With roots in Armenia, Syria and Saudi Arabia, the singer-songwriter now lives in the US. But despite her Carole King-style sound, her homelands are never far from her mind<\/p>\n
The title song to Azniv Korkejian\u2019s fourth album as Bedouine, Neon Summer Skin, recreates a perfect day from childhood. \u201cBeing taken to the pool, where my only worry is being dragged away when the sun\u2019s setting,\u201d she says, calling from Los Angeles. \u201cLater on, mom and dad wash me in the tub and put me to bed.\u201d Steeped in dreamy 70s soft pop, the track isn\u2019t merely an exercise in nostalgia. \u201cI wanted to paint a picture of what it\u2019s like to feel safe,\u201d she says. \u201cSo much of the record is about not having the luxury to not consider your own safety. I think about this a lot when it comes to the children in Palestine and Lebanon, who are not afforded that right.\u201d<\/p>\n
The conflicts that have ravaged the Middle East are context for Neon Summer Skin, but the album\u2019s themes of displacement, identity and insecurity \u2013 wrapped in the deceptively soft sound of 1970s-style MOR pop \u2013 are also personal. Korkejian\u2019s family are Armenian, but she and her parents were born in Syria, while her brothers were born in Saudi Arabia, where the Korkejians lived, \u201con a US compound that was like a gated community\u201d, until 1995. That year, unnerved by the proximity of the recent Gulf war, the family successfully applied for the green card lottery and relocated to the US. \u201cAnd thank God, because we would eventually have had to return to Syria,\u201d Korkejian says. \u201cI don\u2019t know what would have happened to us then.\u201d<\/p>\n
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