The leader of the group "Crematorium" Grigoryan Armen: facts from the biography

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Armen Grigoryan is one of the founders of Russian rock. His group "Krematorium" is over 30 years old, and it still releases albums and tours around Russia. Armen modestly calls himself not the lead singer of the group, but simply a musician.

"What kind of soloist am I? I can't really sing," he admits in an interview. And Grigoryan Armen does not consider himself a poet. Just translates real stories into poetry. And the characters in his songs are mostly real. Those with whom he knew personally, and whose stories, one way or another, struck him. Whose stories do you want to tell? Probably, his songs are incredibly true and deserve the love of many people. Even after more than thirty years since its founding, the Crematorium group still collects large halls. Their music is really impressive. Most of the compositions involve viola and violin.

And, of course, the author and composer of most of the songs played by the band is Armen Grigoryan.

Biography

The author and composer was born in Moscow, in a family of scientists. Armen has been fond of music since childhood, and he gathered his first musical group at school, at the age of 14. Football was also on the list of his childhood hobbies. Armen won the championship of the Leningrad region three times in the "Leather Ball" tournament.

Grigoryan Armen recalls that he learned to play football from famous Soviet football players - Nikita Simonyan, Gavriil Kachalin, Konstantin Beskov. Football then was a "noble sport", and the coaches not only taught young football players to play football, but also introduced them to music. For example, Nikita Simonyan had a huge collection of all kinds of music.

In 1977, he entered the Moscow Aviation Institute at the Faculty of Radio Electronics and continued to study music there. Created the hard rock band "Atmospheric Pressure".

In 1983, as a result of a creative union with musician Viktor Tregubov, the Crematorium group appeared. The young team gained popularity thanks to the apartment owners.

By 1990, the group had already recorded 3 albums, shot a video for their hit "Garbage Wind" and began their touring activities. With concerts, the group traveled not only to the cities of the USSR, but also abroad - to the USA, Germany, Israel.

Now the band has already recorded 16 albums.

In 2006, while continuing to work in the "Crematorium" group, Grigoryan Armen creates another musical group - "The Third Angel". The team, as Armen admits, plays more modern music than Crematorium.

Also, Armen Grigoryan is fond of painting. And in the early 2000s, the Central House of Artists in Moscow even hosted an exhibitionhis work, which was a complete surprise for the musician's friends.

True stories

Many heroes of "Krematorium" songs have real prototypes. With some, the songwriter continues to cross paths in real life from time to time. According to Armen, for example, Khabibullin is his former classmate. Now he is alive, he althy and happy. He also crossed paths with "Ugly Elsa" about fifteen years ago for the last time, in one of the Moscow restaurants. And the heroine of the song "Little Girl", whom her parents left to fend for herself, unfortunately, still lives in difficult, inhuman conditions.

About Russian rock

Now the line between rock music and "pop" is gradually blurring. There is a kind of "deck of cards" - musical groups that have existed for many years and form the backbone of Russian rock. Unfortunately, Armen Grigoryan believes, Russian rock is no longer so radical and is increasingly subject to the laws of show business. He makes a bet on musicians who start their journey through the Internet - Pyotr Nalich, Igor Rasteryaev … Everything is much more honest on the Internet. And if on television now the priority is those people who achieve popularity thanks to money and "useful acquaintances", there is quite a place on the Internet for talented performers who can support modern rock culture and even take it to a new level, says Armen Grigoryan. The photo below is a valuable frame. It depicts one of the foundersRussian rock. Armen Grigoryan and Boris Grebenshchikov.

Respect for the profession

According to Armen Grigoryan, for a rocker, respect for the profession is singing and playing live. Even if a musician is not very good at singing and playing live, performing to a phonogram is a humiliation for him. True, there was a case in the 80s when the musicians of the Crematorium group performed in Moscow to the soundtrack. Then they were invited to speak by Alexey Glyzin. The musicians liked it very much, and, after thinking, they nevertheless sang "Khabibullina" under a tape recorder and two speakers.

Private life

The musician was married three times. He has four children. Daughter Ksenia followed in the footsteps of her father - she sings well, is interested in music. Now Armen Grigoryan lives in a civil marriage with Natalia Sera.