Let’s Hear About Serj Tankian
It’s about time we did a blog on Serj Tankian, the amazing and extremely talented frontman from System of a Down and currently working on solo projects.
He was born in August, 1967 in Beirut, Lebanon. His family emigrated to to Los Angeles, USA when he was 8 years old. He is an incredibly talented and clever man, earning a degree in Business and Marketing and then starting his own company in the software industry before he embarked on his music career.
Serj met Daron Malakian back in 1993 when they were in different bands using the same rehearsal studio. Serj was playing keyboard at the time and Daron was lead vocalist. They formed their own band called Soil with Serj on vocals and keyboards and Daron on guitar. When Soil broke up, Serj and Daron formed System of a Down, which was actually named from a poem that Daron had previously written titled “Victims of the Down” and the rest, as they say, is history. The band are all working on solo projects at the moment but haven’t ruled out a reunion at some point.
When the band were still together, Serj recorded vocals for other bands such as Deftones, Buckethead and Dog Fashion Disco. He started System so he could put across his political views but felt he wasn’t being heard and not getting the right message across. His solo career has been far more political with his views on President George Bush and the war in Iraq being sounded.
Currently, he is working on his second Album which is due to be released in 2009 and also co-writing a musical with Steven Sater, said to be based on Prometheus Bound, the ancient Greek tragedy. He has stated that eight of the songs have already been completed and there will be a record released from it.
For the last eight months, he has been on the road and has talked about releasing a DVD of his experiences.
We know this for sure, we have not seen or heard the last from Serj Tankian and I am sure we can expect more great things from him. You can keep up to date by checking out the official webiste.
To keep us going, here’s my favourite song and video from his solo career so far, Empty Walls.