The Age (Melbourne, Australia)
 Wednesday


A place to belong

by Bruce Elder


Folk singer Bedouine draws on her Syrian, Armenian and American roots
to find her voice, writes Bruce Elder.

What's in a name?

When an artist takes on a single name - think of Cher, Sting, Madonna,
Bono - their real, full name tends to disappear.

But when Azniv Korkejian took on Bedouine (a feminised version of
Bedouin - the North African Arabic nomads) she found she still
couldn't avoid her full Armenian name. Everything written about her
was prefaced by variations of "Azniv Korkejian, who makes music under
the name Bedouine".

The solution, as she explains from Los Angeles in a broad American
accent, is that "Bedouine is a band name. My actual name is Aznif."
With a quiet laugh she adds: "You can call me Aznif."

Just as The Undertones, who came from Northern Ireland, could never
escape questions about the politics of "The Troubles", so Azniv - who
was born in Aleppo, Syria, grew up in Saudi Arabia and won entry to
the United States through the famous "green card lottery" - can't
escape questions about her back story.

She was born in Syria because her mother returned to Aleppo to give
birth. At the time Azniv's father was the manager at an American
compound in Saudi Arabia. Azniv spent the first three months of her
life in Syria and has been back regularly to visit relatives, but for
most of her life she has been surrounded by Americans.

Her views about Syria's war are seen through the prism of that
country's Armenian minority.

"As a minority in Syria my family always felt pretty tolerated and
accepted by the government," she says. "So it was confusing to hear
about these war crimes and things like that."

But when it comes to Trump's immigration clampdown she has no doubt
about the US hypocrisy towards Muslims.

"The whole Muslim ban thing really doesn't make sense and it is
clearly not about ethics. Especially, when Saudi Arabia, the one
country that is not on the ban ... when you are talking about fighting
terrorism and you are not including the one country that is associated
with Wahhabism which is the idea behind the terrorist groups and the
attacks, then it really has nothing to do with ethics."

Although she is happy to talk about her country, she rarely allows
politics to enter her music.

"I don't think I have a direct political agenda but there are a couple
of songs that are reactions to things that are political," she says.
"The song Summer Cold is the reaction I had to hearing that arms,
which had been funnelled through by America, were getting into the
hands of terrorists.

"It's a very loose interpretation. You hear the lyrics, 'I've had
enough of your guns and your ammunition' and you might think it has
something to do with the war."

What makes Aznif/Bedouine musically interesting is that she has
eschewed both her Arabic/Armenian roots and the modern exponents of
folk music and reached back, quite consciously, to early Leonard Cohen
and Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake and, quite exotically, the great Astrud
Girl from Ipanema Gilberto.

"A lot of the older stuff I was digging into ... really paying
attention for the first time ... I don't want to call it the 'golden
age' but I do feel that music focused more on the song writing and the
melodies.

"I think the opposite is true for more modern music. The production
process has become more complicated. Artistically, I like it when most
of the grunt work is done on the front end - in my case the actual
song writing, the writing of the melodies, the writing of the lyrics -
and then it tapers off. There's not a whole lot of production work to
do, not a whole lot of mixing to do.

"Nowadays, it seems like a lot of the grunt work is done after ... I
don't have anything against it ... I am not a luddite ... but I do
feel when you are presented with too many options you get away from
what you started with."

At points on the Bedouine CD the listener would be forgiven for
thinking Aznif is channelling her heroes.

Solitary Daughter sees her sounding like the early Leonard Cohen. On
Louise, if you shut your eyes, you would swear Astrud Gilberto was in
the room.

The result, overlaid with strings which give everything a subtle
lushness and restrained sophistication, is a collection of songs that
reaches reach deep into the complexities of the modern world.

Ask Azniv if she sees herself as American, Syrian or Armenian and she
replies: "I think that is one of the overarching themes of the record.
This feeling of detachment and displacement ... not really belonging
to any one place."

Bedouine plays the Northcote Social Club on March 8.