Daron Malakian

Daron Malakian

Daron Vartan Malakian (born 18 July, 1975) was the lead guitarist, part songwriter and sometimes singer in System of a Down until their hiatus in 2006 and is now the lead singer and guitarist in Scars on Broadway. Like the rest of the Hollywood-based band (System of a Down), he is of Armenian ancestry, but is the only member to actually have been born inside the U.S. (Los Angeles). He placed 30th in Guitar World's List of "The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists of All Time."[1]

Early life

Daron was born on July 18, 1975 in Hollywood, California, U.S. as an only child to an Iraqi-Armenian father Vartan Malakian and an Iranian-Armenian mother Zepur Malakian. At a very early age, Daron got into heavy metal music; his distant cousin played him a KISS record when he was four years old and he was hooked. Daron started listening to Van Halen, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motörhead and Ozzy Osbourne among others. He always wanted to play the drums, but his parents got him a guitar instead because "You can't turn the drums off." By the time he was a teenager, he got into heavier metal bands such as Slayer, Venom, Metallica, Pantera, Sepultura and Cannibal Corpse. At around 17 he started getting into The Beatles and Peter, Paul and Mary as two of his biggest influences on him as a songwriter. Daron went to Rose & Alex Pilibos Armenian school in Little Armenia, Hollywood, which bandmates Serj Tankian and Shavo Odadjian also attended. Daron is still a big Slayer fan, as is band member Shavo Odadjian who sometimes wears Slayer t-shirts to shows. In his childhood, he also became a fan of the LA Kings Hockey Team, which can be seen in the video of 'Toxicity'.

System of a Down

Main article: System of a Down

Daron met Serj Tankian in 1993, while they both shared the same rehearsal studio in different bands. Serj was playing keyboard for a band, and Daron was singing lead vocals for another band. They formed a jam band called Soil and met Shavo Odadjian. The band later broke up and Tankian and Malakian formed a new band "System of a Down", based on a poem that Daron wrote. The poem's title was "Victims of a Down", but Shavo Odadjian thought that the word System appealed to a much broader audience than "Victims", and they wanted their albums to be stored near the band Slayer's. Shavo Odadjian also joined as their bassist. They then recruited Andy Khachaturian for the drums, who was later replaced by their current drummer, John Dolmayan, due to a hand injury.

Malakian co-produced System of a Down's albums with Rick Rubin, as well as The Ambulance and Bad Acid Trip (a band on fellow member Serj Tankian's Serjical Strike Records). He recently started his own label, EatUrMusic, on which Amen is the first signed band. Malakian is also involved in a band called Scars on Broadway, with John Dolmayan. In 2003 Daron Malakian played with a variety of celebrities in the Celebrity Baseball Game in Hollywood. He wrote a song about the experience, "Old School Hollywood", which appears on System of a Down's album, Mezmerize.

Daron has stated in an interview that the band doesn't follow anybody: "A lot of bands followed Korn. We're not one of those bands but I have respect for Korn for being original. I just think it’s a shame that so many people felt they had to go and mimic that. Everyone tells us we have our own sound. I think that we have enough trust in our fans from touring for enough years to know that they're expecting something different from us, which is cool because it leaves the door open for us to go anywhere we want."

Personal life

Malakian now lives in Glendale, California in a home by himself; he also has relatives in Iran and Iraq since his parents were born in those countries but migrated to America. He has visited both countries. He enjoys collecting candles, Persian rugs, Hookas, instruments, and skulls. He has been in relationship with model Jessica Miller. They broke up in mid-2006.

EatUrMusic

EatUrMusic is the imprint of Malakian through Sony. It was set up in late 2003 and is largely inactive, partly due to the number of Malakian's other pursuits. Further, Malakian is selective and will only sign bands that he truly believes in.

"I honestly feel that if you're going to sign an artist,". "the most important thing is that you've really got to be like one of those kids in their audience. [The Sony people] and I agreed that I will only sign and work with those artists that I'm a fan of."

The first band that got signed to the label, US punk/metal band Amen, have since moved on by mutual agreement. Amen singer Casey Chaos will release his music through his own label from now on.

The web page, along with its forum, is down, but recently a new forum has emerged in hopes of reviving the EatUrMusic community.

The music video for the band's song "They Say" as featured on Yahoo! music lists the video as being copyrighted to eatURmusic.

Discography

System of a Down

Main article: System of a Down discography

• 1998: System of a Down
• 2001: Toxicity
• 2002: Steal This Album!
• 2005: Mezmerize
• 2005: Hypnotize

Scars on Broadway

• 2008: Scars on Broadway

Awards

• In 2006, System of a Down won their first Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance for B.Y.O.B.
• In 2006, they won the "MTV Good Woodie Award" for their song "Question!"
• In 2006, they were #14 on the VH1 Top 40 Metal Songs with "Toxicity"
• In 2007, they were nominated for a Grammy Award in Best Hard Rock Performance for their song Lonely Day

Collaborations

Live performances

• 2000: Metallica featuring Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian - "Mastertarium"
• 2000: Metallica featuring Jonathan Davis and Daron Malakian - "One"
• 2003: Metallica Featuring Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian - "Creeping Death" - Reading Festival 2003
• 2003: The Ambulance featuring Daron Malakian - "Stop"

Quotes by Malakian

I have no interest in murder, and I have no interest in people dying. But I'm interested in people's minds, and sometimes Manson puts thoughts together that I find really interesting. Have you ever seen his unedited videos? He starts making a lot of sense. I'm sure people are scared of that, but to me, it's scarier to watch George Bush try to make sense.

System of a Down are one of the most misunderstood bands around. I mean, Armenian rock? What the fuck is that? Political? I could name so many more of our songs that aren't about politics than ones that are. And for a long time, everyone thought Serj wrote all of our tunes. Until this album came out, people thought he wrote all the lyrics. So there are so many different misunderstandings of System of a Down that I don't even let it bother me anymore. I'm just kind of used to it. Our first bio said something like 'four guys based out of LA who are Armenian and political,' and, well, it wasn't really right at all. I mean, we are all Armenian, but we didn't plan that.

It's important not to take yourself too seriously, ... and I think sometimes people take us a lot more seriously than we take ourselves, especially when it comes to politics. Politics, for me, is a reflection of the world I live in. But love is just as important as politics to me. They both exist in the world, you know? And if you don't reflect the entire world around you, then you're leaving something out.

External links

• System of a Down Official Site
• Scars on Broadway Myspace Page
• Scars on Broadway Official website