That's been a strength in some ways, but it's also an understanding of the dynamics of music and the different beats and melodies that wouldn't be common to a non-Armenian.

I’d rather let the music speak for itself,

With rock music, the amount of power that you can generate, the intensity behind the intentions of your lyrics that you can really reflect through rock music - you can't do that in jazz. You can't do that with classical.

In the last few years I've been listening to jazz more than anything else. I listen to a lot of world music and experimental here and there.

I believe very firmly that indigenous populations had a really good, intuitive understanding of why we're here. And we're trying to gain that same understanding through psychology and intellect in modern civilization.

When I was younger, I was listening to a lot of Armenian music, you know, revolutionary music about freedom and protest. In the 70s I was listening to soul and the Bee Gees and ABBA, and funk.