Serj Tankian

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Serj Tankian
Սերժ Թանգյան
Image:SerjTankian 2007.jpg
Background information
Born August 21 1967 (1967-08-21) (age 41)[1]
Origin Beirut, Lebanon[1]
Genre(s) Art rock
Alternative metal
Experimental metal
Folk rock
Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter, poet
Instrument(s) Vocals
Keyboard
Piano
Guitar
Bass guitar
Years active 1993 - present
Label(s) Serjical Strike, Reprise, American, Columbia, Axis of Justice
Associated
acts 		System of a Down
Serart
Axis of Justice
Buckethead & Friends
Website www.serjicalstrike.com

www.serjtankian.com

Members
Serj Tankian
Dan Monti
Larry "Ler" LaLonde
Mario Pagliarulo
Troy Zeigler
Erwin Khachikian

Serj Tankian (Armenian: Սերժ Թանգյան) (born August 21, 1967 in Beirut, Lebanon[1]) is a Lebanese-born Armenian-American singer, songwriter, poet, activist, and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the lead vocalist, keyboardist and rhythm guitarist of the alternative metal band System of a Down. In 2002, Serj and Tom Morello co-founded a non-profit political activist organization, Axis of Justice. During his entertainment career, he released five albums with System of a Down, one with Arto Tunçboyacıyan (Serart), and also recently a solo album, Elect the Dead, on October 23, 2007.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and career

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2007)

Serj excelled in his studies from a young age. Tankian has a degree in Marketing and Business from California State University.[2] He took singing lessons for four years and also took guitar lessons as a young child. In 1993, he founded the band Soil with Daron Malakian (not to be confused with SOiL), which later broke up, after which most of the members joined together to form System of a Down.

He has also sang 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 produced "Enter the Chicken" by Buckethead, and provided vocals to the Buckethead songs We Are One, Coma, and Waiting Here. With Serjical Strike Records, he endeavours to offer those musicians often ignored by the mainstream a possibility to release their music and be heard. The first release of Serj's new label was Serart, a project consisting of 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 very involved politically. Together with Tom Morello, he founded the organization Axis of Justice. Tankian has a secondary (vacation) home in New Zealand. 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 in doing so. Tankian often speaks publicly against violence and injustice in the world.

[edit] Elect the Dead, touring and The FCC

Serj has finished working on his first solo album Elect the Dead, which was released worldwide on October 23, 2007. Serj also supported the Foo Fighters in their 2007 Germany and UK Tour to promote their new album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace in November.[3]

Serj Tankian (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, keyboard), Dan Monti (lead guitar, backing vocals), Larry LaLonde (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Mario Pagliarulo (bass, backing vocals), Troy Zeigler (drums,backing vocals) and Erwin Khachikian (piano, backing vocals)[4] are the members of the live band, which will be known as "The FCC".[5] The name of the band actually stands for the "Flying Cunts of Chaos" (which is originally what Tankian wanted to call the album, he tells Kerrang! rock magazine in an interview [5]), rather than the Federal Communications Commission. Tankian has also stated that he will not be playing any System of a Down material on tour. In support of Elect the Dead, Tankian is playing a number of promotional dates. The tour began October 12th at Chicago’s Vic Theatre.[6]

The video for "Lie Lie Lie" debuted in the UK on Scuzz TV on the 25th November 2007.

[edit] Writings

[edit] Poetry

Tankian's first poetry book, Cool Gardens, was published by MTV Books and released on October 1st, 2002. It is a collection of seven to eight years of Tankian's reflections on life, and features artwork by fellow Armenian Sako Shahinian. The book has received much praise in the artistic community. On Rolling Stone's website, Saul Williams posted the following comments about Tankian's book:

Serj's words, like his voice, have a distinct aesthetic sensibility connected to an unyielding, visceral roar of passion. His capacity 'to mock a killing bird' while we wonder at the grace, beauty, and colorful range of his wingspan will be the trademark of both of his singing and writing careers. Serj is an amazing artist, full of passion, with a beautiful heart that pumps the essence of his vision and Big Unit.

Serj states that he might be releasing a new book of poetry down the line, but would prefer to write a novel rather than another book, even though he has volumes and volumes of more poetry that he has been keeping himself in his own personal collection.

[edit] "Understanding Oil"

Two days after the attacks on September 11, 2001, Serj Tankian posted an essay on System of a Down's official website, which seemed controversial at the time. It was promptly taken down by Sony, the band's record label. Sony's opinion was that Tankian had tried to justify the terrorist attacks and that his claims were unfounded. Others have noted that Tankian's essay, which called the 9/11 attacks "brutal", explicitly stated that the need to understand the motivations of terrorists "does not mean that we should not find the guilty party(s)..and..try them [in court]" words cited to suggest "it is impossible to say that Serj tried to justify the 9/11 attacks" [2] in his essay, which "advocated peace and the research and development of alternate fuels" and went on to say that "By initiating peace, we would have already shaken the foundations of support for Bin Laden."

Additionally Noam Chomsky and others have pointed out that virtually no one has been charged with "trying to justify terrorism" upon suggesting that it's important to understand the motivations of someone like Timothy McVeigh, and that institutions as respectable as the Vatican, in response to 9-11, "called for reliance on the [investigative and other] measures appropriate to crimes, whatever their scale: if someone robs my house and I think I know who did it, I am not entitled to go after him with an assault rifle, meanwhile killing people randomly in his neighborhood." [3] The essay can be found here.

[edit] Discography

[edit] System of a Down

Main article: System of a Down discography

[edit] Serart

[edit] Axis of Justice

[edit] Solo

[edit] Singles

Year Title Chart positions Album
US
Hot 100 		US
Mod. Rock 		US
Main. Rock 		UK UK
Rock Track 		CAN
Hot 100
2007 "The Unthinking Majority" - - - - - - Elect the Dead
"Empty Walls" 1 97 3 4 78 1 75
"Lie Lie Lie" 1 [7] - - - - - -
  • 1 Still active on charts.
  • 2 To be released.

[edit] Collaborations/soundtrack contributions

[edit] Albums

Performing and/or writing
Writing only

[edit] Live Performances

[edit] Remixes

[edit] 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".

[edit] Videography

Song name Album Director
"The Unthinking Majority" Elect the Dead (2007) Tawd b. Dorenfeld
"Empty Walls" Elect the Dead (2007) Tony Petrossian
"Saving Us" Elect the Dead (2007) Kevin Estrada
"Feed Us" Elect the Dead (2007) Sevag Vrej
"Lie Lie Lie" Elect the Dead (2007) Martha Colburn
"Honking Antelope" Elect the Dead (2007) Roger Kupelian
"Elect the Dead" Elect the Dead (2007) Gariné Torossian
"Baby" Elect the Dead (2007) Isaac Flores
"Sky is Over" Elect the Dead (2007) José Rivera
"Beethoven's Cunt" Elect the Dead (2007) Adam Egypt Mortimer
"Money" Elect the Dead (2007) Ara Soudjian
"Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" Elect the Dead (2007) Greg Watermann

[edit] Equipment

  • Fender Stratocaster
  • Various Marshall 1/2 stacks
  • Gibson SG
  • Gibson Les Paul
  • Gibson Flying V
  • Roland VS-1680
  • BOSS DR-202 Dr. Groove
  • Ibanez Grg170dx
  • BOSS GT-5 Guitar Effects Processor
  • BOSS DS-1 Distortion
  • BOSS CH-1 Super Chorus[citation needed]
  • Korg Triton
  • Custom First Act Double Cutaway Lola
  • Roland SH-101

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Serj Tankian, MTV
  2. ^ http://www.stereosubversion.com/album-reviews/serj-tankian-elect-the-dead/
  3. ^ http://soadfans.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-19598-postdays-0-postorder-asc.htm
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ a b http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=81231
  6. ^ http://www.serjicalstrike.com/site/news_view.php?id=45
  7. ^ SERJ TANKIAN - Lie Lie Lie - VERY RARE CD SINGLE - (eBay item 270195299134 end time Dec-16-07 12:23:49 PST)
  8. ^ Two Hard Rockin' Compilation CDs Set for Release This Fall. NY Rock. Last accessed November 04, 2007.
  9. ^ Serj To Appear On New Praxis Album, by "pwned", SOADFans.com, 8 March, 2007
  10. ^ Diddy Joins Ecko in Getting Up. IGN. Last accessed November 09, 2007.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Serj Tankian
The FCCSerj Tankian · Dan Monti · Larry "Ler" LaLonde · Mario Pagliarulo · Troy Zeigler · Erwin Khachirian
Notable GuestsBrain · John Dolmayan · Diran Noubar · Ani Maldjian · Cameron Stone · Antonio Pontarelli · Fabrice Favre
AlbumsElect the Dead
Singles"The Unthinking Majority" · "Empty Walls" · "Lie Lie Lie"
Related articlesAxis of Justice · Cool Gardens · Screamers
Bands: System of a Down · Serart · Buckethead & Friends
Labels: Serjical Strike Records · Reprise Records
v • d • e
System of a Down
John Dolmayan · Daron Malakian · Shavo Odadjian · Serj Tankian
Andy Khachaturian
AlbumsSystem of a Down · Toxicity · Steal This Album! · Mezmerize · Hypnotize
EPsSugar · Limited Edition Tour CD · Lonely Day
Singles"Sugar" · "Spiders" · "Johnny" · "Chop Suey!" · "Toxicity" · "Aerials" · "Innervision" · "B.Y.O.B." · "Question!" · "Violent Pornography" · "Hypnotize" · "Lonely Day" · "Kill Rock 'N Roll" "Vicinity of Obscenity"
Related articlesDiscography · The String Quartet Tribute to System of a Down's Mezmerize · The String Quartet Tribute to System of a Down's Hypnotize · Axis of Justice · Elect the Dead · Cool Gardens · Vartan Malakian · Screamers · System of a Down songs
Bands: Scars on Broadway · Achozen · Serart · Buckethead & Friends
Labels: American Recordings · Columbia Records · Serjical Strike Records · EatUrMusic
v • d • e
Serart
Serj Tankian · Arto Tunçboyacıyan
AlbumsSerart
EPsSerart (Sampler)
Related articlesAxis of Justice · Elect the Dead · Cool Gardens · Screamers
Bands: System of a Down · Buckethead & Friends · Soil · Armenian Navy Band · Night Ark
Labels: Serjical Strike Records · Columbia Records
v • d • e
Axis of Justice
Serj Tankian · Tom Morello (The Nightwatchman)
Notable GuestsFlea · Brad Wilk · Pete Yorn · Tim Walker · Maynard James Keenan · Jonny Polonsky · Chris Cornell · Simon Petty · Malcolm Cross · Sid Jordan · Joe Mora · Wayne Kramer · John Dolmayan · Jurassic 5 · Knowledge · Brian O'Connor · Ahmed Ahmed · Boots Riley
AlbumsConcert Series Volume 1
Related articlesElect the Dead · Cool Gardens · Screamers · One Man Revolution
Bands: System of a Down · Serj Tankian and The FCC · Serart · Buckethead & Friends · Soil · Rage Against the Machine · Audioslave
Labels: Columbia Records · Serjical Strike Records · Axis of Justice
ar:سيرج تانكيان

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