5 Questions with KÁRYYN
The Syrian-Armenian-American artist on presence, emergence, and the sound of her human revolution.
Words by The Blank Mag
KÁRYYN is a Syrian-Armenian-American singer and producer whose work exists at the intersection of physics, spirituality, and sound. Her new 10-track album PHYSICS UNIVERSAL LOVE LANGUAGE (PULL), out 29 May via Mute, is less a collection of songs than a framework: a reckoning with collapse, reformation, and the forces that pull us back to ourselves. The first single, COLLAPSE PHASE, is out now, with a video directed by Jenna Marsh and produced by Black Dog Films, featuring legendary choreographer Supple Nam in his first on-camera performance in 19 years. You can catch KÁRYYN, who will tour in the UK and Europe with Apparat this spring. We caught up with her to talk process, presence, and what it means to let something go.
Do you have a creative ritual or habit that helps you slip into a new project - something that signals it's time to start?
Yes! Mindfulness. Getting very, very present before performing or listening for what’s being given to me to realise & share. Less of a ritual and more of a habit, to ensure getting out of my own way and allowing for something to emerge that I can craft and steward & make an emotional impact with.
“I want to work with people who aren’t afraid of artistic emergent strategy, who don't need a clear path, but have the tools and taste.”
What kind of energy or exchange draws you to work with someone?
I only want to work with people who are consciously engaging themselves and their work. Cool is not interesting to me, and obviously, I want to work with someone who’s got a really clear and specific ability, whatever that is. Then I'm able to see what part of myself could overlap and engage with that part of their talent to make something new and nuanced. I want to work with people who aren’t afraid of artistic emergent strategy, who don't need a clear path, but have the tools and taste, from there, with discipline and reasonable time, anything is possible.
Who’s a composer or artist you’re finding yourself returning to lately?
OOF. What a question. Let me have a think… There are a few- ORBIT from Germany, everything they do is awesome, community-based. Garth Stevenson's "Passage", Lucy Gooch’s “My Lights Kiss Your Thoughts Every Moment"- I mean, wow, I’ve lived in this piece of music/production for months and months- how she encompasses something similar to a light glimmer on a ripple of water on a lake so perfectly light and embodied. Oh dear. Oh & a collaboration with Ólafur Arnalds & SAGES, a collaboration that also features Loreen “In The Sound Of Breathing”----sooooooooooooooo goood!!
Finishing a record can be its own kind of surrender. How do you know when to stop shaping and let it go?
This one’s easy- the piece hangs like a perfect art mobile suspended in the air of my vision. Similar to a Lee Bontecou piece (visual artist).
What’s the one thing in your studio you can’t imagine working without - whether it’s a piece of gear or something totally ordinary?
Can’t do without acknowledging my higher self & inner child both waving happily back at me, saying “I’ve got you, my little beauty gurllllll” (with the voice stylings of TikTok sensation Marty Miller). That & my KAOSS PADS :)
