Satellite Citi – Black Magic

By starrymag | November 11, 2020

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

 

Q) How would you describe your sound?

 

A) Pretty much a mix of hard rock and alt rock!

 

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

 

A) They range quite a whole lot. I’d say anywhere from Tool, Periphery and Opeth, to Nirvana, Elliot Smith and London Grammar.

 

Q) Talk about the story behind your new song “Black Magic.”

 

A) “Black Magic” is about overcoming the tight grip of an overbearing relationship. There can be toxic relationships in life, whether it’s romantic or a friendship, where you feel trapped under someone’s spell. The song is about breaking free from that spell. Musically, we wanted ‘Black Magic’ to have an anthemic feel, something everyone could sing along to.

 

Q) What do you think it is about the song that fans connect to?

 

A) Hopefully people can connect with it both musically and lyrically. There aren’t many newer riff-based hard rock bands out there nowadays, so we’d love it if it inspired younger kids to pick up a guitar again.

 

Q) How does the video for the track play into the message behind it?

 

A) We just wanted a high-energy performance video to go along with this one and our director Rudy Galvan did a fantastic job.

 

Q) What is your song writing process? Do you need music before you can create lyrics?

 

A) We usually work in unison. Meaning that either Shaunt [Sulahian] will have a riff idea or Anna [Gevorkian] will have an already established lyric/vocal melody and we’ll build upon those together.

 

Q) Brad Wood handled the production of “Black Magic,” but how much of hand do you have in the production of your music?

 

A) Brad is incredible because he gives us the leeway to lay out all our ideas during the recording process. However, both of us will have mostly 95% of the song written before even going into pre-production.

 

Q) The song will be featured in an upcoming documentary Long Live Rock… How did this opportunity come about?

 

A) Our good friend Jonathan McHugh, who’s also the director of this film, reached out to us about possibly featuring some of our music in the film. He expressed his desire of wanting a newer band’s music in his film and we were obviously over the moon. It’s a total honor to be featured in this doc, as it pays homage to heavy metal and festival culture, while also highlighting juggernauts like Metallica, Rob Zombie, Halestorm and a bunch of other legendary bands that we grew up listening to.

 

Q) Will there be a full album or EP coming in the near future?

 

A) Our debut album Fear Tactics will be released in 2021, followed up by an EP that will be launching to coincide with our original Sci-Fi graphic novel “Spacewalker.”

 

Q) Where are some of your favorite places to perform and what makes those locations so significant to you?

 

A) The Troubadour was one of our favorites. We say “was” because we’re so skeptical about the return of live music, but The Troubadour was basically home base for us in Los Angeles. Recently, the East LA music scene was definitely thriving as well as The Satellite and the Hi Hat were always so welcoming and full of energy.

 

Q) Who would you most like to collaborate with on a song in the future?

 

A) Honestly, we wanted to collaborate with Brandon Yeagley from Crobot for a long time now and we’re absolutely stoked that we were able to make it happen! Brandon will be featured in our upcoming single “Antibody” that will be out on 10/30.

 

Q) What album/band are you currently listening to and why do you dig them?

 

A) We’ve both been listening to a ton of Bring Me the Horizon, Crobot, Thrice and coldrain. Just trying to remember what’s been on rotation this past week. We love solid modern rock song-writing with big production and these guys are simply some of the best in the game right now.

 

Q) You are a part of social media. Why is that such an important way for you to connect with your fans?

 

A) Social Media seems like a useful tool, these days more than ever.  It feels like a privilege while connecting with our audience and using our platform to spread awareness to causes that are important to us. For example, our motherland Armenia is currently being attacked by Azerbaijan and Turkey. Half the world is turning a blind eye to this, as Turkey wants to “complete what they started” in 1915 and carry out a second Genocide. As Azerbaijan is currently banning all forms of social media in their country (with the exception of Twitter), we here get the privilege of exposing their lies to a wider audience. That itself makes social media the strongest tool a musician has in 2020.

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

 

A) Just want to say a huge thank you to anyone who’s supported us in our journey thus far. For those who don’t know, were Armenian-American living in Los Angeles. Our next single “Antibody” will be released on 10/30 and the music video will pay homage to our motherland Armenia, in response to the current attacks happening in Artsakh by Azerbaijan and Turkey. We can’t let history repeat itself, as Turkey and Azerbaijian desperately want to continue out the Armenian Genocide. It’s our duty to spread awareness toward the war crimes being committed against Armenians. If you’d like to make a donation, please go to armeniafund.org

 

 

 

 

All Questions Answered By Shaunt Sulahian