Hovhannes Kourghinyan, Army of God, Downtown Club, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia

Opening Friday’s Rock ‘n People Festival in Republic Square was Hovhannes Kourghinyan’s new band, Army of God. For those of you that don’t know much about rock in Armenia, Kourghinyan’s old band, Vostan Hayots, was considered to be the “Armenian Metallica” and has an important place in the history of rock in both Soviet and the newly independent republic.

Contrary to popular opinion, rock music was not banned in the Soviet Union but was tolerated after the first ever national rock festival was staged in 1980 in Tbilisi, capital of the Republic of Georgia. That’s not to say that that bands had much creative freedom and undoubtedly had to battle with censors. One rock musician from a band called Aquarium was even kicked out of Komsomol, the Soviet Youth Movement, after performing at the Tbilisi festival.

In 1980 at a music festival in Tbilisi the group was officially banned and Grebenshikov was demonstratively sacked from his job at a research institute and expelled from Komsomol (youth Communist organization, membership of which was de facto compulsory for all young people in the USSR). This was reversed in 1986 and since, Aquarium because universally popular throughout the USSR.

Anyway, towards the end of last year I held an interview with Hovhannes Kourghinyan on how Vostan Hayots was formed in the Soviet era, the role the band played during the Karabakh movement, the problems facing rock music in Armenia during independence and the state of contemporary culture in the republic today.

The problem is that when you plant different crops in a field, you can feed yourself for a year but when your fields are full of weeds you will starve, you know what I mean? The same thing happens with everything in our country. This isn’t just the case with music — it’s a problem with everything. Perhaps this is an Armenian problem. When someone does something here they don’t ask themselves if it’s good or bad. People instead declare themselves to be geniuses even though I know that many of these performers will be gone in the next two years. Nobody will remember them.

Kourghinyan also talks about his Christian Democratic political aspirations. The interview is online here and there’s more on the history of Armenian rock here. On a related note, last night a friend (Thanks Misha) gave me a very early and rare recording by MDP. Very interesting. Much of the music is the same but with a much more distinct oriental sound than they have now. Hripsime, if you’re reading this, you’re right. It’s really excellent.

Some interesting acoustic bits with an oud like sound to the guitars to the backdrop of a Nick Mason-like Ummugumma drum sound. As some of the songs are still played as part of their live set, it’s enlightening to hear the original tracks from way back when. The Armenian influence in their music becomes very obvious as a result and they just might be the most original and important band in the republic today.

We want to create our own special style. Many groups — and not only in Armenia — attempt to play music in a particular style whether that’s rock, punk or something else but we just play what want. It’s hard to say what style we are but its definitely not pop music. It’s maybe oriental. It’s maybe ethno-metal-syntho-rock — it’s heavy [laughs]!

Those of you who live in Germany should try and catch MDP live when they play there between 9-19 September. Otherwise, they’ll be back in Armenia and playing at the Stop Club on 23 September. Last time they attracted an audience of 150 people in a small venue. That’s no mean feat in Yerevan and an indication of what an important place they occupy in the contemporary Armenian rock scene.

There’s an interview with MDP online as well. Garo at Notes from Hairenik also recently wrote a review of MDP live in concert.