AI Summary
5 min readBedouine Was Devastated When She Left Saudi Arabia
The musician Bedouine — born Azniv Korkejian — was ten years old when her family won the green card lottery and moved from Saudi Arabia to Massachusetts. She spent the next several years "pretty sad and angsty," hating her parents for dragging her overseas and away from everything she knew. "I was just so far from understanding what had happened," she tells Tom Papa on Breaking Bread. "It was just so earth-shattering." That childhood dislocation, and the decades of searching for a sense of home that followed, became the emotional engine of her new album.
The Album That Came from Grieving a Childhood
Bedouine's latest record is the first time she sat down with intentionality around subject matter. The trigger came when her parents decided to retire from their work in Saudi Arabia — her father had returned there years earlier, and she had been visiting him regularly by tagging trips onto European tours. When the pandemic hit and all her tours were canceled, she had time to sit with the sadness of losing that chapter. "I was thinking a lot about identity," she says. "How do you define yourself? Is it by the things that you do? Is it by your hobbies? Is it by your job? All that stuff was just disappearing."
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:02) **Leaving Saudi as a Devastating Childhood Event** - Bedouine describes the earth-shattering sadness and anger she felt for years after leaving Saudi Arabia.
- 2 (00:22) **Pandemic Bread and Reconnecting** - Tom and Bedouine catch up, recalling her hand-delivering bread to him during the pandemic lockdown.
- 3 (03:05) **The New Album and the Independent Music Business** - Bedouine discusses the release of her new album, the gap between release and tour, and her decision to go independent.
- 4 (09:18) **The Album's Reflective Core: Grieving Childhood** - Bedouine reveals the personal catalyst for the album: her parents retiring from Saudi Arabia, which triggered a deep sense of grief for her childhood.
- 5 (11:28) **A Cohesive Life Timeline: From Syria to Texas** - Bedouine provides a clear timeline of her family's journey: born in Syria, grew up in Saudi Arabia, and moved to the U.S. at age ten via the green card lottery.
- 6 (16:38) **The Shock of Childhood Displacement** - The conversation deepens on the visceral impact of being uprooted at age ten, comparing it to the feeling of losing a world you had just built.
- 7 (18:35) **Growing Up on an American Compound** - Bedouine describes her unique upbringing in an American school and compound within Saudi Arabia, which created a "weird blend" of cultures.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Tom sits down with Azniv Korkejian for a conversation about growing up between Saudi Arabia and the United States, turning nostalgia into songs, and discovering a new sense of presence through parenthood. Azniv Korkejian also shares plans for her upcoming tour and the eclectic musical influences that shaped her work. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 00:00 Bedouine Was Devastated When She Left Saudi Arabia 03:03 The new album and going independent 09:14 Turning family history into an album 18:29 Growing up in Saudi Arabia 24:20 How songwriting really happens 30:28 Creative friction with a trusted partner 34:30 Azniv Korkejian on Roger Waters 37:14 Searching for a sense of belonging 41:32 Nostalgia, healing, and parenthood 50:38 Is art a job or an identity? 58:37 From Norah Jones to homemade mixtapes 1:05:58 Simple food and buttered pasta 1:10:38 Tour plans and staying close to home
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