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Serj Tankian

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Serj Tankian
Serj Tankian performing in Burgas, Bulgaria in August 2010.
Serj Tankian performing in Burgas, Bulgaria in August 2010.
Background information
Born (1967-08-21) August 21, 1967 (age 57)
Beirut, Lebanon[1]
GenresHeavy metal, experimental, alternative metal, progressive rock, alternative rock, art rock, classical
Occupation(s)Musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, poet, political activist
Instrument(s)Vocal, piano, keyboards, synthesizer, sampler, theremin, guitar, bass guitar, violin, harmonica, melodica, bouzouki, dulcimer, drums
Years active1992–present
LabelsSerjical Strike, Reprise, American, Columbia, Axis of Justice
Websitewww.serjtankian.com

Serj Tankian (Armenian: Սերժ Թանգեան [ˈsɛɾʒ tʰɑnˈkʰjɑn]; born August 21, 1967) is an Armenian American singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, poet, and political activist. He is best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, keyboardist, and occasional live rhythm guitarist of the rock band System of a Down. During his musical career, Tankian has released five albums with System of a Down, one with Arto Tunçboyacıyan (Serart), as well as three solo albums Elect the Dead, Imperfect Harmonies and Harakiri. A live orchestral version of Elect the Dead incorporating the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra named Elect the Dead Symphony was released. In 2002, Tankian and Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello co-founded a non-profit political activist organization, Axis of Justice. Tankian also founded the music label Serjical Strike Records.

Tankian is ranked 26th in the Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time.

On August 12, 2011, Tankian was awarded the Armenian Prime Minister's Medal for his contributions to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the advancement of music.[2]

Biography

Early life

Tankian was born in Beirut, Lebanon on August 21, 1967.[3] At age seven, Serj Tankian moved with his parents to Los Angeles, California.[3] In his youth, he attended a school for Armenian-Americans, Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School,[4] which was also attended by Tankian's future System of a Down bandmates Daron Malakian and Shavo Odadjian.[5] Tankian was accepted into California State University, Northridge. This is where Tankian first began to play instruments and write songs.[3]

Soil and System of a Down (1994–2006)

Main article: System of a Down

The early beginnings of System of a Down lie in a band named Soil (not to be confused with the Chicago-based band SOiL) with Tankian on vocals & keyboards, Daron Malakian on vocals & lead guitar, Dave Hakopyan on bass and Domingo Loranio on drums. The band hired Shavo Odadjian as their then-manager but for him to later join as rhythm guitarist. Loriano and Hakopyan later left the band feeling that it wasn't going anywhere, leading to Soil splitting up.

After Soil split up, Tankian, Odadjian and Malakian formed a new band they called System of a Down, after a poem Malakian wrote called Victims of a Down. Their original drummer was Ontronik Khachaturian, with whom they had spent time playing with in Soil, though he was later replaced by John Dolmayan after breaking his hand shortly before a gig the band had been booked to play, giving Dolmayan the last-minute call up. The band quickly began touring the Southern California rock clubs, and began to attract a strong following.

Elect the Dead (2007–2010)

Tankian's breakthrough as a solo artist came with the release of his debut record Elect the Dead. The first singles from Elect the Dead are "The Unthinking Majority" and "Empty Walls". The music video "Feed Us" was released on the Swedish[6] and UK[7] MTV. Tankian appeared on MTV's You Rock The Deuce to promote Elect the Dead.[citation needed] A music video was directed and filmed for every song on the record, each by unique directors. Tankian explained, "I asked each of the directors for their visual interpretation of my work. They were asked not to write treatments and that they could make whatever they liked. The results have been overwhelmingly amazing!"[8] Some music videos were initially released exclusively to those who purchased the limited edition of Elect the Dead, while all of the music videos, except "Money", have since been publicly released on Tankian's website and YouTube channel. Some videos have alternative versions which were originally released as well, but later altered.[citation needed]

Three different promo versions of the album have surfaced to the public. The instrumental promotional version, issued by Serjical Strike/Reprise Records and intended for the music and movie industry, contains instrumental versions of the twelve album tracks. Another promotional version, issued by Reprise Records and made only for individual reviewers, features the album in final master form. This promotional CD-R, which was labeled "Smart Talk" as a codename for "Serj Tankian" to prevent leaking by unauthorized persons, also indicates that the album was finalized prior to August 20, 2007 (2007-08-20).[9] Before this a similar but undated promo, also under the name 'Smart Talk', was issued featuring the final versions of the songs, albeit not yet mastered.[citation needed] Whilst the printed track list on this version is identical the released album, tracks ten and eleven are in fact juxtaposed on the promo itself.

The official tour for Elect the Dead commenced on October 12, 2007 with a show at Chicago's Vic theater. Roughly one thousand people attended the first concert. Although Tankian had stated he would not be performing any material by his former band, System of a Down, he performed "Charades" and "Blue", songs co-written by Daron Malakian, the guitarist of System of a Down. "Blue" had previously appeared on their Fourth Demo Tape in 1998, and Charades was attempted during the 2005 Mezmerize/Hypnotize sessions, but never released (although a short video clip of Tankian and Dolmayan playing the song in a recording studio was featured on "the Making of Mezmerize/Hypnotize"). Although it is originally a song restricted to piano and vocals, Tankian used his backing band, the Flying Cunts of Chaos (F.C.C.), to provide guitars, drums, and bass.[citation needed] The songs "Beethoven's Cunt", Empty Walls, and Sky Is Over are available as downloadable content for Rock Band. A portion of the song "Lie Lie Lie" is currently featured in the opening title sequence of NBC's Fear Itself, a horror anthology show from the creators of Masters of Horror, and can be viewed on the show's main website.[citation needed]

More recently, he sang with Les Rita Mitsouko on the song "Terminal Beauty". Also, he sang with the band Fair to Midland during a live improvisational version of their song "Walls of Jericho", from the album Fables from a Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times Is True, which was a massive hit with fans. He often collaborates with his close friend, director Diran Noubar on various projects, including the voice-over of Noubar's Armenia, a Country Under Blockade. Noubar played some guitar on Tankian's Elect the Dead album on the track "Saving Us" and directed the music video for "Baby".

Serj Tankian performing in 2005

Tankian is also politically involved. Together with Tom Morello, he founded the organization Axis of Justice. Tankian is a New Zealand resident and has a secondary vacation dwelling there.[10] There has been a misconception that he intends to stay in New Zealand until the Iraq War is over, but as stated in an interview, Tankian has no intention of doing so. He often speaks publicly against violence and injustice in the world. Tankian released a new song "Fears" in November 2008 exclusively in support of Amnesty International's Global Write-A-Thon.[11]

On March 16, 2009, Tankian performed with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in New Zealand, an orchestral version of the album Elect the Dead. The live performance was captured in a CD/DVD titled Elect the Dead Symphony which was released on March 9, 2010.

Tankian co-wrote a musical with the American playwright Steven Sater. It is based on the Ancient Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound. It will open at the American Repertory Theater on March 14, 2011.[12][13]

In 2009, Tankian collaborated with the band Viza (previously known as Visa) for their track "Viktor".[14] Viza is signed to Tankian's Serjical Strike label.

On February 15, 2010, Serj Tankian released a new single, "The Charade". The song is available as a digital download on iTunes.

Imperfect Harmonies (2010–2012)

Tankian's second solo album was originally due in 2009. It is said to be more of a jazz and orchestral based sound. Said Tankian of the second album, "I'm structuring the next record kind of like a jazz orchestral. I've got a full orchestra interested, so I want this giant electric guitar in the air to be played by a full orchestra. I want the orchestra to be the electric guitar. I want to make an orchestra do what it's never done before, like a GG Allin type orchestra. Think of that."[15] The album had the working title Music Without Borders, however, the final album title is Imperfect Harmonies. On June 23, 2010, a promo single from his upcoming album Imperfect Harmonies was released called "Borders Are". The first radio single from Imperfect Harmonies, "Left Of Center", was released on July 13, 2010. A third single, "Disowned Inc." was released on August 9, 2010. Imperfect Harmonies was released on September 21, 2010. Preceding the album's release, two contests were announced (one consisting of brainteasers related to the album/song titles, the other an art contest) in which fans could win prizes such as Tankian's autograph and merchandise. On August 22, 2010, a music video for Left Of Center was released on Tankian's MySpace account.

The premiere date for Tankian and Sater's Prometheus Bound at the American Repertory Theater is February 25, 2011. The singer has said that collaborating on the show has been a great learning experience for him. "I’ve been using a lot of my archives, a lot of different types of music that I had already put together for underscoring and what not," he said. "It’s quite diverse, from noise to jazz to electronic stuff to hip-hop songs to rock songs to cool, piano dark underscores, and that’s a whole different bag of tricks there because it’s always evolving. Unlike a film score that’s very linear and you get a scene to score for, this is something where you do another workshop and one song is gone, that underscore changes to 20 seconds and they need something else on the spot. Everything’s always changing until the show comes, so it’s quite interesting."[16]

In January 2011 Tankian released a music video for his song Reconstructive Demonstrations from his album Imperfect Harmonies. Tankian also announced on his Facebook page, during the video's release, that a new EP entitled Imperfect Remixes would be released sometime within 2011. On February 3, Tankian uploaded a photo of him singing into a microphone onto his Facebook fan page, accompanied with the description "New music video coming soon..." On March 1, Tankian released Imperfect Remixes and the music video for Goodbye, a remix of Gate 21 from Imperfect Harmonies.

System of a Down reunion and Harakiri (2011—present)

On November 29, 2010, following several weeks of internet rumors, System of a Down officially announced that they will play shows in Europe during Festivals and in North America, mostly in US. Dates are between May and July 2011.[17] Among the announced tour dates included UK's Download Festival, Switzerland's Greenfield Festival, Germany's Rock am Ring/Rock im Park, Sweden's Metaltown, Austria's Nova Rock Festival and Finland's Provinssirock. The band gave a single concert in Olympic Sports Complex of Moscow in June 2011.[18] In their reunion statement posted on their website, the band was unclear as to the extent of their reformation. It read, "We have no master plan of sorts—we are playing these shows simply because we want to play together again as a band and for you, our amazing fans."[19] Dates have been announced in the official System of a Down website.

In early July 2011, Tankian posted a video on YouTube showing two samples of new songs. During the video he said "next year". In multiple interviews he has stated that he has been working on a rock record that will be released in 2011, and some side projects including jazz, electronic, and symphonic records. It was later confirmed that his new album would be called Harakiri and will be released on July 10, 2012. This will be the first of four new albums to be released in the near future.[20] The other three upcoming albums include a jazz album titled Jazz-Iz-Christ, an orchestral album called Orca, and Fuktronic, an electronic music collaboration with Mindless Self-Indulgence's Jimmy Urine. The first single from Harakiri, "Figure It Out", was released on May 1.[21] A music video for the song appeared on Tankian's official YouTube page. A second single from the album, "Cornucopia", was released on June 10. A third single, title track "Harakiri", was made available as a preorder bonus from Tankian's website on June 20.

Personal life

On June 9, 2012 Serj Tankian married his long-time girlfriend Angela Madatyan in a private, invite-only ceremony in Simi Valley, California. Angela was born in Vanadzor, Armenia.[22]

Animal rights

Tankian has taken a stance supporting animal rights. He also has become a vegetarian who has strong feelings against the establishment of industrial slaughterhouses. In an interview with PETA, he claimed his change was due to "touring and its variety of edible crap," and also he felt it was "instinctive somewhat." Furthermore, he also feels the need for respect towards 'mother earth'.[23]

In July 2009, Tankian signed a PETA petition against the slaughtering methods of chickens in KFC slaughterhouses.[24]

The F.C.C.

The F.C.C. (Flying Cunts of Chaos) was Tankian's backing band when he played live up until 2009.[25]

Final line-up
  • Mario Pagliarulo  – bass, vocals
  • Erwin Khachikian  – keyboards, piano, synthesizers, vocals
  • Troy Zeigler  – drums, vocals
  • Dan Monti  – guitar, vocals
  • Jeff Mallow  – guitar, vocals (2008–present)
Past members

Discography

Solo
Main article: Serj Tankian discography
Soundtracks
  • Fuktronic(with jimmy Urine) (TBA)
  • Prometheus Bound (TBA)
With System of a Down
Main article: System of a Down discography
With Serart
With Buckethead and various artists
With Tony Iommi
With Wyclef Jean
Other
  • I Am Serj (2012)
  • California Nightmare (Bruton's Burn Series) (2012)[27]

Bibliography

Awards and nominations

System of a Down has been nominated for four Grammy Awards, of which has won one in 2006 for Best Hard Rock Performance for the song B.Y.O.B.. The band has also been nominated for several Kerrang! and MTV awards.

Grammy Awards
Year Nominee / work Award Result
2002 "Chop Suey!" Best Metal Performance Nominated
2003 "Aerials" Best Hard Rock Performance Nominated
2006 "B.Y.O.B." Best Hard Rock Performance Won
2007 "Lonely Day" Best Hard Rock Performance Nominated

General

  • In 2005, System of a Down won for Best Alternative Act in the Europe Music Awards
  • In 2006, System of a Down won the "MTV Good Woodie Award" for their song "Question!"
  • In 2006, System of a Down's song "Toxicity" was #14 on the VH1 Top 40 Metal Songs List

References

  1. ^ Serj Tankian, MTV
  2. ^ "Tankian Awarded Prime Minister's Medal". asbarez.com. August 12, 2011. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  3. ^ a b c McIntosh, Gregory. "Serj Tankian". Allmusic. Retrieved May 13, 2010.
  4. ^ Myers, Ben (2007). System Of A Down: Right Here In Hollywood. Disinformation Company. p. 14. ISBN 1-932857-88-5.
  5. ^ Brennan, Carol (Notable Biographies.com). "System of a Down Biography". English. Retrieved 14 May 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Swedish MTV
  7. ^ UK MTV
  8. ^ System of a Down Frontman To Post Videos For Each Track On Forthcoming Solo Album
  9. ^ Picture of the Elect The Dead promo CD-R
  10. ^ Chris Schulz (December 17, 2008). "Serj Tankian to perform with APO". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved December 17, 2008.
  11. ^ "Music for Human Rights". Amnestyusa.org. Retrieved April 14, 2010.
  12. ^ Serj Tankian Co-Writing a Musical, Spinner, Last accessed May 22, 2008.
  13. ^ "Prometheus Bound | A.R.T." American Repertory Theater. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
  14. ^ "Serj Tankian &VISA". Retrieved December 1, 2009.
  15. ^ "Serj Tankian Talks SOAD, Next Solo Album | News @". Ultimate-guitar.com. Retrieved April 14, 2010.
  16. ^ "Serj Tankian Discusses New Directions, A.R.T. Musical, Armenian Show". Attention Deficit Delirium. Retrieved October 7, 2010.
  17. ^ Karan, Tim (November 29, 2010). "System Of A Down to reunite, headline Download Festival". Alternative Press. Retrieved November 29, 2010.
  18. ^ http://chuiko.com/entertainment/3304-system-of-a-down-will-perform-in-moscow.html
  19. ^ Sciarretto, Amy (November 29, 2010). "System of a Down Reunite to Play European Tour Dates". Noisecreep. AOL Music. Retrieved November 29, 2010.
  20. ^ http://www.serjtankian.com/news/new-record-coming
  21. ^ http://www.serjtankian.com/news/figure-it-out-single-coming-may-1st
  22. ^ http://www.armenianpulse.com/2012/06/serj-tankian-marries-long-time-girlfriend-angela-madatyan/
  23. ^ "PETA2 // Out There // Q&A with Serj Tankian of System of a Down". Peta2.com. Retrieved April 14, 2010.
  24. ^ "Serj Tankian Signs New KFC Petition!". Secure.peta.org. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
  25. ^ "Full interview with musician Serj Tankian — Nightline — Video". 3 News. Retrieved April 14, 2010.
  26. ^ http://www.serjtankian.com/content/jazz-iz-christ
  27. ^ http://www.apmmusic.com/new-releases/b/bruton/burn-series-california-nightmare
  28. ^ http://www.harpercollinscatalogs.com/harper/934_1772_333039343539.pdf

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