Serj Tankian

Serj Tankian (born August 21, 1967) is a Lebanese-American singer, songwriter, poet, activist, and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the lead vocalist, keyboardist, and occasionally live rhythm guitarist of the Grammy Award-winning rock band System of a Down. In 2002, Tankian and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello co-founded a non-profit political activist organization, Axis of Justice. During his musical career, he has released five albums with System of a Down, one with Arto Tunçboyacıyan (Serart), as well as debut solo album Elect the Dead. He was named the 26th-greatest heavy metal vocalist of all time by Hit Parader magazine.

Early life and career

Tankian was born on August 21, 1967, in Beirut, Lebanon. He and his family emigrated to Los Angeles in 1975. Although Tankian disliked school, he nonetheless maintained a 4.0 grade average. When Tankian got older he started his own software company before beginning his music career; he began performing music in 1992.

Soil and System of a Down

Daron Malakian met Serj Tankian in 1992, 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 (Serj on vocals/keyboards and Daron on guitar ; not to be confused with the Chicago band Soil) with Domingo Laranio (drums) and Dave Hakopyan (bass). Around this time, they also met Shavo Odadjian. The next year, in 1994, after one supposed jam session recording and one live show, Dave and Domingo left, thinking the band wasn't going anywhere.

The band later broke up and Tankian and Malakian formed a new band "System of a Down," based on a poem that Daron wrote entitled "Victims of the Down". 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. Odadjian was the band's original manager and promoter, but joined as the bassist, and managerial duties were taken over by the Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group and founder David "Beno" Benveniste. Daron then asked his friend Ontronik "Andy" Khachaturian (who had played in his first band with Daron at age 15) to join the band as the drummer. Andy was later replaced by their current drummer, John Dolmayan, due to a hand injury.

Other works

During System of a Down's days, Tankian was the vocalist in other bands for certain songs such as Mushroom Cult by Dog Fashion Disco and lent his vocals to the song Mein by Deftones. He also sang backup vocals on a song for Hed PE called "Feel Good". He produced "Enter the Chicken" by Buckethead, and provided vocals to the Buckethead songs We Are One, Coma, and Waiting Hare. With Serjical Strike Records, he endeavors to offer those musicians often ignored by the mainstream a possibility to release their music and be heard. The first release of Tankian's new label was Serart, an album by Tankian himself, and Arto Tunçboyacıyan, an Armenian friend of Tankian's.

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 as well 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".

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. 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 is at work on a second album, due in 2009. It is said to be more of a jazz and orchestral based sound. A new song, "Sounds of War", has shown up in recent concert setlists, it has a jazz fusion style, it is unknown if it will be on the second record. 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." Tankian released a new song "Fears" in November 2008 exclusively in support of Amnesty International's Global Write-A-Thon

Tankian told The Pulse of Radio that the highlights of his last eight months on the road may soon be documented in a DVD featuring videos, live performances and behind-the-scenes footage. Serj is also set to release a DVD of his recent performance with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. Whether these are two separate DVDs is unknown. Although the live DVD with the APO is said to be released later in 2009.

Tankian is currently co-writing a musical with the American playwright Steven Sater. It is based on the Ancient Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound. He stated that eight songs have been completed and that there will be a record.