kárin tatoyan profile picture

kárin tatoyan

translation of my insides beaming via Satellite

About Me

Karin Tatoyan came to life in a small Alabama town. She comes from a long line of Syrian-Armenian actors, musicians & puppeteers. The first years of her life she spent traipsing through the woods and cornfields of Indiana. In fifth grade she suffered the trauma of moving to Los Angeles. Classically trained since the age of seven, Karin taught herself how to play guitar at fifteen, and began using her musicianship to channel the poems of her life.
Karin is a field of opposites - a private, demur composer of highly sexual and passionate songs. She possesses a tiny stature with a voice the size of the North Atlantic. She writes songs bursting with joy, yearning, wasted hope, and nostalgia for a lost childhood. They seem to skip to their own time like playful children juxtaposing the ugly and the beautiful until they're a new form unto their own.
At only twenty-four, Karin is a veteran of the Los Angeles acoustic scene. She recently removed herself from its strummy environs to concoct the more dynamic and driving electronic sound characteristic of her debut. For her live performances, she has partnered with the multi-instrumentalist The One Second Time Machine as well as a couple classical musicians to create a theatrical, mind-bending act that stands head and shoulders above standard club fare. Think an Armenian-American Björk meets Ziggy Stardust. It's that great and ambitious. The sonic rebirth of this new artist will be a sight to behold.
to sign my mailing list and get a physical copy of my EP, click stereotype
Director by Carol Fahey
PRESS QUOTES
"Think of Tatoyan as a baroque Bjork. If her haunting vocals don’t dazzle you, her odd music will — counterposing, as it does, weird electronics, sound effects and loops with the very organic tones of a French horn and cello. Seeing her is like watching an Escher come to life. Almost-mathematical repetition gives way to chaos; melodies build and build yet resist payoff, like stairways to nowhere" - Kevin Bronson, LA Times (click)"There is something very otherworldly about her vocals, which would fit perfectly into an episode of The Twilight Zone. Watching her perform is like seeing a girl possessed... Despite comparisons with other artists, this girl stands on her own as an individual amidst the indie, pop, grunge, electronica, whatever scene." - URB Magazine Blog"shape-shifter" - LA Weekly (click)"In a city like Los Angeles, where one thing bleeds into the next and it is beginning to seem like every fucking band is starting to sound the same, there shines a brilliant, little light. Her name is Karin Tatoyan (pronounced kar-reen). She is beautiful. She is a muse. She posses a voice like that of a siren." - Kill The Microphone
"The main ingredient though would be Karin as she is an extremely compelling performer writhing on the ground at moments exorcising her demons in the form of song... She is on the verge of bigger things." - Amateur Chemist"The Armenian Björk" - The Armenian Reporter
"Karin Tatoyan's bio says that her musical aspirations come from the toilet. Wait, is that a joke? Could be, but after listening to the dark, ambient side of what sounds like Bjork and a voice that comes close to a bipolar Cat Power, her musical "toilet" seems to represent a time when life craps all over you. As disgusting as it may sound, songs such as "Ver Cha Bess" can put you in an isolated conscious state with your own guilty thoughts. Either Tatoyan is a genius at expressing herself, or maybe I'm overestimating her ability as an artist." - URB Magazine"...the contrast between her emotive singing and the vibrant back drop is a powerful listening experience. That is what she wants. To cast out her songs and draw people in up through their bellies with her music. All she asks is for people to get it. This warmth is what distinguishes her less as a fierce little songbird, and more a musician trying to wake up those who blink life by, hiding behind their sunglasses."-88 days"...gal with a colorful history has something haunting about her voice. Kind of reminds me of Harriet Wheeler of THE SUNDAYS or like a HOPE SANDOVAL."-FUTURE SOUNDS

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 9/16/2005
Band Website: KarinTatoyan.com (old) new coming soon
Band Members: Karin (Kah-reen)-vocals, synths/toy keyboards, piano, guitar, mbira, and anything i can get my hands on
MY LIVE BAND
Thomas Greene aka The One Second Time Machine - percussion, electronics (secret secret), guitar
Andrew Carter aka Mandrew - cello, keys, theramin
Ben Jaber aka The Dude - french horn
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Management : Joshua Fisher
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Influences: Ani Difranco, Edith Piaf, Janis Joplin, Mum, Nirvana, Cat Power, Broken Social Scene, The Books, Nat King Cole, Thee More Shallows, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Bjork, Jose Gonzalez, Tori Amos, Animal Collective, Aesop Rock, Sigur Ros, Modest Mouse, The Cranberries, EfterKlang, Sparklehorse, Elliott Smith, Sami Kukka, B. Flieschmann, God Speed you Black Emperor, Gershwin, and life as an experince itself.
Sounds Like: Karin Tatoyan
Record Label: Stereotype Records
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

maybe i’m erasing

the past few shows have been near violent my face squished and wrinkled in distress and i say that i don't have to, I HAVE TO on stage i pace back and forth i'm singing things i dont even know like ...
Posted by kárin tatoyan on Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:18:00 PST

blisters full of fevers, misters without cure.

i can’t press my lips together without the blisters fevering, reminding me what has come out from there has grown consequences. it feels bad. it hurts. mabe they will grow bigger, fuller and se...
Posted by kárin tatoyan on Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:52:00 PST

uh oh, im a loser.

it’s 2 in the morning and i’m bleeding and i’m coughing all which seem to be due to natural causes but who’s to say either is not a sign of a human erasing. it’s 2 in the...
Posted by kárin tatoyan on Tue, 18 Mar 2008 02:33:00 PST

Dead Air In-Studio Session Video Clip

...
Posted by kárin tatoyan on Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:40:00 PST

tell her anything but give her the least

im gonna be on the radio in a few minutes. but i'm sitting here with a load of unsurrmountable pain. i am dwelling and depleted. completely in rubble. what did i do? i didn't do anything. what have i ...
Posted by kárin tatoyan on Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:58:00 PST

i will be doing an in-studio peformance on indie 103.1 sunday 2/17

I will be performing live on:INDIE 103.1Dead Air with Chuck PSunday 8-10pm
Posted by kárin tatoyan on Sun, 17 Feb 2008 02:59:00 PST

LA TIMES BUZZ BAND REVIEW

Thanks to anyone who came out! More shows posted soon.-kLA TIMES BUZZ BAND REVIEW...
Posted by kárin tatoyan on Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:57:00 PST

wooolgogog

a slowness surrounds each wordan obstacle made out of making out words.i shelve letters, scrambling the possibilities turning them into actualities or neverness.i need a new alphabet? a brand new voca...
Posted by kárin tatoyan on Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:58:00 PST

brownies

oh i'll tell you that no song sounds right i'm searching for the chords that appease my sadnessthe chords to vocalize how i feel the chords to tie me together while i fragment the ruin and search for ...
Posted by kárin tatoyan on Mon, 04 Feb 2008 01:40:00 PST

pardon moi

i will tear my tongue outfor the thing i did not want to sayfor the thing i said and did not meani will cut my one eye out and give it to youjust so you may see what i have seen,slice my ear off to ha...
Posted by kárin tatoyan on Mon, 04 Feb 2008 08:41:00 PST