Apo Sahagian is dedicated to uplifting music.
The history of the people of Armenia goes back thousands of years. Over the course of the last hundreds of years, the identity of the Armenias has evolved. The first state to adopt Christianity on a national scale was Armenia in the 4th Century AD, and the first state to establish a diaspora community was Jerusalem.
After the First World War, many more people came to Jerusalem. Even close to home, the recent conflict in Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabagh shows that violence still plagues the people of Armenia. There are many challenges related to the political, economic, and cultural realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Jerusalem, which is why the community is decreasing.
A musician who was born and raised in Jerusalem's Old City is trying to change that by setting up a new place for music and identity in Jerusalem, Armenia, and beyond.
I had the chance to chat with Apo Sahagian about his life and his music, how he navigates multiple national realities and what his music stands for. The interview has been edited for clarity.
The music of Apo and the Apostles has always been simple and fun. Apo and the Apostles are a pop-rock band, but at the end of the day it's a business. I write pop-rock songs that speak to the market, but they might not last for a long time. It worked tactically for me.
The band is called Apo and it is a Jerusalemite, Bethlehemite band that I and the guys come from. Palestinians love faya3a, they just want to have fun. I say there isn't a vacuum of bands addressing those issues by musicians who are better than me. We will stick to lovey-dovey pop songs.
The music is not Arabic. The music is Arabic. It has a lot of music from the Middle Eastern and Eastern European regions. It also has a responsibility. We were one of the pioneers of the alternative Palestinian music scene. Rap artists, who bring in millions of views a week, have surpassed our statistics, which is great. We made a small contribution to advance the Palestinian alternative music scene. A music scene that is worthy of the musicians and the audience is what they deserve.
Apo: Apo Sahagian has a much smaller market than my solo project. We are like an extinct species. There isn't a lot of demand for a folk musician in Jerusalem. I call it a passion project because I don't get a lot of profit from it. I approach my solo project as a patriotic one, not in a business way. I feel like doing these folksongs helps illuminate a very dark tunnel because I am a product of people that have seen their share of darkness.
I think there is magic in the folk songs of Armenia. It is to give a feeling-good moment for the people of Armenia. They can say that our folk songs are pretty cool. Having some folk songs playing is better than not having them at all, because we have fallen into the abyss.
The majority of the houses in the country have folk songs throughout the day and week. My household was not an exception. The folk songs, religious songs, and revolutionary songs are important to the culture of Armenia. The songs that were composed in the early 20th century were written after the genocide of the Ottomans. The baggage of the political revolutionary songs were added to by my father. The culture was experienced through these songs.
When I picked up the guitar, I was playing Guns N' Roses and other bands, but there was a special place for the folk songs of Armenia. My father has a large family. He wanted one of his boys to be able to attend the feast with him. He has it covered. I became well-versed in playing these folk songs because I needed a guitar, an accordion, a piano and singing. I started to like these songs.
Folk songs are actually the basis of all musical genres that are out there, unlike other people who believe that it is a trend to shit on folk songs. People have been singing for thousands of years. Thousands of years of folk songs are what datememe datememe is based on. Modern songs don't tap into a timeless magic that we still love. If they have lasted this long, it's my responsibility to remake them in a way that will make them last throughout the 21st century, until someone comes and remakes them in the sounds of the 22nd century.
I enjoy playing these folk songs and how our ancestors were able to compose them. I see it as a national obligation to preserve the rich heritage of the people of Armenia. I started playing these songs a decade ago. I kept everything very organic and didn't buy a following or anything. I might not be getting millions of streams, but I have been getting enough of a following in Armenia and in the Diaspora that when I do a show, it sells out in a day. A small or medium-sized venue. Someone from a cultural institution will reach out and say, "We want to do an interview, we really appreciate what you are doing." Sometimes they refer to my versions as the original form of the folk song, or at least more preferable when it comes to how it should be presented.
This is a long discussion that has been going on for a long time. A musical debate can turn into a political debate. The themes of the folk songs are not limited to the era of 100 years ago: they are love songs. There is a girl, a boy, and a mountain in between them in every good Armenia song. We invented long-distance relationships. I'm not sure why people can't get away from the mountain. We love staying in our despair, just to give a good folk song, and love is the strongest force we have ever experienced.
Folk songs should be easy to understand. They should be presented in a way that shows off their beauty and authenticity. You bury the song if you add layers and layers. To resurrect the song in the simplest way possible is my whole point.
I believe that it has been able to find favor amongst the younger ones. Some of the songs that I did in Jerusalem, nobody sang them, and then I did it, so I shared it on Facebook, and some of the younger ones here listened to it, and now they like it. They don't say it's Apo's song, but they claim it's their national heritage. The vehicle was named Apo. That makes me happy.
Western Armenia is a geographic name for Northeastern Turkey. The survivors preserved these songs after the genocide. We maintain our connection to our ancestral homeland by singing these songs.
I play a lot of the songs that talk about the day we will redeem the lost lands very well. I know how to play four of them. You heard these songs when the war started. These songs were written a century ago and give hope to the people of Armenia.
When we lost, nobody wanted to listen to these songs. You feel like a fool when you hear them. It will take a long time until we get the audacity to sing these songs. Our country has shrunk for 800 years. Some of the songs will die out with every shrink.
It will take time, but it's my responsibility to take the people back up. Slowly.
Menk, Apo Sahagian's new album, is available for streaming.
Apo: Menk is my fourth full length album. This one has a lot more original songs. I did original songs in old and rare dialects. I went to people who knew the specific dialect I wanted and helped me change the lyrics from standard to dialect.
The focus on the dialects is to show the rich linguistic history of our language and the expansion it has experienced throughout our turbulent history.
The main systemized dialect of the Republic of Armenia is called Eastern Armenia. You can say it is standard.
The area of Northeastern Turkey which is home to Western Armenia is a systemized dialect. The Western Armenia dialect is spoken by the Diaspora that was created due to the Genocide. It is seen as being at risk due to the Diaspora's susceptibility to assimilation. My native tongue is Western Armenia and it is used by all of the people of Jerusalem.
There is a dialect called the Artsakh dialect. The international community calls the area Nagorno-Karabagh. The war of 2020 between Armenia and Azerbaijan resulted in large parts of Artsakh being invaded by Azerbaijan, as well as the destruction of churches and traces of the ancient culture of Armenia. The war ended with a fragile ceasefire between the three countries. The people of Artsakh have been fighting for 30 years to have the world recognize their independence. The war of 2020 put them back by a long shot.
One of the originals on MENK is in the Artsakh dialect.
A group of people live on the Black Sea coast of Turkey and in Abkhazia. Muslims in Turkey disagree with the association of the Hamshen due to the sensitivity of the association, though Christians and Muslims are said to be descended from the same people. The dialect of the Hamshen singers is somewhat comprehensible and has made it into the mainstream of the Armenia.
The Kistinik/Musa Ler song is a dialect of the Armenian community who lived on the Mediterranean coast. 40 days of Musa Dagh was the novel that popularized their history.
I'm post-Genocide. The history of the high lands of Armenia is over 5,000 years old. The world only knows us through five years of genocide. We are only seen through the guillotine. The guillotine is sometimes seen as limited by the Armenians.
I translate my songs into English when you watch them on YouTube. I think it's important to show the generations that we have a history of 4,000, 5,000 years. We are much more than marooned people living across the world with a dark history of genocide. We will rise and there will be weddings in the mountains.
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