The sound of joy has been in the air throughout Pepperdine’s campus since the release of WAVES WORSHIP’s first single “Let it Fall.” The group has been showing their love for the Lord through writing music, and now everyone can enjoy the songs.
WAVES WORSHIP and the songs they produce would not be the same without Nathan Lee and Anna Spivey, who have given so much to the group, said Lily Salanty, Associate Director of Worship.
WAVES WORSHIP organically started meeting up in the fall of 2023 in the HUB for Spiritual Life, and are just now peeking their heads above the ground with their first released song, Salanty said. Now that “Let it Fall” is out for the world to listen to, the group will continue to record and release music that students and staff have created, including Lee and Spivey, Salanty said.
“We just have a passion for finding what God is saying over Pepperdine, and what’s Pepperdine singing back to him,” Salanty said. “It’s just so cool to see Nathan and Anna pouring down into this.”
Lee has taken his classical training on the piano and the guitar and recently applied it to song writing through WAVES WORSHIP, he said. On the other hand, Spivey has been writing songs since she was a little girl, Salanty said. The two have come together with other students and staff and applied their unique skills to write around 50 songs, Salanty said.
WAVES WORSHIP is Ready to Make Waves
A song writing group for worship music did not officially exist at Pepperdine until this year.
This hole in the spiritual life community caused Salanty to leave Pepperdine for a semester when she was a student to pursue her song writing goals at Belmont University, she said.
“I felt like it was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made,” Salanty said. “My community was here, I had a job on campus, all the things, but I was so craving growing in that [song writing].”
This will never be a problem again, Salanty said.
“When I’m a grandma, I want to be hearing that Pepperdine is still writing songs for the community.” Salanty said. “I really like that it’s not a band, it’s not me and Ko [Kolomona Ku, Worship Director] and our staff team. It’s a movement of people.”
![WAVES WORSHIP performs at the 2024 Pepperdine Worship Summit on Sept. 14 on Alumni Park. Students and staff came together on stage: [left to right] Nathan Lee, Lily Salanty, Jordan Seah, Ko Ku, Noah Dearborn, Jadyn Gaertner, Marcus Klotz, Amelia Mordon, Jonas Hamilton, Luke Yang, Hailey Emmons, Jonas Hamilton and Anna Spivey. Photo courtesy of Lily Salanty](https://pepperdine-graphic.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/258216_DSC_4448.jpg)
Now the gap has been filled, and there are around 20 students who are enjoying the program, Lee said.
“As we continue to gain more momentum, more students, pieces and works like that will come out,” Lee said.
The Students Who are Making Waves
Just as there are many different components to a song, there are many different people in WAVES WORSHIP, Salanty said. One of those is Spivey who has been writing music long before her time as a student at Pepperdine.
“Her dad [Tim Spivey, Vice President for Spiritual Life] has told me she was always writing songs growing up,” Salanty said. “She’s so so gifted in that, and has such a strong voice.”
Through her music, Spivey said she finds comfort in times of chaos.
“I kind of write songs on my own and kind of as a little personal form of therapy,” Spivey said.
Spivey also has a talent for writing songs for just about anything, Salanty said.
At a 2023-24 song writer’s retreat held by the Hub for Spiritual Life, Spivey was tasked with writing lyrics and a melody for a song about an unusual Amazon product.
“The one that I got was for lightsaber chopsticks,” Spivey said. “Which I didn’t even know existed.”
Despite the challenge, Spivey came up with something special, Salanty said.
“Anna comes out of that challenge and just comes out with a hit song,” Salanty said. “This is exceptional, melody wise, lyrics so clever.”
Along with writing original music, performing live is another component of WAVES WORSHIP, Salanty said.
At the 2024 Pepperdine Worship Summit, the group performed before United Voice Worship, Chris Tomlin and Sadie Robertson Huff took the stage, Spivey said.
“I feel very honored to have been a part of that experience in my last year here,” Spivey said.
While Spivey was on vocals, Lee was on keys, he said.
“I’ve never had an opportunity like that here at Pepperdine,” Lee said “It was a blessing for us to be able to do that, and especially as a student.”
On top of performing, Lee has a natural knack from music composition, Salanty said.
“I’ll have this concept or idea or scripture, and then I’ll be like, what does that sound like to you, Nathan?” Salanty said. “Then he’ll just start, he’ll breathe and then he’ll just start playing.”
What he plays will take your breath away, Salanty said.
“Nathan hears melodies from heaven,” Salanty said.
WAVES WORSHIP is Now Streaming
Over the past year, the group has put together about 50 songs, and one now released for the community to enjoy, Salanty said.
WAVES WORSHIP’s first single, “LET IT FALL,” is now streaming on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music. The song is first and foremost for the Pepperdine community, but listeners all over the world can now enjoy the song, Salanty said.
There is a reason behind the release date being a Tuesday instead of Friday, which is typical in the music industry, Salanty said
“The Well is the next day,” Salanty said. “We want to be able to celebrate with our community, who we wrote it for and with.”
While this song was written by the staff members of WAVES WORSHIP, there is more that is written by the students that will be released, Lee said.
“There are some songs where I did it from scratch to finish, where I wrote all the chords and wrote all the lyrics and melodies,” Lee said. “There are others where I collaborated with some of our friends or the other members of WAVES WORSHIP.”
While Lee and Spivey are finishing their times as students at Pepperdine, Spivey said she will continue to use what she learned from the group in her future.
“It’s just kind of one of those areas of my life and one of those gifts that I have where I’m like, ‘Wherever I end up being after graduation, I plan to be involved with a church or with a ministry or something like that,'” Spivey said. “Because I’m just, you know, I’m a musician.”
Lee said he does not know what the next few years have in store for him, but he knows the WAVES WORSHIP family will be there for him no matter what.
“I have some friends that graduated two or three years ago, and they still come back and they serve at the well, or they’ll make contributions in our writing. And so I know that the invitation is always there, which is a huge blessing.”
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Contact Emma Martinez via email: emma.martinez@pepperdine.edu or by Instagram: @emma.martinez17
