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Breakfast & Launch Podcast
Episode 2: Losing his father and finding his purpose | David Kenny
Jul 9, 2026
15
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20:30
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TRANSCRIPT
0:00
You know, one minute we're doing okay, my dad had an amazing career. We're a middle class, upper middle class family. Next minute, we're laying him in the ground.
0:10
I'm the firstborn, I have to take a shovel and pour sand in there. Hello, and welcome to Breakfast and Launch. I'm Taiwo, your host.
0:17
I want you to know that this is a space for thoughtful conversations with people who are building meaningful lives. So let's get into today's conversation, and thank you for being part of history.
0:26
I have David Kenny here, David Ayokunle Doru-Jaye, an audio engineer, music producer. He is the brains and the hands behind some of Africa's largest podcasts. He is, uh, based out of Lagos, Nigeria.
0:43
There's a lot to, to share and to say about him and about our relationship, but I'll just turn it over to you for a second. Tell us more about who is David. I mean, I think you, you've kinda summed it up, you know.
0:56
Um, at, at, at my very core, I'm a creative, predominantly in the music world, but in the last six years, it's veered towards more of digital media and digital content.
1:09
I now play a more strategic and managerial role in the digital media scene. Okay. Yeah. Before we get into the professional stuff, maybe I should give folks a little bit of a background about how we met.
1:22
I moved to Canada, didn't have a lot of people that could help me take my music to the next level, and just one day randomly, I'm on WhatsApp. You know the story, right, David? I think I do. I'm following.
1:32
[laughs] So I was just on WhatsApp and a friend of mine put in a flyer for a single, and it was a song by your friend, Eniola. No, no. Is that- Eniade. Eniade, yes. Yeah.
1:43
I got to listening to it, and it was just a very unique song, and so I went to look for her on Instagram. I saw you tagged, and that's how I found you online, and we've been working since then.
1:53
I sent you stems for a song that would later become "It's Okay." I had- Yeah... found a guitar loop in Logic, but I knew it needed help, and I just ushered it to you like my little baby, like, "Please bring it to life."
2:06
And when you sent it back to me- Yeah... I just started being a fan on WhatsApp chat, like, "Yo, this is amazing." And I, I wanna say the rest has been history. Mm-hmm.
2:16
It's kind of continued to be that way, and I remember you once said to me, maybe sometimes when you send a song and I, and I don't react that way, you- you're like, "This is not how you normally react."
2:25
[laughs] And so I got to realize that maybe not all artists react that way. Maybe some artists are just like, "Hmm," more doubtful. So maybe we just jump right into that. Yeah.
2:35
How do various artists react when you send them music? Are you sensitive sometimes? Because you're also, you're also creating, but you're creating for somebody else.
2:45
Do you feel sensitive like, "Oh, they didn't like the work I did"? Do you want them to scream like I did? Um, do you convince them to like it? D- how does that work for you? Yeah.
2:54
So, um, this line of work is, is one where, of course, you definitely want to get, you know, that legendary reaction that every artist has when they hear something that is really great. Nobody can hide it. Nobody.
3:11
There's this legendary clip online of Timbaland playing "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" for Jay-Z, and every artist has that moment, that moment where, you know, where they hear something and it's like, "Bruh, this is mm-mm, this is just something else."
3:27
And, you know, every artist, every producer or creative in the space looks out for moments like that, you know? And, and so when it comes, I mean, you like it. It's, it's good.
3:38
But another thing I understand about music is, and J. Cole said this in one of his songs, sometimes you need perspective to really gravitate towards a sound. Do you understand?
3:50
And time is usually that bridge that connects both sides.
3:54
You get, you can hear something today, and then in another three years you hear the same thing and you're praying to God that that piece is still available because it's sounding so new to you, so different, right?
4:06
So one thing I've learned to do is to strike the balance between appreciating good remarks, you know, from an artist who comes and shows you just how crazy they are about whatever it is that you've done, and also, you know, when they're not really feeling it so much.
4:23
And then I listen for what they're saying, right? If they say something that alludes to the fact that maybe this is just a time issue. So I've been doing this for a while. I can tell when something is good. You know?
4:35
[laughs] I, I, I, I don't think I have- Or- You know, yeah, I've not, I've not really done anything that is not good. [laughs] It's, it's if, it's, it's if it doesn't work for where you are or not, you know. Mm-hmm.
4:50
Not that it isn't good. You know, and it's not even a thing, it's just, you know, you've done it so much over and over again, your ears are tuned. You know what a great mix sounds like. You know when, you know...
5:02
Okay, your last project that we worked on, how many iterations of mixes did I send to you for the entire EP? About three of them. I sent the first one, and then the second time I said, "I need to mix this stuff again."
5:14
Like, "I'm hearing something." Yeah. And then after that, the third time when I sent it, you know, I overcompensated. I wanted the, I wanted the EP to have more weight. All the songs, I wanted them to be heavy, you know?
5:25
To have a little bit of weight from your vocals to the- Mm-hmm... instruments. But I think I overcompensated for that.
5:31
So I had to take it back and, 'cause it sounded great on, you know, you know, on certain sound sources. But once I took it to big sound sources, it almost sounded like the music was jumping at you from the speakers.
5:45
So I wanted to tame it a little bit, but not take away from the flair and all of that. And this is just me going into my technical bag. I'm a bit of a- Mm-hmm... nerd with all these kinds of things. Yeah. Right? Yeah.
5:56
So- You know, I can tell my ears are, are, are tuned.
5:59
So what I've tried to do is to strike that balance between, you know, playing something for the artist and usually in the first 10 to 15 seconds you can tell if they're really feeling it or not, right?
6:11
'Cause music is that powerful. But I've also struck that balance with understanding that as powerful as music is, it's also very subjective, and it really depends on where the person is part-time, you understand?
6:22
So if they are not there, don't stress it. Another thing I don't want to be doing is, again, knowledge is calm, you know- Mm... capacity. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Capacity is not- Knowledge is calm. Yeah.
6:34
Capacity is not self-serving, self-showing. Mm. Capacity is not arrogant, you get. So- Come on...
6:42
so if I, if I, if I do something and I know it's really nice and I can see that you're not really feeling it, I'm not, I'm not going to push. I'm just going to go, "Okay, cool.
6:51
So, you know, what, what are you trying to do now? Let's, let's move on," you know? Wow. "Let's try and do something." And but the artist will notice that I'm not immediately,
7:00
I'm not im- immediately even shutting that idea down because I'm keeping that door open for maybe when you might come back and be like, "Yo, I actually like that." And this happened with one of your records. Yeah.
7:11
I think, yeah. I was gonna come to that. I was gonna come to that. Yeah. I was gonna come to that. [laughs] When you featured Tumi, what- or what's her name? Tami or what's her name? No. Your co- Okay. Go ahead. Yeah.
7:21
Featured- Is it Tami Lala? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I have like two songs. What's the name of that song? Yeah. It's either "If I Hear" or... Oh. Uh- That other one. Yeah. "What You Want." Yeah, yeah, yeah.
7:33
"What You Want, What You Really Want." [laughs] Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So- Yeah, yeah, yeah... so I mean, I, I, I got the review from you. That's a typical example now.
7:41
I got the review from, from you and I'm like, "Ah, no, no, no. No sweat. No sweat." Be- because I, I fully understood what was going on. You had spent so much time with this demo instrumental. Yeah.
7:51
You had practically married it- Yeah... emotionally.
7:55
You know, there's no way you're hearing anything, even if it's, even if it was Angel Gabriel that delivered it from the Lord's presence itself [laughs] you know, that it would just click once. No. Mm-hmm.
8:06
So, and once, once we got some timing, you know, you gravitated towards it. You called me back and said, "Yo, that's cool." So for me, I try to strike that balance, but still don't make it about myself. I don't...
8:18
Again, it's not your show. You're serving the music, you're serving the artist. Yeah. Amazing. Thanks for sharing that.
8:25
So we have a great example of that, but it is not, it's not actually that one that I thought you were gonna mention. It's "Dating Intelligently." That was one where I sent the demo. Yeah. Mm.
8:35
I actually sent a demo for it, but, and I, yeah, I just remembered I actually paid for that, for that instrumental. When I sent it to you, you were like, "Nah," you weren't feeling it.
8:45
And so you made something else for it, and it was when I first heard it, I was like, "I don't know about this. I don't know if this is good." But then ultimately, like within your...
8:54
You said, "Just give it some time and see how you like it." And then sure enough, within a few, maybe a day, I was like, "Oh, well, this scene, this scene makes sense, so." Yeah.
9:04
You don't know, you don't remember that song? I, I do. I do. I, I remember all of our songs. I, I never forget a song I, I make. Okay. And, and I, and I've made, I've made quite a few. Yeah.
9:13
Remember it, I, that, I resampled that flute. I played it and then I resampled it for that intro. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. It's one of my, it's one of my favorite pieces that we've done together. Yo.
9:25
It's very, very- So towards the end I said, "Yo, this is a wicked instrumental. Very wicked." Like, yo. Yeah. Yeah. So this one I think is a classic example of I wasn't feeling it because- Mm...
9:35
I was already quite attached to the demo- Yeah... that I had even already paid for. Yeah. But then later I was like, "Yeah, this is good."
9:42
That one, the "What You Want," was another one where we had gotten attached to this instrumental that we recorded to, and when you sent it back, it was kind of a different direction.
9:52
So for me, that example wasn't so much of one where it wasn't like this one, like this "Intelligently," but I just came back to and I said, "Wow, this is amazing."
9:59
For me, it was more of the example of, like, 50 Cent when he recorded "21 Questions," his, uh, he didn't like it. He told his team, like, he were like, "What kind of..."
10:09
He didn't like the song, but he, I think, was it Lloyd Banks or someone else that was like, "Yo, Fif, man, you bugging, man. This..." Like, they were like, "Yo, this is a good song." And he put it out and, like, boom.
10:19
So I, like you, you quoted J. Cole earlier. I'm also a student of the game. I'm always listening to interviews and watching how things are done.
10:26
So for me, I learned that sometimes just trust somebody else's perspective on this. Yeah. Just if you think you can trust this person's view, just let it go sometimes. Yeah. And so that's what I did with that.
10:38
I think it was the same thing with Quincy Jones when he... There's this song by Michael Ja- Michael Jackson, that, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Yeah.
10:47
And so Quincy Jones was talking about how- "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough." Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Quincy Jones was talking about how Michael said, "Take that off. Take out the, the, the strings in front of the song." Yeah.
10:57
And he was like, "No, I'm not gonna do that." Yeah. And he stuck to his guns, and now that's one of the biggest parts of the song. And Quincy was like, "Sometimes the artist just needs to just trust the producer."
11:08
So for me, that was one of those moments where I was like, "I'm not sure, but if you think it's good, let's, let's do it that way." Yeah.
11:14
And interestingly, other people have, fans have kind of resonated with the song and like, "Yo, this is a great song."
11:20
So I think that's maybe another lesson to kind of share, like sometimes you can yield and be flexible if you really want to go the distance as an artist. You feel me? Yeah. Yeah.
11:29
As you were, as, as you were talking, I remember Usher's story with "Caught Up." Imagine "Caught Up." He didn't like "Caught Up." Like, like just imagine that. He, he didn't like it.
11:39
He was questioning everything from the writing to the beat to how... I mean, and this is "Caught Up," multi-platinum selling. Like it, it was a re- it was a redefining moment in Usher's career when that song dropped. Mm.
11:54
Yeah. Yeah. David Kenny, you have a very strong story, which- I've actually shared with people a few times the story of how you, just your upbringing, you know, things that happened that forced you to grow up faster.
12:10
So as much as you're comfortable sharing, um, just want you to give us a bit of that background of how your upbringing contributed to where you are today. Yeah.
12:20
Man, like we see here, thank you very much for that question. Yeah. My, my story is still writing itself, and I, I like to particularly say that God is the author of my story. God is the originator of my path.
12:35
You know, it's, it's been a...
12:37
I look back sometimes and it almost feels very, feels dreamy some way because I can't imagine that, you know, I have had all these many versions and I've seen so many different versions of life, you know.
12:51
So from when I was born till now, till I was 12, you know, I had a father, you know, and I had a mom. She's still alive, glory be to the Lord. But I lost my father at 12, and before I did, he was a very good father.
13:04
He was a very good husband. So I had a good home. I came from a good home where kids could share their opinions. You had a voice.
13:13
If my dad got a promotion at work, he would call a family meeting and, you know, at the time I was like, I wasn't even 12 yet. We're talking like 10, 11, and I had three younger siblings.
13:25
So you can imagine how young all his kids were. But he would call everybody together. The little you can understand, no problem. You understand. But he'd call everybody together and say, "Okay, okay.
13:34
This is where we are. This is what God just did for us. This is what is happening," so that we can move together as a family. I really learned collaboration in that family, right?
13:45
It was hard to be isolated growing up in Kehinde Durojaye's house.
13:50
So I learned very, very, very valuable skills in that house under that man, and it did seem like my future, my path was cut out for me, was charted out for me.
14:02
You know, even as I speak about this, my mind is racing, going back 20 years, 21 years ago, just thinking, just exploring and just, you know, trying to remember some of these
14:16
wonderful situations, you know, that I was in once, you know, once I lost my dad and, you know, one minute we're doing okay. My dad had an amazing career in finance.
14:27
We're middle class, upper middle class family, getting by, doing well. Next minute, we're laying him in the ground. I'm the firstborn. I have to take a shovel and pour sand in there.
14:37
And so the vicissitudes of life just took me where it's like, you know, you don't, you don't know how to reconcile that as a growing man, as a young man. So I stepped into teenage years without a father.
14:50
What was even worse was that I had to become a father to my siblings, you know, and there was no manual except for the little experience that I'd had with my father.
15:02
But, you know, new seasons call for new knowledge, new experiences. So it wasn't something that I was going to understand fully for the first 12 years. I still needed him around.
15:14
That made me spiral a bit, trying to discover myself. Thankfully, I never did drugs, never joined gangs, none of that stuff, but the opportunities were there.
15:24
It's just that God started to introduce self-discovery to me early on. So before my father died, I really liked music, specifically playing the drums. I still do so till today professionally.
15:36
I did that from when I started. It was, it was my version of college. So once I was done with high school, I didn't even want to go to the university immediately. So I took one year off 'cause I was genuinely confused.
15:50
It wasn't like I had it figured out and me, I was just trying to, you know, I, I was trying to be smart. I, I know where I wanna go. No, I was confused.
15:57
I didn't know what I was going to go and do in the four walls of a university if I went at the time. So I found music early. I really developed.
16:05
I had been playing in church before my father died, our local assembly and, you know, once I was done with high school, by providence, I met a very angel figure in my journey, Victor Adenola.
16:17
We used to call him VJ, and he owned a band at the time. I joined the band. I sharpened. I just kept learning and building my music skills.
16:24
And then when I tried getting into school, when I thought that I had figured myself out a bit to be able to go back to university, then, you know how we say it in Nigeria, Nigeria happened to me severally.
16:35
So I would pass Jamb. In some cases, I would even pass the university entry exams, but I won't just get in. I wouldn't just get in.
16:43
You know, it was, it was crazy, really frustrating, and at the same time, a lot of pressure because here's my single mom with four children. I wanna be able to do something to support.
16:53
And this was around the time where internet fraud was becoming very popular in the streets.
17:00
A lot of young men would cash out, as they say, from all these things and build their parents' homes and bring all these goodies back home.
17:08
But again, with the kind of home I came from, um, I, I, I usually say this, and, and I say this to God when I even pray, right? More than I do to people. Before my father died, we did have some investments.
17:22
We had some stocks and all those things, but we had to sell all those things to take care of him because he was sick for the better part of a year.
17:30
He had a stroke, and he was getting better before he finally passed, right?
17:34
But, you know, and he had this-- He had not even one, but maybe about three, one job with Dangote, one at Wema Bank, another one at NMPC, all director level positions all waiting for him.
17:48
They all said they were going to wait for him 'cause he was that brilliant with finance and all of that, and he ended up dying, and none of those opportunities came to fruition.
17:56
So I usually tell God that, "Look, my dad didn't leave any inheritance for me. The only inheritance he gave me was you." Yes, was the knowledge of God and the ability to have conversations with God.
18:10
So that part was built early, and that has really been helpful in my journey because there are certain steps I took as a teenager, as someone in my early 20s, that now that I look back, I'm just wondering what I was thinking.
18:23
But it's clear now that it was just God leading me. How I just knew that that was what God would have me do at that particular time and I went ahead to do it is still something I can't explain.
18:34
But I'm grateful to God for my parents who taught me to trust God, to hear from Him, and most importantly, recognize His voice and His pattern.
18:42
So when He's leading you somewhere, if, if you're trying to knock on a door and it's not opening as fast as you want it, you probably want to take a step back and then go and ask, "Omo, how far?
18:52
Are you trying to get me to do this or you want me to take a step back?" You feel me? I switched from drumming.
18:58
How I switched from drumming to music production was that I was playing in a church, and that was how I started to make money. So instead of fraud and all those things, I could play drums really well.
19:08
So I started playing drums in churches, and they would pay me. I helped pay the rent, pay bills in the house, send some of my siblings to school- Wow... bought books, you know.
19:18
I was still playing drums, but I was now playing drums with artists, with projects and stuff like that. And the question came up for me, what's next?
19:26
And for me, it was that I wanted to take this skill into corporations who needed creatives in their corporate setting. And so it started with a contract between myself and TBWA.
19:40
TBWA is a big advertising agency in Nigeria. Rontie is another pivotal relationship that God led me to. Rontie was the executive creative director of TBWA.
19:51
And Rontie's approach to creativity, to business, he was the first person that I really learnt how to intersect digital content and business development.
20:04
Today, I'm head of content for another agency, and I would have never been able to do that if I was just a music producer. Thank you for your openness. Appreciate it. We appreciate you so much.
20:15
We at the BNL family, and, uh, we'll definitely do this again soon. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Hey, thank you for spending time with us.
20:23
If today's conversation gave you something to think about, I'd love for you to subscribe and join us again next week. Until then, keep building with intention
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