To uplift, to worship and to praise.
These three facets are what Christian music group Otic Orchid aims to teach in any of their songs, be it cover or original. Originally spearheaded by senior Jeremy Chae and sophomore Caleb Shin, the Christian band was formed in the summer of 2023.
Coming together as one from their church’s praise team, a small vocal ensemble, the music group found themselves working eagerly in what Chae described as a “scuffed studio,” located in Shin’s bedroom. With Chae as the lead vocalist and Shin on the synthesizer, the writing aspect is a collaboration between the two of them.
“Caleb and I both have our own ideas and preferences a lot of times for style or for the focus of what we make and what we sing,” Chae said. “And I think with every song, there’s one person who really drives it, and the other comes in with support and encourages, elaborates and expands on what the other person is doing.”
While the songwriting process is no easy feat, Chae has taken inspiration from a variety of his lived experiences, with some even connecting to his ethnic traditions.
“We are a Christian music group so we do have a lot of inspiration from the gospel, especially the Psalms, which are biblical ancient Jewish songs of worship [and] reverence,” Chae said. “We’ve tried to explore a lot of styles — some gospel styles, some more traditional hymnal styles, even Korean influences from the Korean church. We’ve recently been trying some more modern indie or indie pop styles as well.”
To spread the word, Chae has created an Instagram account, @otic_orchid, where they post small snippets of their cover songs, which have included “The Blood,” “You and You Alone” and “Scandal of Grace.” The reactions, according to Chae, are not conventional with that of mainstream music.
“The reaction is different from what you would get with pop music because it’s not really the same style as a lot of the music that we hear on radio or on Spotify,” Chae said. “[Our music is] very soulful. It’s in some ways very raw. I think the reaction has been that people can resonate with it emotionally on a level that sometimes is new to them — sometimes they don’t understand.”
Otic Orchid’s end goal is to eventually create an album, but the journey to reaching such a milestone, as Chae recognizes, can be tedious. Regardless, Chae is eminently hopeful for what they can accomplish.
“When we were trying to write music and produce music and do all this in our studio, we were really, really struggling,” Chae said. “But as we grow, I hope to strengthen our musical abilities, our songwriting abilities, so that we’re best able to convey the emotions and the values that we truly believe in.
At length, Otic Orchid has not only been a means to spread the Bible’s teachings, but to also explore each member’s individual musicality.
“I think my favorite part is just having unrestrained freedom, time and space to explore the musical styles that we like,” Chae said. “To explore new types of music — to explore songwriting in a way that we’ve really never been able to do before — there’s so much value.”
