INTERVIEW: BRANDON BARSOUMIAN: WHEN TWO FORMS OF ART BECOME ONE
Whether we want to admit it or not, most of us wouldn’t be able to live without art; whether it’s a song that makes you feel understood, even if it’s just for 3 minutes or a painting that makes you reflect on the meaning of life. Without being conscious of it or even realizing it, many people genuinely enjoy various forms of art. What if I told you that there was a talented singer-songwriter/producer who started a musical project based on historically recognized paintings? Brandon Barsoumian started releasing a song a week back in January. Every track is inspired by a painting you probably have seen before, one way or another. For example, his first release was based on “The Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh. During our conversation, Brandon and I discussed his motivation for releasing a song every week, the amount of time someone can spend at the Louvre, his diverse music taste, and much more.
Right now you're working on turning paintings into songs. I think it's really cool and original. How did that come about?
Brandon: Funny enough, I was writing “The Starry Night”. I was writing it like any other song. And while I was writing the lyrics, I started going into my imagination and I went into my head and asked myself, “What if these characters that I'm building inside of this song are actually flying through the starry night?” It felt right visually that the song is correlated in a metaphorical way with the painting The Starry Night. I made the song. It was great. And I was telling my brother, "Listen, this is a pretty fun idea. I feel I can market this one song specifically in the sense that I made a song out of this painting”. And he told me, “Why don't you just do that for every song?” And I thought that's a pretty damn good idea. So props to my brother giving me that idea to do it for all of them instead of just one song. And I'm a huge fan of paintings, so it just worked out in the end.
Why release a song every week? It's quite the challenge. I feel once a month sounds more doable.
Brandon: Because I want to be gutsy and a little bold. I want to be forward thinking and I want to be the one who's at the vanguard of the music industry here in Montreal or just in North America in general. I want to be the one who's pushing things very much forward and to make it look unbelievable. The things that I'm doing, even for me, it's very heavy. To make a song a week, mixing, mastering and distribution. It's a really wild ride. Plus the videos that I'm doing every single day.
What has been the most challenging aspect of it besides having to release a song every week? Or would you say that’s the most difficult?
Brandon: It’s finding balance in everything that I do from my actual life or in the music itself. It's not just creating music here. I'm editing for hours on videos as well. I have to just get in the mood, film myself, link the audio with it, edit it in post production. I'm not delegating any of this stuff to anybody. I am doing everything from creating the videos, the songs, putting in the time and editing for hours. It's super heavy, but it's worth it. Plus this affects my day to day as well. I see less of my folks. I do more of this, less of that. But it's okay. I'm finding that I'm gauging myself and calibrating with this project for 2026 and I think I'm gonna be okay.
What has been the most fun thing about it so far?
Brandon: Receiving the reactions. It's so awesome getting them because a lot of people will DM me and tell me, “Hey you should work on this painting. You should work on that painting”. It feels like I'm actually part of something, trying to build something. And people are interacting with you and people want to help and support you. This is a really great project. “Maybe you should do this, maybe you should do that”. It's pretty innovating. It's gutsy so they respect that and that affects them as well. And I find myself being really humbled by the fact that I have a positive impact on people.
You just mentioned people are recommending paintings to work with. Do you have any paintings that you already selected to work with for the future?
Brandon: So I'm going along with the ride but I do have the specific mind of getting the classics out of the way and then move on to other things. And I would especially like to collaborate with painters over here in Montreal.
Can you remember the first painting you have seen, whether it was a print of it or the actual painting?
Brandon: I don't think so. Maybe The Scream, featured in a movie or in a Looney Tunes, where it’s just screaming there. Maybe that pops into my mind, but I don't really remember a first painting specifically. It's part of our culture, The Mona Lisa, you just know. Or Van Gogh's paintings. Works that became so normalized. There were a couple of years that I really fell in love with paintings. I was in France a couple of years ago. I was at the Louvre and I was there for eight hours for the entire day. I went in the morning, I left at night. I didn't eat anything. I was just there, soaking up all the information that I could.
Would you be ever interested in working with another medium? You're working with paintings right now. Perhaps turn movies into songs or TV shows?
Brandon: 100%. I would love to work on a movie soundtrack or be a film composer. I have already done a couple of soundtracks. One of my soundtracks got played at Fantasia last year. I'm very much moving towards that direction as well. Do I want to pretend what it would be like if I made a song for a specific movie, show or video game? Yeah, it could be a fun project. Why not? I could dabble with it for fun. But I would rather work on an actual project. I would like to compose a song for a movie. That would be the dream.
On top of making music, you also do theater. What was your first love: theater or music?
Brandon: Definitely music. Theater appeared very randomly in my life. And I don't want to let it go. It is awesome. I am a very theatrical person myself. You can tell from my music, from the way I talk and the way I am just in general, the physical movements that I do. When I started doing theater, it was great and I can't wait for the next one. We're gonna do another one this year. Although, I never thought in my youth I would love to be a theatre actor. That was like a happy, pleasant surprise.
Did someone inspire you to start doing theater?
Brandon: No. I got a call from a buddy of mine. He says, “My mother's friend’s friend is looking for an actor for a theater group and they invited me and I can't do theater, I can't act. But I know someone”, that's me. So I linked up with them, did the interview, and auditioned. And almost a year of working on the production, we pulled off the show with two sold out nights. It was one of the best experiences of my life.
Did anybody in particular inspire you to start playing music or writing your own songs?
Brandon: No, it was the classic I discovered music. I was 16 years old and I think it was Guns N Roses that I heard, a rock band. And I thought, “Wow. I didn't know I was allowed to do this”. It's just the power and the effect of the songwriting and screaming. They're naked in music videos, playing guitars in stadiums. And then I went back in time and fell in love with rock and roll, classic rock. And then I went further back and looked at who influenced who. And I went to blues and then into jazz, country and naturally classical music which has always been a part of me. Classical music or orchestral soundtracks from movies have always been part of my life. I rediscovered my love for it very intensely in the last few years, especially after I'd gone through studying music history. So I specialize essentially in the mixture between pop, rock and classical music.
Do you remember what you used to listen to before discovering bands like Guns N Roses?
Brandon: I grew up in a household with Madonna, Michael Jackson, ABBA and Tupac. And I don't know if that shaped me or anything. Although I very much do love ABBA, Madonna and Michael Jackson. Tupac is very fun as well. Later on, I started getting really influenced by soundtrack music. I loved hearing soundtracks. I thought it was so cool. Video game soundtracks and whatnot. And then it was just the discovery of rock and roll that changed my whole life. I had heard of rock music before with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Soundgarden. I discovered them when I was around 11 or 12. And I hated Soundgarden at first. I didn’t get it. Now they're one of my favorite bands of all time. Chris Cornell is my favorite singer ever. It was pretty much that up until my youth. I was just listening to what was going on the radio. Imagine Dragons or Katy Perry. I’m a huge fan of LMFAO. Funny enough. Flash forward into the future. Last year, I actually went to Redfoo's house. I got to hang out in the studio. It was a pretty wild ride over there. A very strange coincidence. I didn't get to meet him, but I got to meet his family. That was in Los Angeles. Growing up with that kind of music was pretty much like the discovery of rock music. And that translated back into jazz, pop and classical.
You have a few music videos out. What would you say is perhaps similar and obviously different from shooting a music video and being on stage?
Brandon: You feel more alive when you're doing theater. You feel more and it feels more realistic. You feel you're building something communal and it's fun. There's a certain nervousness, this pressure that you feel. I love the drive. I love everything about it. I feel super hyperactive before a show, and as soon as I'm on stage, I feel the most comfortable. Shooting a music video is just the fellas having a good time and being a little more perfectionist. Because I'm pretty big on perfectionism, which is my biggest flaw. It’s a blessing and a curse. I will try to get every shot to be the most symmetric, the best looking, the colors to be well integrated, the acting to be good. We take at least two months to build out the music videos prehand with my own team. We would draw out every single shot and every single thing in the shot. “What are the metaphors? What is this?”. So it's a different type of creative output.
Do you get nervous at all before shooting a music video or not really?
Brandon: I don't get nervous doing anything, to be quite honest. I'm pretty much in the moment but will get anxious to do things. But as soon as the cameras are on, as soon as the stage is open, I am calm.
Can we expect any more music videos in the near future? I know you have a lot going on already.
Brandon: Not in the next couple of months, but maybe down the line for sure. I just really want to focus more on the visual aspect of things such as content creation. Music videos are one way to market yourself, but it's not the best way right now. Now it’s TikTok, trying to release a reel every single day now.
You've been doing theater, music, is there a form of art that you haven't tried yet that you would like to try next?
Brandon: Sculpting, absolutely. It's a little more on the basic side of things. I'm not gonna do weird experimental stuff here. Not just yet, but sculpting would be so cool. I've always been so fascinated by it. I don't understand how these people were doing it back in the day. I just don't get it. A lot of these Renaissance artists were so unbelievable such as Michelangelo. It's just something that I've never done at all. I literally know nothing about it. But I love it very much. Here we go. Here's a little sculpting of Beethoven.
(Brandon holds a little sculpture of Beethoven to the camera during the Zoom call)
I got this in Vienna.
Do you know anybody who was into sculpting at all?
Brandon: Not really. No.
I guess you would just figure it out on your own.
Brandon: The way I've done anything else in my life, I learned it all by myself. I learned how to make videos and edit them. I learned composition, arrangement and production by trial and error.
Would you say it's because you want everything to be perfect and that's why you're doing it yourself, or is it because you love learning?
Brandon: I think it's an ego thing and a learning thing. It's definitely half and half. There's a certain part of my ego that's “No, I need to do it myself, and it's gotta be me who's doing it in my heart”. And there's the other side of it where it's a little more, “I'm genuinely into this. I actually want to do this because it's fun”.
I was introduced to you when I saw you perform with Theo Day back in November. How did you start working with him?
Brandon: I was in contact with the head of Evergreen, Damiano. He wanted me to be part of his team as a creative director, as a senior producer. We were talking and we essentially made a certain deal where I would produce the entire project for Theo Day's EP, which I did. I produced, composed and arranged everything around his voice and guitar. So he would come to the studio with a beautiful song. He is a fantastic songwriter. And I would arrange everything around it, essentially. So if there are any strings or drums and bass, I would take care of all of that. And I produced the entire EP. That's how I got in contact with him and then he needed a guitar player for the stage. I told him, “I could take care of this. I would love to go on stage with you”. And we did and it was fantastic. A great experience. It was fun. I love being on stage, playing guitar.
Are there any other Montreal artists you would like to work with next?
Brandon: Yeah, anybody that comes in my way. Absolutely. There's so many great artists over here. I already do work with a lot of the folks, a couple of rock bands here and there, a couple of pop artists here and there. Anything that comes my way, I'm super open to it.
Between your EP releases, doing theater, starting this awesome project with the paintings, is there anything that you are the most proud of?
Brandon: I don't think that I've done anything yet that I'm proud of to that extent. For me to say that I'm very proud of this project. I'm happy that I did all these projects, and I guess I'm more proud in the sense that I've evolved from five years ago. And I'm much better as a musician, as a producer, as a human being than who I was five years ago. I guess the proudest thing that I could tell you is my character evolution as a person. But in terms of work, I feel like I'm never gonna be satisfied.
If you could pick two songs to show someone who has never heard of your music, which two songs would you pick? Pick one song from one of your EPs and one song from the paintings project.
Brandon: From one of my EPs, I think I would say “Life of Illusions”. I feel it is a very versatile song. It goes from modern to vintage. It sounds super cool, analog and digital, all at once. A lot of things are happening there. So you can very much tell what's happening in my mind. And it's also very avant garde. And for my painting projects thus far from the ones I've released: It would have to be a tie between “Insomnia” and “The Starry Night”. The arrangement for “Insomnia” is superb. But “The Starry Night” has a very nice pop aspect that you can actually follow along with and is very catchy. Although I feel I haven’t released my best song yet at all.
If you are going through a period marked by a lack of inspiration, I hope this interview somewhat motivated or inspired you. Remember, inspiration can come from anywhere: a classic painting seen during an afternoon at a museum, a painting found on the street someone is getting rid of, a song you didn't even know before but end up hearing at a restaurant on a night out with friends, or a novel you had to read for an assignment. Keep creating. Continue to enjoy and encourage every form of art. It's no secret that art makes the world a better place. Thank you for encouraging me by being here right now.
Your favourite interviewer and fan of various forms of art,
Ariane
LINKS TO FURTHER DISCOVER AND SUPPORT BRANDON BARSOUMIAN
Brandon Barsoumian's Instagram
Comments
Post a Comment