Troy Record, NY
Dec 2 2004

Internet abuzz about soulful soloist
By Don Wilcock,

There are a lot of young ladies who want to be the subject of
Granian’s next song. “That’s probably the most common thing I’ve had
said to me is, ‘I can’t imagine having a song like that written about
me.’ I hear that all the time.”

Granian appears Friday at Club Caroline in Saratoga at 11 p.m. He is
one of a new breed of singer/songwriter making a name for himself
with people who hear his music on the Internet, download it for
friends and generate a buzz by word of mouth.
One of the bands carrying his name was picked by Spin Magazine four
years ago as best unsigned talent. One of his albums, “My Voice,” was
the number-one seller on CDBaby.com for two weeks.
In total, he’s sold more than 25,000 albums without a label
affiliation. His latest release, “On My Own Two Feet,” features a
“band” of musicians who each dubbed their parts in one at a time.
And when he toured the album in Chicago, San Francisco and New York,
he hired a different set of musicians to back him for each gig.
No, Granian isn’t so much about a band sound as he is the personal,
intimate reflections in each song. And that’s what hooks the ladies.
All 10 songs on “On My Own Two Feet” appear to be a searching
retrospective of a failed relationship.
“Lots of time I’ll write stuff that isn’t even apparent between me
and the girlfriend I have at the time,” says the singer/songwriter
who will perform his material solo on acoustic guitar at Club
Caroline.
On the title cut he sings, “It’s such a simple thing to let yourself
go. The heartache that it brings by now I should know.”
“I’ve written a couple of songs about ex’s or girls that I didn’t
know I would write when I was with them or when I was talking to
them.
“Months later, you kind of look back on the situation and you’re
like, ‘Oh, wow. Let me dip into how I was really thinking at the
time,’ because in the moment, you’re lost in the moment. You don’t
really know what’s true.”
On “Uncovered,” he sings, “All the things I say that you never
understand. We got together anyway just not quite the way we’d
planned.”
It’s almost as if his songs are therapy to help him work out why it
didn’t work out.
“There’s definitely a couple of songs in there where a verse will
come out, and that will be all I will think about when I think back
on the specific situation.
“Then, when it goes down in the song, it’s so crystal clear, and it
definitely makes it easier to deal with at that point because it’s so
crystal clear that I’m sitting here writing this song.”
“Slowly pulling you in like she’s been sent from up above,” he sings
in “Contagious.” “She’s like a pill, you get your fill.”
You can almost imagine these women who hear his songs telling
themselves that they’re going to be different. They’re going to land
this sensitive lad with an ever-more-broken heart.
He characterizes these women by types. They are roughly divided into
two camps: those who come to his rock shows with “the band,” and
those who are into his acoustic performances.
“There isn’t a stereotype,” he says. “Not at all. But I think at the
end of the day, there’s the girl who’s the real music fan, and then
there’s the girl who is awestruck by the confidence and the demand on
attention you get when you’re with a full band doing a full rock
show.
“When I’m playing solo acoustic, I’m definitely more personal. More
of my personality comes out when I’m playing solo because I’m
cracking jokes and I’m laughing. I’m making people laugh.
“I say so many times I should be getting two pay checks, one for
comedy and one for music, because a lot of time I have people rolling
on the floor. They just can’t believe they’re laughing so hard and
they’re watching me play music.
“Then, when I’m playing the full rock show, I’m in rock-star mode,
and the antics are flowing, I’m on my knees, and I’m on the edge of
the stage, and I’m hamming it up.
“So the girls from the acoustic show are definitely more music fans.
They’re definitely fans of my music and fans of what I do. They are
totally intrigued by the fact I’m up there with just one guitar, and
I’m just pouring my heart out.
“Then, there are the other girls. I mean, they’re probably the more
superficial girls, which I get off with the full band and the
electric guitars and the bull horns waving in the air. Just from
jumping around, it’s a completely different show.”
Granian whose real name is Garen Gueyikian comes from a large,
extended Armenian family with 18 first cousins.
He says he’s “a girlfriend kind of guy,” but he also says he isn’t
going to work as hard as one has to work in a marriage if he’s not
sure it’s going to last forever.
“At the end of the day, I’m looking for a girl who’s really not so
much into my music but definitely more into my personality,” he says.
He once had a drummer who’d played with Dee Snider of Twisted Sister
fame, who gave him some sage advice on how a rock star should pick a
wife.
“He was about 35 years old at the time,” recalls Granian. “His advice
to me was if you’re looking to find a happy marriage and a good
woman, find one that that has no interest and doesn’t like your
music, ’cause she will not come to your shows and will not be
jealous.
“She will not ask too much of you. She will not involve herself in
that world. She knows that is a separate world.”
That Twisted Sister’s advice made sense to a young but not so naïve
Granian. “I’ve had girlfriends that would come talk to me after the
show, and they’d get like a sourpuss face.
“Instead of talking to my fans, I’ve got to deal with the fact that
my girlfriend is jealous in the corner, and my girlfriend is giving
me some sour face. I’m more worried about that than I am at the end
of the day talking to my fans and making new fans.”
My personal advice to Granian in Saratoga is not to show this article
to any female fans.