Amo is finding his own sounds……….
For Armen Hagopian, music was never something he had to search for. It was already there.
He grew up in Yerevan, Armenia, in a family of musicians. Music was part of the house, part of family life and part of his earliest memories. Before he knew what it meant to become an artist, he was already singing, dancing and paying attention to the sounds around him.
His family has always called him Amo. His full name is Armen Hagopian, but the shorter name carries a much deeper meaning for him. It is the name he heard from the people closest to him while growing up, and it became a small but important part of the person he was becoming.
\u201cThat name is deeply personal to me,\u201d he says. \u201cAll my family members have called me Amo since I was a child, and I wanted to carry that love with me throughout my artistic journey.\u201d
It is easy to understand why he chose to keep it. \u201cAmo\u201d is not simply a stage name. It is connected to home, family and the kind of support that helped him take music seriously from a young age.
He remembers singing and dancing with his aunt when he was about four years old. Those memories have stayed with him, even as his musical life has grown and changed. Looking back, he says choosing music as a profession was never a dramatic decision. There was no moment when he had to convince himself or his family that this was the right path.
\u201cIt was pretty clear to both me and my family that this was what I wanted to do,\u201d he says.
His first instrument was the piano. He also wanted to learn the drums. The appeal was simple: he liked the idea of being in charge of the rhythm.
\u201cI always wanted to study drums as well because I love being in charge of the rhythm,\u201d he says with a laugh.
In the end, the piano was the more useful choice at the time. It gave him a strong musical foundation and became a practical tool for understanding melody, harmony and structure. Although he still has an interest in drums and rhythm, the piano became the first instrument through which he started to understand music in a more serious way.
Amo studied at the Alexander Spendiaryan Music School before continuing his education at college, where he focused on classical vocal performance. His training was formal and demanding. He studied vocals for much of his life, learning the discipline and technique that come with classical music. But classical training did not completely define his taste.
Even while studying classical singing, Amo felt most at home with jazz, soul and music that carried a strong emotional center. He was drawn to voices that sounded lived-in and honest, and to songs that were not afraid to leave some space between the notes.
\u201cI\u2019ve always felt more connected to jazzy and soulful sounds,\u201d he says.
That connection can be heard in the way he talks about the artists who influenced him. Stevie Wonder, Sade and Amy Winehouse were among the musicians he listened to while growing up. Each of them brought something different to his musical world.
Stevie Wonder showed Amo that melody, rhythm and emotion could sit together and still feel effortless. Sade gave him an appreciation for space, calm and atmosphere, while Amy Winehouse showed him how much feeling could live in a simple line. All three influenced the way Amo sees music as something that can tell a story without having to explain every feeling.
Their influence is not about copying a sound. It is more about understanding what makes a song stay with someone. For Amo, the answer is often honesty. A great song can be simple, but it has to feel true.
That idea is at the center of his own writing.
For Amo, songwriting usually begins with a feeling. It might be a mood, a memory, a conversation or a moment that he cannot quite let go of. He does not always begin with a clear plan. Sometimes a melody arrives first. Sometimes it is a lyric, a beat or one particular sound that starts the process.
\u201cI like to capture a specific emotion or moment and turn it into something people can connect with,\u201d he says.
He does not like forcing the process. That can be difficult in a music industry that is always moving, where artists are expected to create constantly and release music on a schedule. But Amo prefers to follow the idea rather than push it in a direction it does not want to go.
\u201cSometimes a melody comes first, sometimes a lyric or a certain sound, and I just follow wherever it takes me.\u201d
That approach also reflects the way he works as a producer. Amo is classically trained as a vocalist, but he taught himself how to produce and write songs. He is involved in nearly every part of his music, from the first idea to the final version.
Being involved in the whole process matters to him. It allows him to protect the feeling that started the song in the first place. Instead of handing an idea over and stepping away, he can stay close to it as it develops.
\u201cSince I also produce my own music, I enjoy being involved in the whole process, from the first idea to the final sound,\u201d he says. \u201cIt allows me to make the song feel as personal and honest as possible.\u201d
That personal connection is also visible in the way he speaks about collaborations. Amo enjoys working with other artists because he sees collaboration as a chance for different musical worlds to meet.
As a songwriter, he has worked on songs for Armenian artists including Mal\u00e9na and PARG. Those experiences have given him the opportunity to write from different points of view and work within sounds that may not always be exactly the same as his own.
\u201cI love collaborations,\u201d he says. \u201cI feel like collaborations allow different worlds to collide, and that can make the music even more magical.\u201d
His next release is another collaboration. \u201cAri Tes,\u201d a song with singer Eliina, is scheduled to come out on October 1. The release is important to him not only because of the song itself, but because of the people involved.
He describes Eliina as an incredibly talented singer and says he is happy to share the track with her. For an artist who values the exchange of ideas, the song represents the kind of creative connection he enjoys most.
When asked about his favorite songs, Amo does not immediately choose from his released material. Some of the songs closest to him have not been released yet. That answer says something about where he is in his career. He is still creating, still developing and still holding on to songs that may eventually become important parts of his story.
If he had to choose, though, he would name \u201cLie to Me,\u201d \u201cSary Qo\u201d and \u201cAgain and Again.\u201d
\u201cLie to Me\u201d is perhaps the most exposed of the three. Amo calls it his most vulnerable and honest song. There is something about its soulful sound that continues to affect him, even when he performs it himself.
\u201cThe soulful sound of it takes me somewhere else every time I perform it,\u201d he says.
That kind of reaction is difficult to manufacture. A performer can sing a song hundreds of times, but some songs continue to open the same emotional door every time. For Amo, \u201cLie to Me\u201d appears to be one of those songs.
\u201cSary Qo\u201d shows a different side of his work. He describes it as modern and very much his own, especially because of the beat switch. The song has enough energy to feel like a banger, but it also carries a sadness underneath.
He calls it both \u201ca banger and a sad-boy anthem.\u201d
That combination is part of what makes the song interesting. Amo does not seem interested in placing music into one emotional category. A track can be catchy and still be sad. It can make people move while carrying something heavy underneath. In real life, those feelings often exist together.
Then there is \u201cAgain and Again,\u201d the song that first brought wider attention to his music. Unlike a song built around a large production or a complicated arrangement, it relies on simplicity.
Amo likes that about it. He says it has a \u201cless is more\u201d feeling, and that simplicity helped the song connect with listeners. Sometimes a song does not need to say everything. Sometimes it is the space around the melody, the restraint in the production or the feeling in the vocal that gives it power.
Performing is another important part of Amo\u2019s work. He especially enjoys performing with live bands, even though he has not had as many opportunities to do so as he would like.
There is a particular kind of energy that comes from playing with other musicians on stage. The performance becomes more than one person singing over a backing track. The musicians listen to one another, respond to changes and build the moment together.
\u201cI really love the energy between all the musicians on stage,\u201d he says.
The audience is just as important to him. Amo pays attention to the way people respond during a performance, especially when they recognize themselves in a song.
\u201cYou can literally feel when people connect with a song and send that energy back to you,\u201d he says.
That connection is one of his favorite parts of performing. For an artist, the stage can be a vulnerable place. A song may begin as something private, but once it is shared, it belongs partly to the people listening. When the audience responds, the song takes on a life beyond the artist who wrote it.
Amo finds inspiration in that kind of exchange, but he also finds it in ordinary things. He believes almost anything can become the beginning of a song.
At the moment, fall is giving him plenty to think about. It is his favorite season, and he says he has written some of his most beautiful songs during that time of year.
There is a certain mood that comes with fall: the change in the air, the shorter days, the colors and the feeling of transition. For some people, it brings sadness. For others, it creates a sense of calm. For Amo, it seems to open a creative space.
He also pays attention to the stories of people around him. As an artist, he believes empathy is an important part of the work. The experiences of friends, strangers and people he meets can stay with him long after a conversation ends.
\u201cEventually, they can turn into songs,\u201d he says.
That does not mean he writes only about his own life. Sometimes another person\u2019s experience can spark an idea. A feeling can be shared even when the exact story is not. That is often how listeners find their way into a song: not because every detail matches their life, but because the emotion does. And then there are sunsets.
Amo loves golden hour, the brief period when the light becomes softer and warmer before evening arrives. It is a visual moment, but for him it also carries a feeling. It is peaceful, cinematic and temporary. Like many good songs, it does not last forever, which may be part of why it feels meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amo began writing songs in 2019. Since then, the way artists create and release music has continued to change. There are more tools, more platforms and more ways to reach listeners than ever before.
That sounds like an advantage, and it is. But it also brings a new kind of pressure.
When almost everyone can release music, it can become harder to stand out. There are more voices competing for attention, more content appearing every day and more pressure to constantly show up online. The tools may be easier to access, but finding a clear identity can still take time.
\u201cEveryone is out there, so it can be harder to find your own space and identity,\u201d he says.
He is honest about how overwhelming that can feel. Artists are expected to write, produce, perform, promote and stay visible. They are often asked to build a complete world around their music while still trying to understand who they are as artists.
But Amo does not see the crowded music world as a reason to give up. He believes every artist can find an audience.
It may not happen quickly. It may take years of writing songs that few people hear, performing in small rooms, experimenting with sounds and learning what feels genuine. It may require patience at a time when everything around music seems to move fast.
Still, he believes the answer is consistency and honesty.
\u201cIt just takes time, consistency and staying true to what makes you different,\u201d he says.
That idea fits the way Amo approaches his career. He is not trying to separate himself from his past. His classical training remains part of him, even as he moves toward jazz, soul and modern production. His family remains part of him through the name Amo. His influences remain present, but they do not prevent him from searching for his own voice.
He is still finding that voice, song by song.
For now, that means writing from feeling, producing music himself, working with other artists and paying attention to the moments that stay with him. It means keeping space for both the polished and the vulnerable parts of his work.
It also means remembering why he started.
Before the releases, the collaborations and the performances, there was a young boy in Yerevan singing and dancing with his aunt. There was a family of musicians, a piano and a love of rhythm. There was a name given to him by the people who knew him best.
Amo has carried all of that with him.
His music may continue to grow, change and reach new listeners, but the heart of it remains close to where he began which family, feeling and the search for something honest.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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