Viza or VI·ZA (formerly known as Visa) was an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, using

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duduk The duduk ( ; hy, դուդուկ ) or tsiranapogh ( hy, ծիրանափող, meaning “apricot-made wind instrument”), is an ancient Armenian double reed woodwind instrument made of apricot wood. It is indigenous to Armenia. Variations of th ...

and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

fused with more conventional rock elements such as

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

, bass and

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

. The band has released various EPs and full-length albums. The band's music mixes

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

n and

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

-inflected styles with elements of modern aggressive rock and traditional music. The band sometimes blends these various flavors with dance and satirical social commentary. Viza has performed at Hungary's

Sziget Festival The Sziget Festival ( hu, Sziget Fesztivál, ; "Sziget" for "Island") is one of the largest Music festival, music and cultural festivals in Europe. It is held every August in northern Budapest, Hungary, on Óbuda Island, Óbudai-sziget ("Old Bu ...

, Sweden's Malmöfestivalen, Norway's Kartfestivalen, and Slovenia's Schengenfest and Trnfest festivals, among dozens of headline shows, as a part of 6 European tours over the past several years. Viza was associated with Serjical Strike Management headed by

Serj Tankian Serj Tankian (born August 21, 1967) is an Armenian-American singer, musician, songwriter, political activist and entrepreneur. He is best known as the lead vocalist, primary lyricist, keyboardist, and occasional rhythm guitarist of heavy metal ...

from

System of a Down System of a Down (also known as SoaD or simply System) is an Armenian-American heavy metal band formed in Glendale, California, in 1994. Since 1997, the band has consisted of Serj Tankian (lead vocals, keyboards); Daron Malakian (guitar, voc ...

from 2009-2012, also featuring Tankian as a guest vocalist on their track "Viktor". In August 2010, Viza embarked on a series of introductory performances in Europe, opening for Serj Tankian's “Imperfect Harmonies” Tour in the cities of Yerevan, Athens, Hamburg, Cologne, Paris, Zurich, and Bologna. Viza accompanied Serj Tankian again during his "Harakiri" World Tour in the Fall of 2012 as the main support act for 19 shows throughout North America and Europe.SerjTankian.com News & Announcements
/ref> In December 2011, the band released their fourth full-length album, ''Carnivalia'', and released the title track as a single. In July 2012, the band recorded and released their third single, a cover of the 1927 " Alabama Song (whisky bar)" by

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

and

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fru ...

. In 2014, Viza released their album Aria, and toured as direct support for

Gogol Bordello Gogol Bordello is an American punk rock band from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, formed in 1999 by musicians from all over the world and known for theatrical stage shows and persistent touring. Much of the band's sound is inspired by Ro ...

Skindred Skindred are a Welsh reggae metal band formed in Newport in 1998. Their musical style mixes heavy metal, alternative rock and ragga. The band also integrate elements of punk rock, hardcore punk, reggae, dancehall, jungle, ska, hip hop, drum ...

, and Soil. After a brief hiatus to focus on individual music projects, beginning in late 2017, Viza released a series of new recordings via YouTube on the first day of every month continuing into 2018. These 12 tracks were divided into two EPs named "The Unorthodox Revival", in two separate Volumes. The band continues its activities locally in Los Angeles and performed in Paris in May 2019 in support of the My Ouai charitable foundation for providing musical opportunities to disabled children in France.

Discography

Studio albums

*2006 - Maktub (as Visa) *2008 - Eros (as Visa) *2010 - Made In Chernobyl *2011 - Carnivalia *2014 - Aria

EPs

*2001 - Visa (as Visa) *2007 - De Facto (as Visa) *2018 - The Unorthodox Revival I *2018 - The Unorthodox Revival II

Singles

*2011 - Bake Me In Clouds *2012 - Alabama Song (Whisky Bar) (

) *2013 - In Coins *2014 - Midnight Hour *2014 - Fuego *2014 - When Doves Cry (Prince) *2014 - Naive Melody (

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talkin ...

) *2019 - Eros *2020 - Loyal Tea *2022 - Yesterday *2023 - Ms. Information

Band members

*K'noup Tomopoulos –

Vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

Guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

*Shant Bismejian –

Electric Guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

*theoudplayer (Andrew Kzirian) –

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, Electric Oud, Saz, Vocals *Alex (Alexan) Khatcherian – Bass, Vocals *Chris Daniel –

Drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, Vocals *Jivan Gasparyan Jr. –

Duduk The duduk ( ; hy, դուդուկ ) or tsiranapogh ( hy, ծիրանափող, meaning “apricot-made wind instrument”), is an ancient Armenian double reed woodwind instrument made of apricot wood. It is indigenous to Armenia. Variations of th ...

Former members

*Johnny Nice – Guitar, Keyboards *Carlos Alvarado – Guitar *Danny Shamoun – Percussion *Suguru Onaka –

Keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

Accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

*Hiram Rosario – Drums *Orbel Babayan – Electric Guitar, Tar, Saz, Vocals

References

{{Authority control American experimental rock groups American world music groups Armenian rock music groups Gypsy punk groups Hard rock musical groups from California Heavy metal musical groups from California Musical groups from Los Angeles Musical groups established in 2000 Progressive rock musical groups from California