I always love anthems that everyone can sing along to. "Once you have a concept, then you have a song, you have a great hook, and it becomes more of an anthem, which is more of the style of songs I like. "I think the best songs we’ve written are where we come with the idea or the concept first and we base it off that," says Babayan. You may be wondering how a band like VI∙ZA comes up with their strange themes and fascinating song structures. Andrew, for instance, he plays the oud, so he brings that sound, and Shaunt, he’s really into the ethnic stuff, too. But, when I met these guys, they were into the more Armenian sounding stuff…I think I bring a more Western side. I grew up listening to classic rock, more Western style music. “I joined the group later, after everybody was in…so the style was already there. That’s what I bring in.”īabayan brings in a different side of music. But, I grew up watching the greatest front men and have studied them, and for the most part I like to take a page from them for their one hundred percent in every time. “Individually, I like to bring passion,” explains Tomopoulos. Despite these setbacks, the opportunities are still there to make a name.Įach member of VI∙ZA brings different sounds into the band. Unfortunately, our culture here has developed into loving songs instead of albums, loving noise instead of music, and loving looks instead of lyrics. The States are indeed probably the hardest of the places to make it because in general the crowds are so fickle. We would do just fifteen shows with Serj, or we did a couple with Gogol.That’s pretty much what got us a lot of our following in Europe. We’re in Europe for a couple of months at a time. “We take shows that we can, we travel far…we’re trying to make little baby steps.”īabayan adds in, “The opening slots that we got for Serj and Gogol Bordello increased our following the most over the past few years. “It’s just putting your face out, and putting it along with your music,” says Tomopoulos about the strategies they’ve adopted. Not too long ago, VI∙ZA hired an American publicist to help them increase their following here in the states (they are much better known in Europe). We recorded a little bit we recorded a new song with a couple of other covers that are associated with our kick-starter campaign…and here we are at Aftershock. Recently, Tomopoulos says, “We’ve just been laying low, writing, playing some local shows on the West Coast. Somehow, it always works out that VI∙ZA only plays at twenty-one plus venues whenever they come to town, so this was only my second time seeing them live. I sat down with guitarist Orbel Babayan and lead singer K’noup Tomopoulos backstage after their set at Aftershock. I would describe VI∙ZA as a cross-cultured rock band that is not afraid to dabble in new musical concepts and explore different sounds. Featuring an oud player (Andrew Kzirian to read an exclusive interview with him (click here) in a band will undoubtedly place you on a higher level than bands close to your genre. Intertwining an Armenian folk sound with Western traditions combines to create an extremely revolutionary sound. On stage, VI∙ZA is charismatic, always putting in one hundred percent and pulling the crowd in. On album, VI∙ZA is not just an "avant-garde, progressive, cultural" band they are musicians of incredible skill who experiment with new ways of manipulating sound and use their intelligence to be funny and entertaining. However, they are so much more than an exciting new band. Original? Ground-breaking? Talented? Yes, VI∙ZA is all of those things.
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