Moldy cheese, medieval instruments, and just enough beer…

Walking through his hometown of Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city, 26-year-old Narek Barseghyan still attracts looks from fellow residents for his unruly hair and an earring worn in what still remains a noticeably traditional and conservative society. Gyumri is slightly different from the rest of the country, however, and is not only suffering from a closed border with Turkey, but also from the 1988 earthquake which devastated the city. I’ve known Narek, lead guitarist and vocalist with local rock band Bambir for nearly 10 years now and nearly all our meetings and interviews usually end up being drenched in alcohol. It’s rock ‘n roll after all.

YEREVAN, Armenia – It’s well past midnight when Narek Barseghyan and Arman Kocharyan, lead guitarist and bassist with the Armenian rock band Bambir, return home. For once, they’ve decided to call it an early night, providing me with the opportunity to interview them over a bottle of vodka diluted down with orange juice.

Narek says he feels like drinking screwdrivers tonight rather than the more customary vodka drunk straight.

At the very least, it means that it will take a lot longer before speech becomes slurred, and the whole point of the interview is lost. An early Bob Dylan recording is playing in the background as we start to speak about the band in an old apartment building now overshadowed by half a dozen high-rises being built on Yerevan ’s prestigious northern avenue.

The two musicians have come a long was since leaving their native Gyumri in 2000. They’ve always been dynamic performers on stage, of course, but in recent years the band has matured musically. Now performing on an almost weekly basis at Yerevan ’s Stop Club, Bambir are attracting a sizeable and almost fanatical following in the still largely underground rock scene.

Four years ago, short haired and clean cut, the band resembled the stereotype of how most mothers hope their sons will turn out. Nowadays, hair is longer, and Bambir look and live like a rock band. Across the table, Narek lights a cigarette before pouring another cocktail. I’m here to find out more about the band’s history, and to discover what their future holds in store.
I can only hope that it all makes sense in the morning.

[…]

Leaving the DSLR backpack in Yerevan, my Nokia N82 gave me the freedom to feel a little more liberated than usual and also provided me with the opportunity to video interview both Narek and his father as they worked on a new project combining Armenian and Scottish poetry with the national musical traditons of both. Unfortunately, bandwidth in Armenia is not sufficient enough to upload the much higher quality original. You’ll also have to forgive the casual approach and joke about the light switch, but the fact is it’s impossible to be anything other than informal with Bambir.

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