Serj Tankian

At 56 years old, Serj Tankian has this physical status:

Serj Tankian (born August 21, 1967) is an Armenian-American musician, singer, writer, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, poet, and political activist.

Tankian is best known as the lead singer, songwriter, keyboardist, and occasional live rhythm guitarist of the band System of a Down, as well as five solo albums Elect the Dead, Imperfect Harmonies, Harakiri, Orca, and Jazz-Iz-Christ.

Elect the Dead Symphony, which includes the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, was released as a live orchestral version of Elect the Dead Symphony.

Tankian and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello co-founded Axis of Justice in 2002.

Tankian also founded Serjical Strike Records, and Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group represents him under the Head of a Down.

Tankian was named as one of the top vocalists in metal history on August 12, 2011.

Serj Tankian is currently ranked as one of the Top 100 Heavy Metal Vocalists by Hit Parader, ranked at number 26.

Tankian was discovered to have a moderately vocal range not only in metal but also in most popular music, with a range of 4.2 octaves, according to a study by VVN Music.

This range is similar to Rob Halford, Elvis Presley, Freddie Mercury, Hansi Kürsch, Chris Cornell, and Steven Tyler (three octaves plus one note).

Early life

Tankian was born in Beirut, Lebanon, on August 21, 1967. He traces his ancestry to the cities of Dörtyol, Kayseri, Tokat, and Urfa, all of which are located in modern-day Turkey. His four grandparents were survivors of the Armenian genocide. He and his parents immigrated to the United States at age seven, and the family settled in Los Angeles. He attended the bilingual Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School, which was also attended by his future System of a Down bandmates Daron Malakian and Shavo Odadjian. Tankian was accepted into California State University, Northridge, and earned a marketing degree in 1989. He first began to play guitar, particularly the keyboard, and write songs in his sophomore year. He also started protesting during his college years, attempting to raise the flag of the Armenian genocide during his time as president of the university's Armenian Students Association. He has said that his activism began with the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) and the Shant Student Association of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF).

Personal life

Tankian married Angela Madatyan, an Armenian woman from Vanadzor, in a private ceremony in Simi Valley, California, on June 9, 2012. Rumi's uncle was born on October 24, 2014. As of 2015, the family migrates between Warkworth, New Zealand, and Los Angeles. Tankian is the brother-in-law of his System, as their respective spouses are sisters.

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Career

System of a Down is based on a trio formed in Chicago named Soil (not to be confused with the Chicago-based band SOiL) with Tankian on vocals & lead guitar, Dave Hakopyan on bass, and Domingo Laranio on drums. Shavo Odadjian was initially hired as the band's manager before he was expected to advance to their rhythm guitarist. The band was left feeling that it was not going to go anywhere, which resulted in the Soil splitting up.

After the split, Tankian, Odadjian, and Malakian developed System of a Down, a mark named after a poem written by Malakian called Victims of a Down. Ontronik "Andy" Khachaturian, a former Malakian school friend, and Odadjian who had performed with Malakian in a band called Snowblind during their teens, was recruited by the band. Khachaturian left the band in mid-1997 due to a hand injury (he later co-founded The Apex Theory, which also included former Soil bassist Dave Hakopyan). Khachaturian was replaced by John Dolmayan. Dolmayan is also the drummer for the band Indicator and a former drummer for Scars on Broadway.

The band began touring Southern California rock clubs, amassing a large fan base.

The band's five studio albums debuted on the Billboard 200, three of which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Down's System of a Down has been nominated for four Grammy Awards, as has their song "B.Y.O.B." The Best Hard Rock Performance of 2006 was named.

The band announced that they were going on hiatus in May 2006.

System of a Down announced that they would perform shows in Europe during Festivals and North America, mainly in the United States, on November 29, 2010.

When they released "Protect the Land" and "Genocidal Humanoidz," two songs that were designed to support the cause of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, the band was in a limbo not to announce any new tracks until November 2020. The Armenia Fund received the song's proceeds, which went to the Armenia Fund.

Tankian's breakthrough as a solo artist came with the release of his debut album Elect the Dead. "The Unthinking Majority" and "Empty Walls" are two of Elect the Dead's first singles. On Swedish and UK MTV, the music video "Feed Us" was released. Tankian appeared on MTV's You Rock the Dead to support Elect the Dead. For every song on the album, a music video was produced and filmed, each by unique producers. "I asked each of the directors for their artistic interpretation of my work," Tankian explained. They were told not to write prescriptions and that they could make whatever they liked. The findings have been overwhelmingly positive." Some music videos were first posted on Tankian's website and YouTube channel, but most of the music videos, except "Money," were not released on Tankian's website and YouTube channel. Some videos have alternative versions that were originally released as well, but they were later modified.

The album's three original promo versions have appeared on the public. The instrumental promotional version, which was released by Serjical Strike/Reprise Records and aimed at the music and film industries, features instrumental interpretations of the twelve album tracks. The album's final master form is included in a second promotional version, which was only for individual reviewers and released by Reprise Records and only for individual reviewers. This promotional CD-R, which was branded "Smart Talk" as a codename for "Serj Tankian," could also help prevent illicit leakage by unlawful parties. (2007-08-20). The final versions of the songs were released before this one, but not yet mastered. Whilst the printed track list on this version is identical to the one on the album, tracks ten and eleven are actually juxtaposed on the promo itself.

On October 12, 2007, Elect the Dead's official tour began in Chicago, with a performance at the Vic Theatre in Chicago. About one thousand people attended the first concert. Though Tankian had said he would not be performing any material by a Downswitch, he performed "Charades" and "Blue," two songs co-written by Daron Malakian, the band's guitarist. "Blue" appeared on their fourth Demo Tape in 1998, and Charades was attempted during the 2005 Mezmerize/Hypnotize sessions, but no one was ever released (although a short video clip of Tankian and Dolmayan performing the song in a recording studio was included on "the Making of Mezmerize/Hypnotize" (electr. Tankian used his backing band, the Flying Cunts of Chaos, originally restricted to piano and vocals, to create his backing band, the Flying Cunts of Chaos (F.C.C.). (They will have guitars, drums, and bass. As downloadable content for the Rock Band video game "Beethoven's Cunt," "Empty Walls," and "Sky Is Over," are available. In the opening title sequence of NBC's Fear Itself, a horror anthology program from the creators of Masters of Horror, a portion of the song "Lie Lie Lie" is now available.

On the song "Terminal Beauty," Tankian performed with Les Rita Mitsouko. In addition, he performed with Fair to Midland during a live improvisational version of their song "Alls of Jericho," from Mayfly's album Fables From a Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times Is True, which was a huge hit with fans.

Tankian is also politically involved. He founded Axis of Justice with Tom Morello and often speaks out against violence and injustice around the world. Tankian released a new song named "Fears" in November 2008 exclusively in favor of Amnesty International's Global Write-A-Thon.

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

Tankian formed "Viktor" in 2009 with the band Viza (previously known as Visa). Viza is also signed to Tankian's Serjical Strike brand.

Said Tankian said of the second album:

The album had the working title of Music Without Borders, but Imperfect Harmonies was the album's final album name. "Borders Are" was a promotional single from his forthcoming album Imperfect Harmonies' on June 23, 2010. "Left of Center," Imperfect Harmonies' first radio single, was released on July 13, 2010. On August 9, 2010, "Disowned Inc.," a third single, was released. Imperfect Harmonies was first introduced on September 21, 2010. Two competitions were announced (one consisting of brainteasers related to the album/song titles, the other an art competition) in which fans could win prizes such as Tankian's autograph and merchandise prior to the album's debut. On Tankian's MySpace account, a music video for "Left o Center" was released on August 22, 2010.

Protestheus Bound, a tankian and Sater's Prosecutors, premiered at the American Repertory Theater on February 25, 2011. Tankian said that being involved on the show has been a learning opportunity for him. "I've been playing a lot of my archives, a number of genres of music that I've already put together for underscoring and what not," he said. "It's a whole different bag of tricks here, from noise to jazz to electronics, from hip-hop to rock songs to cool, piano dark underscores." This is something where you do another workshop and one song is gone, but they do need something else on the spot, unlike a film score that is linear and requires you to score for a scene. Everything's still changing until the show comes, so it's very interesting."

Tankian's album "Reconstructive Demonstrations" debuted in January 2011. Tankian also revealed on his Facebook page, during the video's announcement, that a new EP called Imperfect Remixes will be released sometime in 2011. Tankian's Imperfect Remixes and the music video for "Goodbye," a tribute to Imperfect Harmonies' "Gate 21" was released on March 1.

Tankian co-wrote a musical with American playwright Steven Sater. It is based on the Ancient Greek tragedy Prosophoheus Bound. On March 14, 2011, it opened at the American Repertory Theater.

Tankian released a video on YouTube in early July 2011 showcasing two samples of new songs. "next year," he said on the video. In several interviews, he has said that he has been working on a rock record that will be out in 2011, as well as several other side projects, including jazz, electro, and symphonic music. Harakiri's third album, according to the magazine, will be released on July 10, 2012. He wanted this to be the first of four new albums in 2012, but he delayed it. "Figure It Out," Harakiri's first single, was released on May 1. On Tankian's official YouTube page, there was a music video for the song. "Cornucopia," the album's second single, was released on June 10. On June 20, Tankian's website announced a third single, title track, "Harakiri," as a preorder reward.

Tankian travelled to Armenia on August 12, 2011, where he was honoured by then-Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, who gave him the Commemorative Medal for his "contribution to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the field of music." Tankian said he would return and put on a concert to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, which he did on April 24, 2015, while playing for free in Yerevan's Republic Square for more than two hours.

Orca Symphony No. 4, his fourth studio album, has been released. On June 25, 2013, the first one on the planet. The album is reminiscent of a classical symphony. On November 30, 2012, a professionally sampled studio version was released, but Serjical Strike Records' live recording version was released on June 25, 2013.

Serjical Strike Records' fifth studio album Jazz-Iz-Christ was released on July 23, 2013. Tankian's vocals appear on only four of the 15 songs; the rest are instrumental, except for "End of Time," which features a female vocalist. He collaborated with Italian DJ Benny Benassi on the single "Shooting Helicopters" in 2014.

Tankian joined Device, a project led by Disturbed frontman David Draiman, on April 9, 2013. On Device's self-titled album, he appeared on "Out of Line" for the first time. Tankian appeared on the Tech N9ne album Something Else in 2013 on the track "Straight Out the Gate."

On March 25, 2017, he was a surprise guest performer for the Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience in Los Angeles, singing "The Rains of Castamere." The song's adaptation made it to the soundtrack for Game of Thrones' eighth season in 2019.

During System of a Down's European tour, he appeared on several shows of the Prophets of Rage, including "Like a Stone" in honor of his friend, Audioslave's Chris Cornell.

Woah Dad, a Swedish independent label, founded in November 2017. Tankian's records were purchased for Reprise Records.

Tankian produced music for I Am Not Alone, a 2019 documentary film about the 2018 Armenian revolution. He was also an executive producer of the film.

After the pair posted a sample on SoundCloud, Fuktronic, an electronic music collaboration with Mindless Self Indulgence's Jimmy Urine, was released in May 2020. Fuktronic is referred to as "the team of Serj Tankian and Jimmy Urine of Mindless Self Indulgence," who are composing a soundtrack for the ultimate British Gangster Film. It's an electronic album with 12 tracks (4 instrumental and 8 tracks) that have original scripted dialogue that depicts the trials and tribulations of a new out of prison British gangster who hasn't learned his lessons."

On March 19, 2021, Tankian's first EP, Elasticity, was released. On February 5, 2021, he announced the debut of his EP and released the title track "Elasticity" as well as a music video accompanying it. Tankian said in his tweet that "I was considering doing another record with the guys from System of a Down a few years ago, I began focusing on a series of songs that I arranged in a rock style for the occasion." Since we weren't able to see eye to eye on the vision going forward with a SOAD album, I decided to release these songs under moniker." The EP includes songs such as "Electric Yerevan," a poetic song about Tankian's son, and "Your Mother," which has been described as a "political mash-up."

On October 21, 2022, Tankian's second EP, Perplex Cities, was released.

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