{"id":21228,"date":"2017-10-20T13:45:14","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T17:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/?p=21228"},"modified":"2018-08-09T17:05:25","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T21:05:25","slug":"interview-bedouine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/interview-bedouine\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW: Bedouine Turns Refugee Struggle into Universal Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=&#8221;yes&#8221; overflow=&#8221;visible&#8221;][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=&#8221;1_1&#8243; background_position=&#8221;left top&#8221; background_color=&#8221;&#8221; border_size=&#8221;&#8221; border_color=&#8221;&#8221; border_style=&#8221;solid&#8221; spacing=&#8221;yes&#8221; background_image=&#8221;&#8221; background_repeat=&#8221;no-repeat&#8221; padding=&#8221;&#8221; margin_top=&#8221;0px&#8221; margin_bottom=&#8221;0px&#8221; class=&#8221;&#8221; id=&#8221;&#8221; animation_type=&#8221;&#8221; animation_speed=&#8221;0.3&#8243; animation_direction=&#8221;left&#8221; hide_on_mobile=&#8221;no&#8221; center_content=&#8221;no&#8221; min_height=&#8221;none&#8221;]<figure id=\"attachment_21283\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21283\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-21283 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bedouine-e1508465785551.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bedouine-e1508465785551.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bedouine-e1508465785551-324x216.jpg 324w, https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bedouine-e1508465785551-416x277.jpg 416w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21283\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">photo by Polly Antonia Barrowman<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<p>Born in Aleppo, Syria to Armenian parents, Anziv Korkejian says she doesn\u2019t necessarily perceive herself as political, but her music allows her to express her views in an emotional way. Displaced by the Armenian genocide, Korkejian\u2019s parents raised her in Saudi Arabia, but moved to America after winning the green card lottery. Pulled both by familial opportunity and a wandering spirit, Korkejian\u00a0lived in Boston, Houston, Texas, a horse farm in Kentucky, Georgia, and eventually\u00a0spread firmer roots in Los Angeles. The nomadic musician has more than earned the name she chooses to represent her artistry &#8211; Bedouine. Korkejian\u2019s everchanging\u00a0geographical journey paralleled her musical and personal growth.<\/p>\n<p>Although Korkejian has always loved music, playing the guitar and songwriting wasn\u2019t on her radar until her early adult life. \u201cMy first experience with music was my mom making me take piano lessons somewhat militantly,\u201d Korkejian remembers. \u201cIt kind of turned me against it eventually&#8230;but I also think that\u2019s part of the reason my past went towards songwriting, because sometimes, when you\u00a0start getting familiar with an instrument classically, it stunts your growth to see it any other way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With a newfound aversion to piano, Anziv tried her hand at the trumpet in her teenage years, before finally picking up her first guitar right before starting college. \u201cI bought a little silver tone guitar at a pawn shop&#8230;it was like 80 bucks and it was my only guitar until recently,\u201d Korkejian muses. \u201cI appreciate that facility on the piano but I also appreciate that there are more women playing and growing up on the guitar now. It\u2019s these little things that\u00a0<span style=\"line-height: inherit;\">help you see the <\/span><span style=\"line-height: inherit;\">evolution of feminism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/z0tv_pVvp4Q\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>After being granted a cultural scholarship for her family\u2019s experience in the Armenian genocide, Korkejian was able to study sound design at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and filled her spare time fiddling with finger picking and writing songs that \u201cprobably all sounded really similar,\u201d Korkejian describes. \u201cI knew that I loved music enough to know that I wanted a career in it but also, I was too much, and I still am, of a realist to expect any kind of stability in it,\u201d says Korkejian. \u201cSo, ever since I realized that I did want music or sound to be a part of my life, I had been grappling with what I could do that was maybe less left up to chance than being an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cue Korkejian\u2019s astonishingly successful career as a music editor in Hollywood. After graduating from SCAD, Korkejian headed straight for Los Angeles where she started working first at a video game company on dialogue and sound assets, then dialogue editing and sound effects for a film company, and recently adding her first feature film, <em>The Big Sick<\/em>, to her CV.<\/p>\n<p>She had been writing songs here and there, but it was when Korkejian switched to freelance music editing and found herself with more free time that she truly honed her artistry. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until four or so years ago when I really developed a voice that was deliberate and I felt proud of,\u201d Korkejian confirms. \u201cI just started picking up the guitar more often and writing. There was a particular month where I was writing so much I hardly left the house. I went through a little crazy phase. It kinda worked to my advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fruit of Korkejian\u2019s labor is <em>Bedouine<\/em>, her vulnerably autobiographical debut album. While cozy, serene love songs like \u201cNice and Quiet,\u201d and \u201cYou Kill Me,\u201d reflect Korekejian\u2019s calm and collected personality and outlook on romance, more emotionally charged songs like \u201cSummer Cold\u201d and \u201cSkyline\u201d shows her cognitive unrest about the place he grew up in and her innate need to wander. Perhaps prompted by Korkejian\u2019s nomadic past, the record itself projects a feeling of impermanence, effortlessly gliding from song to song with easy melodies and soothing vocals. Recorded on analog tape by Gus Seyffert and filled with graceful, swelling arrangements (composed by Trey Pollard) the record is reminiscent of \u201860s folk combined with a tinge of \u201870s psychedelia.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6p-OFHW5WGA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The lyrics on the album are equally as chilling as the stunning musicality. Clever, earnest and poetic, Korkejian\u2019s lyricism brushes topics of learning self-reliance, navigating modern-day romance, and grappling with the unsettling violent happenings in the country where she was born. Korkejian navigates these topics with grace and ease, effortlessly unfolding a series of universal truths.<\/p>\n<p>In \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/8P5A3RZd86c\">Solitary Daughter<\/a>,\u201d Korekejian sings:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI don\u2019t need the walls to bury my grave \/ I don\u2019t need your company to feel safe \/ I don\u2019t need the sunlight \/ my curtains don\u2019t draw \/ I don\u2019t need the objects \/ to keep or to pawn.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>These lyrics are a testament to the minimalist\u00a0<span style=\"line-height: inherit;\">way she lives her life, refusing to attach strongly to any person, place or thing. Korkejian admits that this may be, in part, a result of the detachment she feels with the country where she grew up, Saudi Arabia. \u201cOnce I left Saudi Arabia, I feel like the home I was closest to sort of dissolved and I didn\u2019t feel any real sense of home anywhere,\u201d she remembers. \u201cSo I think that come across a little bit. Just, like, a lack of attachment to any one thing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>As much as Korkejian projects a lack of attachment, she also sings about love and romance. \u201c\u2018Heart Take Flight\u2019 is a song about giving yourself permission to love someone because, as you grow older and more comfortable in your skin and you become maybe more particular, it is a much more conscious effort introducing someone or co-existing with someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moving from personal to social issues, her song \u201cSummer Cold\u201d is a haunting emotional response to the Syrian weapon crisis and prompts questions about her politics. But while Korkejian says she\u2019s no activist, she admits that her music gives her license to freely express herself. \u201cI mean Nina Simone in that famously viral video says, \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0qL3nHvliN4\">How can you be an artist and not reflect the times<\/a>?\u2019 Well, how can you be a person and not reactive?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Bedouine is currently on tour in the UK and Ireland through November 8. Upcoming U.S. tour dates are below.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>11\/14 \u2013 Washington, DC @ DC9<br \/>\n11\/15 \u2013 Richmond, VA @ Capital Ale House<br \/>\n11\/16 \u2013 New York, NY @ Joe\u2019s Pub<br \/>\n11\/18 \u2013 Allston, MA @ Great Scott<br \/>\n11\/19 \u2013 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda\u2019s[\/fusion_builder_column][\/fusion_builder_row][\/fusion_builder_container]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=&#8221;yes&#8221; overflow=&#8221;visible&#8221;][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=&#8221;1_1&#8243; background_position=&#8221;left top&#8221; background_color=&#8221;&#8221; border_size=&#8221;&#8221; border_color=&#8221;&#8221; border_style=&#8221;solid&#8221; spacing=&#8221;yes&#8221; background_image=&#8221;&#8221; background_repeat=&#8221;no-repeat&#8221; padding=&#8221;&#8221; margin_top=&#8221;0px&#8221; margin_bottom=&#8221;0px&#8221; class=&#8221;&#8221; id=&#8221;&#8221; animation_type=&#8221;&#8221; animation_speed=&#8221;0.3&#8243; animation_direction=&#8221;left&#8221; hide_on_mobile=&#8221;no&#8221; center_content=&#8221;no&#8221; min_height=&#8221;none&#8221;] Born in Aleppo, Syria to Armenian parents, Anziv Korkejian says she doesn\u2019t necessarily perceive herself as political, but her music allows her to express her views in an emotional way. Displaced [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":21283,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[573,305,566],"tags":[6813,6812,988],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Bedouine-e1508465785551.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21228"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24372,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21228\/revisions\/24372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}