serj tankian
Serj Tankian Presenting Visual Art Exhibit in Los Angeles
System Of A Down‘s Serj Tankian entered the world of fine art back in 2013 with his Disarming Time Musical Paintings, and this month, fans will be able to experience his wide-ranging creativity through a new exhibit, “Shapeshift: A Dynamic Dive Into Diversity.” The event will be hosted at Stephanie’s Art Gallery in La Cañada in Los Angeles from Oct. 9 through Nov. 1. “My music always has been nonconformist and challenging — and revolting at times,” Tankian said in a statement. “I paint the same way. I don’t look at what people do, I don’t paint within the parameters. I do what my intuition tells me to do. When I’m painting, I am free as an artist. My hands go where they’re supposed to go, I don’t know what I’m doing. But I never knew what I was doing as a musician either, I just created an...
Serj Tankian Releasing New EP With Augmented Reality App
System Of A Down frontman Serj Tankian is teaming with augmented reality app Arloopa for the release of his new EP, Perplex Cities. Each of the five tracks will debut weekly starting today (Sept. 19) through the platform, with Tankian “appearing in the same space as the listener-viewer to explain the music and listen along.” The song “Pop Imperialism” is the first to be unveiled. The full EP will be released to streaming services on Oct. 21 through Tankian’s Serjical Strike label. “I love the idea of appearing in the room with someone listening to my music,” Tankian enthuses. “It’s intimate, fun and different.” The artist says the music on Perplex Cities “is a completely different sound than what I’ve done before. More electronic, subtle and deeper in terms of its layers of presentation mu...
System of a Down’s Serj Tankian and John Dolmayan Join Street Band to Perform ‘Aerials’ in Mexico
Members of System of a Down have not been shy about admitting that recent creative differences have halted new recordings and releases by the band, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have fun together. Indeed, System of a Down singer Serj Tankian joined drummer John Dolmayan on stage to perform the band’s”Aerials” at the latter’s 50th birthday party in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico last weekend. [embedded content][embedded content] Dolmayan, who is Tankian’s brother-in-law, had already been playing drums with the rock covers street band Medium at the party on July 15 when the crowd motioned for Tankian to get up on stage. System of a Down’s most recent songs, “Protect the Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz,” were released in 2020. Tankian recently confirmed that the band has no plans to release a ne...
Serj Tankian Releases 24 Minute Modern Classical Composition Disarming Time: A Modern Piano Concerto
Serj Tankian has released a 24-minute modern classical composition titled Disarming Time: A Modern Piano Concerto on his own label, Serjical Strike Records. The piece comes accompanied by a self-produced video the System of a Down frontman made utilizing his own pictures and videos. Tankian said that this project came from him “itching for a musical challenge” during the height of the pandemic. He added that “one night sitting in bed looking through different voice memos on the iPhone I realized I have this huge trove of short, special, unrealized musical ideas. Right then the thought of creating an epic piece utilizing them all made me smile. So I recorded them all and started arranging the instrumentation to create this incredibly unique musical experience. I mean, who the fuck listens t...
Rick Rubin Remembers The Toxicity Lyric That Could Have Ended System Of A Down
System Of A Down’s 2001 album Toxicity was home to the song “Needles” and the somewhat controversial lyric “Pull the tapeworm out of your ass.” Two decades later, Toxicity producer and music legend Rick Rubin remembers the epic fight that this caused. Reminiscing on his Broken Record podcast with System of A Down frontman Serj Tankian, they say that it was merely the pronoun used in the tapeworm lyric that caused the band to go nuts. “Originally, the chorus was ‘Pull the tapeworm out of my ass.’ Daron [Malakian] and Shavo [Odadjian] didn’t like ‘my ass,’” Tankian tells Rubin. Tankian argues that using “my” was supposed to be philosophical like the negativity was being extracted from him. However, that was a bit too vulnerable for his fellow bandmates. “An...
Serj Tankian on Activism, Elasticity, His Dream Supergroup and System of a Down
Onstage, Serj Tankian is a tornado of energy, his intense passion and informed vitriol delivered pointedly in System of a Down songs like “Toxicity” and “Chop Suey!” His unique staccato vocal style, influenced by innovators including Frank Zappa and Mike Patton, is a potent accompaniment to System’s dynamic and powerful post-metal musicality. Yet on his new solo EP, Elasticity, there’s a lovely piano-based song for his son Rumi that’s tender and heart-wrenching/warming. He then shifts easily to the punky EP closer, “Electric Yerevan,” where Tankian rails “we don’t want to be the bitch of any superpowers … We say no to corruption and no to plunder / Billionaire playgrounds are going under.” [Yerevan is the capital of Armenia.] The singer/activist’s dedication to h...
Serj Tankian Shares Title Track From Upcoming Elasticity EP
System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian told us last May that he was prepping a new solo project. Nearly a year later, that collection is finally on its way. Titled Elasticity, the EP arrives on March 19 via Alchemy Recordings/BMG. Tankian shared a video for the title track, which you can see below. [embedded content] “When I conceived possibly doing another record with the guys from System of a Down a few years back, I started working on a set of songs that I arranged in rock format for that purpose,” Tankian said in a statement. “As we weren’t able to see eye to eye on the vision going forward with an SOAD album, I decided to release these songs under my moniker.” Late last year, System of a Down released their first new music in nearly 15 years. Tankian has stayed in the news with u...
Tom Morello and Serj Tankian Collaborate on Cover of Gang of Four’s ‘Natural’s Not In It’
Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and System of a Down’s Serj Tankian joined forces on a cover of Gang of Four’s “Natural’s Not In It,” the first single to emerge from The Problem of Leisure: A Celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four. The tune, which first appeared on the Gang of Four’s 1979 debut LP, Entertainment! sees Tankian and Morello amplifying the original single’s edgy urgency. The song starts with “the problem of leisure” lyric that gives the upcoming set its name. “Andy Gill was one of a handful of artists in history who changed the way guitars are played,” Morello said in a statement. “His band Gang of Four were just incendiary and completely groundbreaking with Andy’s confrontational, unnerving and sublime playing at the forefront. His jag...
Tom Morello, Serj Tankian and More Contribute to Gang of Four Tribute Album
An all-star Gang of Four and Andy Gill tribute album is on the way. Titled The Problem of Leisure: A Celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four, the collection will be a double album of songs that are reinterpreted and recorded by famous fans of the band. The first single, “Natural’s Not In It,” hails from Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and System Of A Down vocalist Serj Tankian. It will be released on Gill’s birthday, Jan. 1, 2021. A complete track listing will be announced next month. “Andy Gill was one of a handful of artists in history who changed the way guitars are played,” Morello said in a statement. “Gang of Four were just incendiary and completely groundbreaking with Andy’s confrontational, unnerving and sublime playing at the forefron...
Serj Tankian Responds to Guests Rocking Out to System of a Down at a Nigerian Wedding
The world may be in shambles right now, but as Tom Morello expressed after watching footage from a recent Nigerian wedding, “There’s hope!!” On Friday, a video went viral on Twitter that features a swarm of wedding guests headbanging and singing along to System of a Down’s seminal tune, “Toxicity,” and it’s pure joy. After the band began trending on Twitter, singer Serj Tankian caught wind of the clip and retweeted it with the appropriately caption: “Simply awesome.” Watch the “simply awesome” video below. As protests continue to happen around the world in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, political bands like System of a Down and Rage Against the Machine have aided in the soundtrack. Tack on the upcoming election, and it’s been an interesting time for Tankian and the band’s drum...
Serj Tankian Rips System of a Down Fans Who Love Trump: ‘You’re a Hypocrite’
It’s been an interesting few weeks for System of a Down fans. Drummer John Dolmayan and singer Serj Tankian have taken complete opposite stances on President Trump and protests overall in recent weeks, with the former praising the president and the latter, not so much. In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Tankian made it even more clear where he stands (not that it even needed any clarification). Ahead of posting lyrics to the band’s unreleased “Temper,” Tankian wrote the following: A very early @systemofadown song that was on one of our demos-lyrics below: if you love this song or play along to it and love Trump, you’re a hypocrite-just a simple fact 🙂 “Temper” View this post on Instagram A very early @systemofadown song that was on one of our demos-lyrics below: if you love...
John Dolmayan Says ‘It Shouldn’t Be a Shock’ He and Serj Tankian Have Different Political Views
Anyone who listens to System of a Down’s music knows the lyrics are political, so it might come as a surprise that the band members don’t share political views. But if you ask John Dolmayan, “it shouldn’t be a shock.” “We have differing opinions in System of a Down. That shouldn’t be a shock to anybody, because you have four individuals — we’re not always like-minded and don’t always agree on everything,” The drummer explained in a 13-minute Instagram video. “But you’d be surprised at how civil our conversations are, especially between me and Serj, who seem to have the most diverging opinions on things.” “I have a lot of respect for Serj and his opinions, although I don’t agree with them very often these days,” he continued. “And that’s okay. We expand each other’s horizons — I like t...
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