Get up close and personal with rising star Tamar Kaprelian as she sings one of her favorite songs, “Delicate Soul.” The track will appear on her Interscope Records debut, alongside her current single “New Day,” which is slated for release this year. Check out the acoustic performance to hear Tamar’s effortlessly pure vocals and be sure to grab the song on iTunes today.
Tamar reveals, “Hey guys, here’s a new acoustic performance. This is one of my favorite songs off of my new record— called “Delicate Soul”. The song is about all the excitement and all the fear that co-exists in a new relationship. Hope you enjoy it!”
On her debut album, Tamar Kaprelian sings about being “a delicate soul.” “Old soul” is more like it—if you consider the classic pop stylings of 30 or 35 years ago; the remnants from another lifetime, as they literally are for this 22-year-old singer/songwriter. Growing up, Kaprelian gravitated toward the rock classics her musician father schooled her in.
“I’m definitely an old soul when it comes to music,” she says. I grew up only listening to all those records my dad would play in the house, from Queen to Paul McCartney to Sting. My dad used to play Billy Joel songs to put me to sleep. Asked what 21st century artists she listens to, she reels off Mika, Coldplay, Sheryl Crow, Alicia Keys, and John Mayer—basically, all the contemporary artists who are as steeped in the great music of the ‘70s as she is.
As proud as Kaprelian is of the musical heritage passed down by her parents, she has at least as much pride in her ethnic heritage. “I’m 75% Armenian, and I have a little bit of Irish blood in me, too; my dad’s half. We speak the language at home, and it’s a part of my everyday life.” But her first language might have been music. She sang before she could talk, singing “Happy Birthday” to herself at the age of 1.
“I started writing songs when I was 14, but I didn’t play anything. So I started playing piano to be able to put down the melodies that I was already writing and singing into a little recorder.” She had no formal training and picked the instrument up by ear. Even when she began to be more accomplished, her musical aspirations were unknown to her classmates. “I definitely wouldn’t talk about my music at school. I didn’t go to any of the high school parties. I would do my homework and do all my AP classes, go to the studio, go to sleep. That was my entire life—along with classical ballet, which I was very into. I’m proud to say I wasn’t one of the cool kids.”
Kaprelian has a classic story of being discovered more or less at random. Actually, she’s got two or three of those stories. Her first discovery came at age 15, when a talent scout tapped her on the shoulder at her local mall after watching her sing with a school group for a fundraising event. One contact led to another until, right as she was about to go off to UC Berkeley at age 18, she was instead personally signed to a major label by one of the world’s most famous record company chiefs.
That particular fairy tale was not her destiny. That would-be debut album was scrapped and Kaprelian and her former label parted ways. Then, in odds akin to being hit by lightning twice, she got discovered more or less off the street again.
Mindful that some other singers had broken through with covers, Kaprelian’s producer suggested that she film herself doing a solo cover of OneRepublic’s “Apologize” to post on YouTube. “He said, ‘You’ve always liked Ryan’s style of writing, and it’s piano-based. What have you got to lose?’ Soon after, she learned OneRepublic was sponsoring a contest to see who could do the best cover of “Apologize,” so she uploaded it. Weeks later, she was getting twin messages from people at Interscope—one informing her that she’d won the contest, and another inviting her to come in for a meeting.
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