PAUL: Not Every DJ Can Have an Armenian Flavor in All the Right Places

By SHAHANE ARAYI
Shahanem@ucla.edu

Paul Yedalyan wants to be a pilot one day, or maybe a lawyer like his brother, or maybe he can get his scrubs on and be a doctor. His ambitions are endless, his dreams eternal, but today, for now, he is everyone’s favorite DJ Paul. While he may be in his late teens, his years of experiences DJing puts him among some of the best DJs in the Armenian wedding scene. He is known to all the banquet hall owners and is one speed dial away from any bride-to-be or a young almost 16-year-old girl.

Growing up in the valley, this young Los Angeles native admired music from an early age. He discloses that he views music differently, as if it is even possible to see music, but he sees it. DJ Paul experiences all his favorite songs at a level that most of us with average ears are not able to understand. Or even if we understood it, his judgment on it sounds much better.

He began playing around with DJ equipment for the very first time when he was only eight years old. Yedalyan was right away hooked on playing music. In fact, he has been practicing the craft of DJing ever since.

Although his parents do find his non-stop loud music mixing highly annoying, they have come to accept the fact that their son’s passion is important. In fact, Yedalyan credits his parents for the musical influences. He states that growing up, both of his parents always played the piano for him. His father always improvises the music he hears on the television. The sense of improvising music – the one, most important aspect of DJing – seems to be genetic as Yedalyan mixes all music to produce the international feel every Armenian wedding craves. He mixes Armenian, Hip-Hop, Russian, House, the Classics, and even hints of country music to make sure that his clients are satisfied because after all, DJing has a great deal to do with the people who are listening to the music.

Yedalyan spends an enormous time concentrating on the selection he will play at the event where he DJs. Prior to attending the event, he meets with the clients and discusses with them their style and taste in music in order to be appropriate at the actual event. After the meeting, Yedalyan spends some time practicing the selection in his room, which he has converted into a studio for work. At the actual event, Yedalyan uses his acquired skills in improvising to fully provide an enjoyable event for the attendees, helping the party-throwers create memories that lasts them a lifetime.

For this article, I spent some time with Yedalyan at a coffee shop in Sherman Oaks, and throughout the entire interview, I could not help but notice how incredibly professional this young man actually behaved. His manners were fitted for someone at least ten years older than him, and his ability to communicate to me about how serious he takes his job wooed me even further. I noticed a sense of concentration when he was discussing every aspect of his job, from mixing to speaking to the clients and his relationship with the owners of the banquet halls. I thought that if the tape-recorder was off, I would see someone more relaxed, not a serious business man but a young man trying to figure his life out.

To my surprise, the recorder on or off, Yedalyan was the same genuinely ambitious young man who is willing to work very hard to accomplish his goals. Yet, with the recorder off, we talked about more personal matters – his relationship status and about being Armenian. For all the ladies out there, he is definitely single and DJ Paul – one of the cutest DJs ever, is the ‘romantic guy.’ He enjoys Michael Buble and takes advices from women because he deeply admits that men, just don’t understand women.

On the subject of being Armenian, Yedalyan credits his Armenian roots for his love of music since he believes that listening to Armenian music is what drove him towards DJing. At the Armenian Chronicles party, Pleasure, Yedalyan was asked to keep the Armenian music to the minimum since it was at Joseph’s in Hollywood. However, after waiting for people to take a couple of shots and taking into consideration that the entire crowd was Armenian, Paul begin mixing some Armenian music with the House and hip-hop he had played the entire night. The party went out of control; the Armenian music brought every single person to the dance floor including the non-dancers who had spent the entire night sitting around drinking.

While Yedalyan has not DJed too many club parties since he mainly DJs Armenian celebrations, he still knew exactly what would guarantee a successful event. DJs make the party since the invention of the word disc jockey, DJ Paul makes every party, any place, any time.

Quick facts: He likes to have many friends, so Facebook him at DjPaul Yedalyan.