An Interview with Hovhannes Kourghinyan
OK: Do you think that Armenians want to listen to rock music? When I look at the contemporary Armenian pop music scene it appears to be quite manufactured.
KH: Armenia is greatly influenced by what happens in Russia and that’s why Russian pop is very popular here. This is a geopolitical process and I consider that what is happening deadens the brain. It’s the same shit about nothing and this shit is also coming from the television. It’s the same music and the same stupid words -- I don’t want to call them lyrics. It’s about sex and serving the body.
OK: But rock music can also be about that.
KH: No, rock music is never about that.
OK: What about bands such as Whitesnake? David Coverdale was always singing about himself and sex.
KH: That’s why nobody will remember him. Deep Purple was never about that even when they sang about relations between a man and a woman.
OK: Of course, we have the same problem of manufactured music in the West with record companies spending millions to create bands based on an image but when I first started to look into contemporary Armenian music five years ago, I had hoped that something better might have emerged by now. I was tired of hearing only about Nune in the Diaspora and wrote about others such as Shushan Petrosyan and Alla Levonyan long before they were known outside Armenia. However, since then that potential has not been realized.
Of course, one significant problem is that the local market for music is very small and you can’t make money by making records or by performing. You need a sponsor.
KH: Why not? The problem is that when you plant different crops in a field, you can feed yourself for a year but when your fields are full of weeds you will starve, you know what I mean? The same thing happens with everything in our country. This isn’t just the case with music -- it’s a problem with everything. Perhaps this is an Armenian problem. When someone does something here they don’t ask themselves if it’s good or bad. People instead declare themselves to be geniuses even though I know that many of these performers will be gone in the next two years. Nobody will remember them.
They’re not here because of talent or because of music. They’re here because of money. When Nune started I was Director of the Philharmonic Agency and I remember her very well. She wasn’t known in Yerevan at that time although she had a good voice and sang Whitney Houston songs very well. Artur created her but before that I remember how she came to shows. I remember what she was wearing and how she was thinking and I don’t think anything has changed since. She realized that this business was good and maybe she likes what she’s doing now but I can see in her eyes that she is not happy. Maybe these people have nice cars now but as artists, they are not happy.
OK: However, the market in Armenia is not very well developed, is it?
KH: There is no market here and I understand that in order to prevent rock music from dying it is important that bands do not consider that their music is simply a hobby. There was one band that was very good but fell apart and so I invited their bass player and drummer to come and work at my rock club. Then they invited Artur, a young guitarist who is studying oud and before that, flamenco, but who really didn’t play rock. They said he was very talented and so we started a new group when my attempts with Areg to restart Vostan Hayots failed.
OK: You call your band, Army of God, a Christian rock band but you also play Metallica and Black Sabbath covers. Isn’t this a contradiction?
KH: No, because this music exists without us and is anyway part of rock culture. I don’t allow any music that’s satanic in my club which is why some people don’t come here. In the old place, there was a group of Satanists that used to come but I immediately threw them out and as a result some other youth stopped coming. Okay, so if they want to do something like that let them do it somewhere else. That’s their choice. Anyway, I don’t consider Metallica to be something very terrible. Their lyrics make you think rather than want to fall asleep.
When we started, the same question was also asked by other journalists. How can you play rock and be a Christian? My response was that the world is full of far more terrible things than rock music -- things that push people towards their death or towards a life of crime.
At the moment we’re recording a new album, In Your Light, because we know that we are always walking on the edge of a knife between two forces and that we have to make a choice. On this album we identify those choices through some songs that describe this inner struggle. Other songs are not so much declarative and are more concerned with the feelings and fears of somebody who lives in this world. That person is Armenian and it’s more psychological but in any case, this person is also a Christian and has no doubts about the existence of God or that Jesus Christ is the son of God.
We’ve performed several concerts which were attended by a few hundred people and with advertising I think we could attract a few thousand. We want to invite those people who live by their faith and have accepted the presence of the Holy Spirit. For many centuries, external powers have tried to destroy Armenia as a nation but they were never successful. Yet, when Armenians live among themselves, they will destroy each other. Why? It is because we burn candles without knowing why. We don’t have the shield of faith.
When we didn’t have a state the Armenian Apostolic Church united people but then the soviets gave us a pseudo faith. They told us to work so that one day we can create a Utopia. Everybody would be equal and everybody would get what they wanted or whatever they needed. This was the main message of Communism that was enforced through ideological methods in the schools. There was also a fear that if someone disagreed then any chance of creating this Utopia would be destroyed. Those were terrible times when a collaborator would write a letter if they had a disagreement with you. The next day you were gone.
OK: You’re now trying to establish your own political party?
KH: Yes. The name of the party is the National Christian Mission and the main idea is to bring the truth to the nation about why we exist and what our responsibilities are. Every person, every community, every family and even every race has a purpose. Because I can not separate religion or even culture from politics our emblem is a circle surrounding a triangle which represents the trinity with a cross in the middle. We will stand in the next Parliamentary Elections and we are also involved in cultural and educational activities. I see the circle that surrounds the emblem as something that brings all of these things together.
Because religion can be considered something discriminatory, science, education and culture have to work together within this circle to prevent politics from being used only for individual gain. Everything is connected. Aristotle and Alexander wanted to spread Hellenistic culture throughout the world because they considered it to be the pinnacle of human civilization at that time. However, you can not spread good ideas in bad ways just as you can never prevent war by waging other wars or build peace through conflict.
These are simple concepts that everybody understands and because I care about the world as well as about my own nation, I can do something although I think I will never be able to do anything about the Americans.
Instead, maybe what we can do here in Armenia is to set an example for the Americans and for the English to follow. That is our vision. The Armenian nation was created by God and even though we have experienced a terrible history we still continue to exist in order to fulfill our purpose. It was only when Armenians accepted Christianity that we started to develop as a nation. The Armenian alphabet was created, for example, but before that, Armenia had always been under the influence of other cultures whether that be Persian or Hellenistic.
Being Armenian is in our blood and in our souls. We think differently from other nations and this is also connected with the adoption of Christianity. This land was where civilization started and the history of the Aryans and the Semites is closely connected to that of Armenia and Ararat. We could connect with Christianity easily because there is a mental and cultural connection to it. The main priority now is to realize Armenia again rather than be concerned with all this talk of integration into Europe or being close to Russia.
All we need to do is to realize our purpose in life. We need to build a genuine Christian society although not a theocracy. The Church must be a school for coming generations. There should be no control because you can never achieve anything by force. We should be free to choose and to understand that all of our problems can be solved through Christ.
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