Preserve the beat of rock in the heart of Armenia
Irina AbroyanRepublic of Armenia
A platform dedicated to Armenian rock has been created in Armenia
What is it, Armenian rock today? What does he live, what does he sing about, what does he dream about and what does he strive for? Armenian rock fans can find answers to these and other questions, as well as a lot of interesting and useful information on the newly created specialized website armrock.am.
It got its name from a large-scale project implemented in 2019 – a two-day open-air rock festival “Armenia In Rock”. Its final point was to be the documentary “Journey to the Armenia in Rock Festival”, presenting the modern rock field of Armenia. However, due to the pandemic, the subsequent 44-day war and the further general difficult situation in the country, the screening of the film was postponed – it was not presented to the public. And now, when there is a site “Armenia In Rock”, it starts showing this film, consisting of 4 parts, from next week. Vardan Grigoryan, the founding director of the Arm Rock company, bass guitarist and founder of the Dogma group, chairman of the Rock Association, told RA about this. According to him, the site dedicated to Armenian rock was created thanks to the joint efforts of enthusiastic dreamers of Arm Rock Company, Rock Association, Ayb School’s Rockestra Club and Dogma Group. Well, the goal of dreamer enthusiasts is the most noble – to preserve the “beat of rock in the heart of Armenia”, to collect on one site the entire “movement” of Armenian rock and to present to familiar and unfamiliar listeners the whole diversity of the sphere – as colorful and powerful as the landscape of Armenia , but keeping up with the times and sounding in unison with it.
— I had an idea for a long time to tell the whole world about our Armenian rock bands, to tell about it in the form of a documentary film — durable, truthful and professional. That is why I decided to unite and revive the fragmented and spontaneous rock sphere of Armenia. It was necessary to gather rock musicians around the idea, which became the “Armenia in Rock” festival. I wanted this festival to be not for or against anything, but for it to be rock for the sake of rock, music for the sake of music, a festival that creates a real holiday for musicians and listeners. I always looked with envy at all the festivals that take place abroad, and thought: why don’t we hold such an event, which the listeners will look forward to all year, for which our bands will prepare with enthusiasm and which will be attended by famous bands invited from different countries. countries, and the old groups, fading due to the lack of a platform for self-expression, will “wake up”. We have done a lot in our time to promote rock in Armenia, and we are not going to stop. Over the years, starting in 2003, my friends and I have tried from time to time to support the sphere with our own efforts and personal funds, organizing many concerts and festivals and supporting newly created groups. By the way, most of these concerts were held at the Puppet Theater, which was always ready to help and became the most dear and beloved place of Armenian rock. Many Armenian rock bands performed here for the first time, many of which have become famous today.
In order to move forward, you must first clear your way. It can be said that I want to build “my own street”, to revive the sphere. This is my “fairy tale”, which I am trying to make a reality. Musical life is creativity, not performances to order. I really want this creative musical life to be and seething in Armenia. And it’s not just rock. I would like an appropriate environment to be formed again and a good crowd of music lovers, who used to be in Puppet Theatre, gather together.
-I would like to learn more about the site “Armenia in Rock” – the content and plans for its development.
– “Armenia in rock” or “Rock in Armenia” – this is how you can translate the name of the site, where serious, professional content already exists and will be generated. So far, information about rock bands and musicians who took part in the “Armenia in Rock” festival has been collected here. These are the groups “Adana”, “Artsruni”, “Ayas”, “Clocker”, “Dogma”, “Eleven Green”, “Empyrey”, “Fairwind”, “High”, “Lav eli”, “Lelocity”, “Nemra ”, “New Grey”, “Oaksenham”, “Rozen Tal”, “The Bambir”, “Unaesthetic”, “Vordan Karmir”, “Vostan Hayots”. They are all present in the film “Journey to the Armenia in Rock Festival”. These are the groups that we met and talked with. An objective picture representing the country’s rock bands. That is, the site contains first-hand information: biographies of the bands, released albums, annotations about them, lyrics, chords and sheet music of some songs (collected by the students of the Ayb school’s Roquestr club), videos of the bands’ performances. However, the collection of content dedicated to groups has not yet been completed – it is in the process.
On the platform, it will be possible to find out news about upcoming events and concerts, read press reviews and interviews with musicians. We also plan to collect opinions of music critics and professionals on the site. If someone takes information about a particular group from our site, he can be sure that this is 100% and high-quality information. The teams themselves are aware of what is written about them, but we are responsible for the published content. There will be sheet music, tablature, reviews, etc. on the site. Videos from professionals have already been uploaded, master classes on playing the guitar. In particular, for the younger generation – young people who want to learn something new. There will be no need to search YouTube for information in English or Russian: it will be available in Armenian. For example, what is a guitar, what types of guitars exist, how to play them, what companies make them, etc. Professional musicians, members of this or that group tell (and show) all this to young people. In a word, there is a lot of things on it and more will appear: the site will grow. We have just started work and are open to cooperation with all rock musicians, we invite you to join us. Unfortunately, many of them show passivity, swaying with difficulty. In our mentality, the enthusiasm component is very low, and this is very sad…