Los Angeles
Gone Wonderin’

Syrian-born singer Azniv Korkejian, who performs as Bedouine, feels a close kinship with the nomadic Middle Easterners who share her pseudonym. Born in Aleppo, raised in Saudi Arabia and in divergent U.S. cities such as Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, Lexington, Ky., Austin and Savannah, Ga., before returning to LA, Korkejian has experienced intense periods of wanderlust as well. “I felt like I was plucked from my stem and could float around, since I was no longer grounded,” she says. “I quickly learned that the rest of the world was a very different place and I had a lot to see.” While the singer denies choosing her handle in deference to her wandering ways—“My moniker has less to do with travel and more to do with the simple life”—her music reflects a distinct diversity as well as a supple style. Bedouine’s quiet soundscapes offer hints of folk, country, shoegaze and bossa nova. “I started fingerpicking before I was strumming,” she explains. “I’ve always been drawn to softer music, but it wasn’t until I heard it being done in such nutritious ways that I was interested in doing it better.” After signing with Matthew E. White’s Spacebomb Records, she crafted her self-titled debut with producer Gus Seyffert (Beck, Nora Jones, The Black Keys). It’s flush with hushed, intimate reflection—yet, for now, Bedouine says she’s content to take things as they come. “The greatest reward is feeling calm in the present moment,” she muses. “It may sound hippie-dippie, but it’s better than anything money can buy.”