To keep the history of Armenian rock continuous
The “Armenia In Rock” platform is the logical continuation of the festival and film series of the same name, as a platform that consolidates and summarizes the rock music scene in Armenia, where the main information and news related to the rock industry, bands, albums, concerts, projects and festivals in Armenia are presented.
This platform was created by musicians who love music immensely, whose goal is to keep rock music alive in Armenia. This is done solely through the optimistic persistent efforts and personal financial resources of individual musicians, bands and friends.
Therefore, the presence and support of like-minded people to develop this idea and maintain the site is exciting, appreciated and extremely important for us. Support us by donating HERE.
If you want to know more…
In 2019 I initiated another project. There had been no big events in the rock industry for a long time, and in order to break the long silence, I decided to gather everyone again around one idea. I made serious investments, I was able to unite my friends, almost all the bands, we shot the film (“Journey to “Armenia In Rock” festival”), we made the festival a success, we promised it would be annual… but then the covid happened… then the war happened… then the disappointment happened… and it was no longer important what would happen next…
Since 2003 all my efforts, investments, forces, resources have been aimed at keeping the rock scene alive in Armenia. Not talking big, but this is the reality: a number of local and international festivals, concerts, recordings, support for many new bands carried out by “Vibrographus” company founded by me, which was well known among rockers at that time.
When we first decided to invite world-famous rock bands to Armenia in 2009, many were skeptical, because no one had taken such a risk before. And when “Jethro Tull” came to Armenia at our invitation, Armenia was marked on the world map for the first time as a country where international music events, in this case, rock events take place.
Then we invited Uriah Heep, then Deep Purple, then John McLaughlin & the 4th Dimension, then Ian Anderson came again with Ian Anderson Plays Orchestral Jethro Tull” program, which was only thanks to the confidence gained from the previous visit. And only we, me and the members of my “Dogma” band know how many difficulties we had to overcome on the way of realizing this dream, because from the very beginning we already knew that such an initiative could never be a business for a country like Armenia, that it was only possible to do on the condition of being incorrigible dreamers.
And it is exactly the same dream that, after many difficulties and disappointments, does not allow us to become depressed and motivates to undertaking new things. And the same question keeps repeating in your head: “If I don’t do it, then who…”? Because when you are not only a dreamer, but also a doer, you see how you also make your friends’ dreams come true; Have you ever dreamed of shaking hands with the heroes of your youth, Ian Anderson or John McLaughlin, chatting, drinking wine with them and admiring their virtuoso performance firsthand, or even performing together…
So we believed that our dreams can come true…
The “Armenia in Rock” festival was one of such dreams: to have Armenia’s own rock festival not for the sake of some slogans, but a festival for the sake of music. And thank God that I have friends who dream like me, who worked tirelessly to make the two-day free outdoor festival happen, and helped to film the entire process and create a film series, in which the old and new rock bands that have reached our days and are still active today are presented.
This is where the idea of creating such a website was born from – during the shooting of the film we realized that we lack this in Armenia as well: a breathing portal, where the materials related to the rock industry in Armenia will be summarized, with new content created and developed specifically for the website.
Trying to overcome the post-covid and post-war depression, we again gathered like-minded friends, among whom, to the joy of all of us, the hope of dreaming had not faded yet, and we started the work.
They are:
Zara Gevorgyan – the voice of Dogma and henceforth the editor of this website;
Vahagn Papayan – Jeff from “Oaksenham” or Vahagn, a friend of “Rockestre”, who collects information about bands with his students from “AYB” school, writes annotations and reviews;
Artashes Istanbultsyan – or designer Ata as we calll him, who made the website artwork without hesitation.
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We will again try to keep the “ArmRock” website alive with our own efforts and means, but we really want to believe that there are still dreamers like us, who have been to our organized concerts and festivals many times, dreamed with us and will continue to dream and support us to carry out another necessary project.
From dream to action…
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