'Gay Pirates' Cosmo Jarvis - cute British music talent with Armenian roots

I had no idea that Cosmo Jarvis has Armenian roots, from mother's side.

Cosmo Jarvis - Harrison Cosmo Krikoryan Jarvis - the author of Gay Pirates song (music video - below). He is quite cute too.

*picture - by Elina Kansikas (via The Guardian)

The Guardian

[...] Harrison Cosmo Krikoryan Jarvis – raised in Totnes, Devon, with an Armenian-American mother and English father – has already written more than 300 songs and is close to finishing his first feature film. He tackles weighty topics in a conversational style, treating the listener like a trusted friend. His music switches between acoustic ballads, rambunctious punk-folk, MOR rock and agitatedly introspective, scabrous rap, sometimes within a single song. These are all reasons why he should be accorded the status of national treasure, but they also explain why he has yet to become a household name. [...]

The first disc was mainly a collection of love songs, albeit with a singular, reliably dark humour, but the second was a concept album about a teenager struggling through his parents' protracted, bruising separation. It served as his autobiography.

"There was always problems at home – always," he says. "It was more than a divorce. It went on for ages. Still going on, 10 years later. I guess they actually split when I was nine years old. Mum took me and my brother, fucked off, left the country. She would say things about dad, he would say things about her, and you don't know what's true. And you get to the point where you don't hate them, but you just no longer see them as parents. I did, anyway." [...]

Gay Pirates – a folksy stomp designed to tackle homophobia by getting beered-up lads to sing along before they realise what it's about – was released in January. Stephen Fry tweeted his approval, and Jarvis's self-directed video became a YouTube hit.



"I needed something that was closed off from everything else so that the story could take place," he says, explaining why a heterosexual man used to mining his own life for material would choose to write a gay love story set on an 18th-century pirate ship. "I needed something where everyone else could be against them – where it was more than a gay person in a homophobic society, where the whole thing was amplified. By setting it in the days of pirates, and using the mandolin, which is the sort of instrument you could've taken to sea with you, I thought that might give it a kind of folklore thing, and that would add to the idea of it being firmly embedded in human history."

But Radio 1 refused to play it. "The reason they gave was because I said 'gang rape'," Jarvis tuts. "We could've given them an edited version." Momentum was lost and the record failed to chart. It's still bothering him. [...]

He seems incapable of making things easy for himself. Another single, Sure As Hell Not Jesus, arrived accompanied by a video that attempted to humorously examine child abuse and hypocrisy in the Catholic church. [...]

His parents have reconciled themselves to his songs, though his mum thinks he should stop rapping – perhaps not coincidentally, she seems to get the worst of the lyrics when he does, as in Sonofabitch's Problems, or the unflinching Mummy's Been Drinking ("I know you had your fair share of abuse/ But that's in the past so you got no excuse"). "She just goes: 'You're not from the hood!'" he says. "But sometimes it's just a much better way of explaining something really articulately. Mummy's Been Drinking did fuck her off a lot, though."

And this seems to be where we came in, and where Jarvis is perhaps most different and potentially important: he is willing to risk ridicule, incomprehension or hostility as he tries to communicate. It can be liberating. [...]
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...And here is how Tert.am reported re above (AM)

Գեյերի արգելված սիրո մասին երգող ամենահայտնի բրիտանացին հայ է (տեսանյութ)

21–ամյա բրիտանացի երգիչ, 300–ից ավելի երգերի հեղինակ, դերասան, ռեժիսոր, պրոդյուսեր և սցենարիստ Հարիսոն Քոսմո Գրիգորյան Ջարվիսը (Գրիգորյանը նրա մոր ազգանունն է։ Իսկ նրա հայրն անգլիացի է) հաստատուն քայլերով առաջ է գնում բրիտանական շոու բիզնեսում։ Ինչպես հաղորդում է բրիտանական Guardian պարբերականը, Ջարվիսը շուտով նաև ավարտին կհասցնի իր առաջին գեղարվեստական ֆիլմը։

Ջերվիսի ամենահայտնի ստեղծագործությունը, թերևս, նրա Gay Pirates երգն է (գեյ ծովահենները)։ Երգը երկու գեյ սիրեկանների մասին է, ինչպես նաև այն խտրականության մասին, որին ոչ ավանդական սեռական կողմնորոշում ունեցողները հանդիպում են բոլոր ժամանակներում։

[thanks to Christin for the link]