Channeling a similar vein of prog-rock-meets-dream-pop as Tame Impala, Karaboudjan is a solo project of Californian multi-instrumentalist Billy Kim.
Having been born in Inglewood to musical parents, Billy was raised in Orange County, watching his parents play music together. As young as 17, he was touring the US, before appearing in Rolling Stone as a result of an opportunity to record an album with Grammy-wining producer Jacquire King. During this period, Kim’s lost his father following his deterioration due to Alzheimer’s. Billy describes how the Karaboudjan project is in tribute to him:
“The name had always fascinated me — it was the name of a ship in The Adventures of Tin Tin. I remember begging my parents to take me to the library, so I could check out the next book in the series with which I was so infatuated. For me, Karaboudjan reminds me of the purity of my youth, and its enormous curiosity of life unlived”
Kim subsequently joined the musician Tycho’s touring band in 2016, relocating to New Jersey and writing his debut solo EP as Karaboudjan, Imago.
New single Upside Down pulls together a slightly melancholic melody with reflective lyrics to create a song full of broad, emotive chords and thick, analogue-feeling instrumentation. The relationship between lyrics and melody is something that Kim has found himself captured by. I, too, am often drawn to this aesthetic — the sad songs that inspire you to dance through your problems, for example. Describing the song, Billy says:
“I’ve always been attracted to songs where the music contrasts the lyrics. Like a song that makes you want to dance, but with somber lyrics. That’s what makes Hey Ya!, from Outkast, so compelling for me. But in my case, there wasn’t previous foresight in writing ‘Upside Down’ that way. I tend to write vocal melodies around the instruments, and not so much the other way around. Usually, I approach all creative writing free of rigid outlines or concepts. It’s hard to explain, but really a simple idea to create like a child, free of any criticism and without any boundaries.”
Check out Upside Down below: