InternationalKhachik Karadanyan sings from the heart
On the rewards of a life immersed in music
Published: Monday January 19, 2009
From traditional Armenian folk songs to romantic ballads and upbeat dance hits, the diverse and soulful voice of Khachik Karadanyan speaks volumes. At 25, the singer is a relative newcomer to the Armenian music scene, though a veteran musician of nearly 20 years.
In person, Karadanyan is a true reflection of the artist seen in the many music videos making the rounds of various Armenian television programs. He is modest, even shy at times, as we sit in the dining room of his Van Nuys home and chat, within earshot of the laughter of his young nieces playing in the backyard. The emotion and honesty with which Karadanyan sings is mirrored in his speech, interwoven with a certain polite, but confident, air.
The versatile young singer, who entered the world of music at the age of six, when he was accepted at the Edvard Mirzoyan School of Music in Yerevan as a violin major, hails from a family of musicians.
"It's family background that drew me to music," Karadanyan says. "Both my parents sing. In addition, my father plays the guitar and the piano, and my sisters also sing."
While it seems only natural that Karadanyan followed in the footsteps of his musically inclined family, he reveals that he never felt pressure from his family to pursue a musical career. Although his parents were the first to notice his talent, they certainly didn't have to drag him to his music lessons.
"Music is something that came from my heart," says Karadanyan. "When my parents told me they thought I had talent and wanted to put me in music school to learn to play the violin, I said, ‘Sure.'"
Following a year of study at the Edvard Mirzoyan School, Karadanyan immigrated to the United States, where he also learned to play the piano and the cello.
Karadanyan notes that whereas in those formative years of training his focus was primarily on the piano, he soon developed a passion for singing - with a particular fondness for traditional Armenian songs, which would capture the young artist's heart and propel his talent.
As Karadanyan excitedly retells the story, a curious image is conjured. It's that of a young boy, bred on a hybrid of formal classical education in piano, violin and cello, and an informal education in rabiz music, tackling a song by the master Armenian troubadour Sayat-Nova.
An epiphany
At age 13, while accompanying himself on the piano, Karadanyan belted out a rendition of "Tamam Ashkharh," a popular and immensely difficult Sayat-Nova classic, which left everyone, including himself, stunned. This proved to be a pivotal moment for the teenager, who for the first time considered concentrating on a career as a singer.
"My interest in traditional Armenian folk songs comes from my heart," he says. "My dad didn't tell me to sing Sayat-Nova, but the first song I sang was by Sayat-Nova."
"It was weird because I'd grown up here [the United States] and I'd listened to all this rabiz music, so why not sing rabiz?" Karadanyan continues. "From that moment on it was like coming out of my heart. I don't know if I'm singing it right, but I know that I'm expressing it in the right way."
Karadanyan has since matured into a popular singer and a DJ, but has not strayed all that far from his roots. Today he redefines himself with each new song, expertly navigating through a myriad of genres - from traditional to classical, contemporary to romantic.
One look at music videos such as "Shek Aghchik," "Karot," "Yekar Hankarts," and "Nairuhi" - all of which account for Karadanyan's fast track to success - reveals a diverse style which he has cultivated in a quest for originality and innovation. While one video depicts the singer playfully auditioning a bevy of dancing beauties, another portrays him painfully yearning for a love long lost and a third finds him outfitted in a traditional Armenian costume, paying homage to folk songs with his own contemporary twist.
"If you are a performer, a singer, you have to try different things," Karadanyan says. "You have to do something new, fresh, something that people haven't seen." Still, while embracing the various genres of his music, Karadanyan is quick to point out that "you have to keep your color, the thing that people first liked about you, and not go other places."
While a concrete meaning of "color" evades Karadanyan as he tries to describe it, his fans appear to have no trouble in verbalizing just how that quality is manifested.
"I think I'm fortunate because people tell me there's something unique about my voice that makes them notice me," he says. "I'm so thankful for that."
Later, as I surf through his videos on YouTube, I see dozens of postings from fans with usernames like Rabizaper17 and 818kyankulik and remarks like, "Shat lav erqa, videonela shat lava" (It's very good; the video is very good too), about Karadanyan's music. They offer their thoughts and good wishes in a difficult-to-decipher Armenian in English letters, but the meaning is clear as they all seem to greatly enjoy Karadanyan's songs.
Painstaking recordings
On the heels of his first album, Siro Garun, which debuted in early 2008, Karadanyan is hard at work on his sophomore CD, collaborating with famed producer, composer, and arranger Karen Margaryan.
To date, Karadanyan has recorded five songs for the new collection, which he says will be completed within a couple of months. Work on each song is an arduous process that may take weeks, even months, depending on whether it meets the high standards set by the crooner, who says he is unwilling to sacrifice quality regardless of time constraints.
"I'm very picky when it comes down to getting the right product out there," Karadanyan says. "Even if I work on this one song for a year, it doesn't matter. It can take long, but if I feel that that's the right product and people listen to it, then that's what's important to me. It has to be something that people will appreciate because you do it for them."
