. Hey. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Yeah. So you have a bit there. So make sure that you check it out, guys. Her music is on Bandcamp. So I will drop a link or link for that in the description below as well. So you can just click on that and follow him music on Bandcamp on YouTube, Spotify as well.
(14:02):
And yeah, happy listening. All right. Well, thank you so much, Kimmy, for coming on the podcast for our listeners. Make sure that you share this episode of a friend for anyone who may need to listen to it.
Thanks for listening to this podcast.
(14:43):
Adventist Wives.
Welcome to Adventist Waves.
(00:12):
Bring it to me.
I started writing it at my home church in Alice Springs just with some aunties and uncles around the piano.
It was from that place of finishing a service, looking around at everyone in the room and being like, wow, we're going to leave this sanctuary this afternoon.
(00:50):
Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of Adventist Waves.
I'm your host, Khan Elmas, and make sure to stick around and subscribe to this podcast.
Please share it with your friend if you like it.
Make sure to tell them and yeah, post it on your social media.
We always like to have a five star review as well.
So wherever you listen to the podcast, make sure you give us a five star review, drop comments as well and the director us would love to hear your feedback.
(01:17):
So today you're going to hear from Kimi Ogundi, who is from Kenya, currently residing in Australia.
And so let's just dive into her stories today.
(01:41):
Thank you, Kimi, for coming onto the podcast.
Thank you for having me.
No worries at all.
Could you like share with us who you are and where you're from and just tell us a moment that you felt inspired to be a musician.
Yeah, sure.
I'm Kimi Ogundi.
I come from Central Australia in a small town called Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
(02:05):
I first felt inspired to make music as a small child in family worship, watching my uncle play piano and singing with my family and just growing up around music, hearing music all the time.
Yeah.
(02:26):
Nice.
Tell us a bit about what that's like, like sitting with your family and playing music.
Everyone sings.
Everyone sings.
Even when people don't feel like they have the best voices or they're in tune, everyone still sings.
My uncle has a theory that if you can talk, you can sing, which I think is beautiful.
Yeah.
And so we would just sit, if family worship and sing songs.
(02:52):
And that's probably my earliest memories of making music as a kid.
How did that evolve into your songwriting journey?
From that, how did that inspire you to be a musician?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ah, good question.
When I was 14, I went to a youth camp in South Australia and somebody gave me a CD for an artist called Melissa Otto.
(03:22):
Okay.
And she wrote this album called Ogund.
It was so personal, like the way that she described God was so intimate and so personal.
And I think I remember listening to that album and like flicking through scripture and being like,
I've read that lyric somewhere here and there and just getting so excited and seeing the Bible through new eyes because of that music.
(03:47):
And so that might have actually been the first time that I started dabbling in songwriting myself.
And I didn't really write anything that stuck.
But that was the first time that I realized that music has the power to really shape the way that someone sees God.
Yeah, yeah.
It's just such a young age.
You had that encounter with that music of Melissa Otto.
(04:09):
For those people who don't know who Melissa Otto is, can you like give a summary of her type of music and how that impacted you?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.
Ogund was the album that changed my life and my walk with Jesus.
Melissa Otto is an Adventist artist from the East Coast of Australia.
A lot of her stuff at that time was very like acoustic folk, vocals, warm harmonies, guitar, you know, like maracas and just like songs that were very personal.
(04:44):
A lot of the songs were prayers, personal prayers between her and God.
And that was the kind of music that taught me that I can actually speak to God like a friend, you know?
Beautiful.
So that kind of helped to shape your music because that's so interesting.
And what way has that impacted the music that you make today?
(05:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, great question.
For sure. I've heard someone say that the music we listen to in our adolescence, really like it sticks because our brains are like wet paint or wet concrete at that stage.
Super, super malleable. And so the stuff that we ingest at that time can really affect the way we approach things later in life.
(05:33):
I think, oh, so yeah, maybe like the sound, the sound of music, I still find myself being really drawn to folky, like, guitar, harmony type music.
But I think more importantly, the thing that I really care about when it comes to writing music is I want to communicate to whoever's listening just how good God is and how much he can be trusted and how much he is a part of like our lives in the mundane,
(06:06):
everyday things, not just the three hours at the end of the week when you might go to a church service, but and not just the 45 minutes that you might spend in the morning in your Bible, but like literally the two seconds where you're looking for a car park and that split second where you're having a conflict with the loved one or when
you're looking for something that you've lost or you're like, I lost my phone just before this interview and I was reminded, I can pray to God about that.
(06:33):
Like, I can talk to God about anything because like, I don't know, just the king of the universe has said pray without ceasing, which to me it just blows my mind.
It blows my mind.
And so I guess that's what, that's what I feel impressed and really passionate about.
I asked you if you could share one piece that like really describes your music and reflects who you are as a musician.
(07:03):
Can you bring us to the place where you created that particular piece?
Bring it to me.
I remember, I think I started writing it at my home church in Alice Springs just with some some aunties and uncles around the piano.
(07:32):
Again, it was from that place of like finishing a service, looking around at everyone in the room and being like, wow, like we leave this, we're going to leave this sanctuary this afternoon.
(07:53):
And God will be with us in the car on the drive home and he'll be with us when we go to bed tonight and he'll be with us tomorrow morning when we open our eyes and as we brush our teeth and as we get ready for work.
And as we like, you know, like we can give him everything, everything.
Yeah, so that's where that song came from.
(08:23):
If you think it's too big, bring it to me.
I ain't ever restarting the sky.
If you think it's too big.
Yes.
You had that idea.
(08:44):
Yeah, yeah, I think I think actually the sermon that day, my uncle preached that day and it was like he was preaching about bringing your burdens to Jesus.
You know, come to me or you two were weary and heavy-laden. I will give you the rest to take my yoke upon you and like learn from me from gentle and lowly and heart.
(09:06):
My yoke is easy. My burden is light, you know.
He was preaching about that passage and then straight after that, that song started for me.
Bring it to me.
(09:34):
Wow, so take us to the time when you also like started like, I guess, composing the song, arranging the song. What was that like?
Oh, that was a really frustrating process.
And if I could be honest with you, even to this day, I sometimes listen to the song.
And while I feel really passionate about the message and the lyrics, the composition, I'm still like wrestling with it.
(10:00):
And I think being like, oh man, I could do this differently, change that.
Yes, there was a lot of chopping and changing. There was a lot of, oh, maybe this, or maybe that. Oh, nope, that doesn't work.
A lot of going back to the drawing board. Yeah.
Did you have any creative input from others?
I did. My auntie, Sarah, a lady from church, Fiji and lady from church helped me with the song.
(10:29):
And a friend from church called Ralph Neuval, who plays violin and sings and plays piano and actually sang on the track.
Katie Harder came in and sang vocals on the track along with Dave Crowe, who produced it in Alice Springs. Yeah.
(10:50):
Wonderful. Tell us what you want people to take away from that song.
Um, God wasn't joking when he said in his word, pray without ceasing.
Like, if the most important person on the planet that you can think of right now, whether it's the president of your country or the best sports person or athlete that you can think of, or, or the CEO of the place where you work said to you,
(11:25):
talk to me all the time. I want you to talk to me all the time. You would, you would, you would floor it. You might even be a little disturbed.
You'd be like, you'd be besides yourself. Do you know what I mean? Like, and the king of kings and the Lord of Lords who said pray without ceasing.
(11:46):
You know, you'd be pretty flabbergasted, wouldn't you? That's insane. It's actually crazy.
It's a great privilege to hear us. It's a privilege. It's a privilege. Yeah. How amazing. And like, cash it on it. Like, talk to God about everything all the time, anytime, anytime, anywhere, all the time, you know,
(12:11):
I just, it's, it's, I'm still learning how to live that out myself, but it's, it's such a game changer. It is, because I think sometimes we wait for the really good things or for the really bad things.
But like, God's like, I want all of it in between, up, down, whatever, like, talk to me, listen to me, you know. Yeah, sometimes you think that, like, we just bring the big things to God.
(12:38):
Like the things that, like, we are really concerned about. But God is interested in the details of our lives. Yeah, he said, he said, I, I, I've counted every hair on your head. The hairs on your head are all numbered.
I, there is not a sparrow that falls without me noticing it. And if I cared that much about a sparrow, I bled for you. How much more do I care for you? Like, please, we're just, we're sitting on a gold mine.
(13:07):
We just need to open up to God, doesn't it? He just wants us to open up to him. He's right here. He's right here right now. It's amazing. Like, praise him. Like, he's so good. He's just amazing.
Yeah.
So yeah, that's, that's what I'd like.
(13:28):
Yeah. Yeah.
Bring it to me, right? That's the message. Yeah. Yeah. And what piece we would find if we brought everything to him.
Oh, what a friend we have in Jesus. Hey. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Yeah. So you have a bit there. So make sure that you check it out, guys. Her music is on Bandcamp. So I will drop a link or link for that in the description below as well. So you can just click on that and follow him music on Bandcamp on YouTube, Spotify as well.
(14:02):
And yeah, happy listening. All right. Well, thank you so much, Kimmy, for coming on the podcast for our listeners. Make sure that you share this episode of a friend for anyone who may need to listen to it.
Thanks for listening to this podcast.
(14:43):
Adventist Wives.
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