Serj Tankian
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Serj Tankian ( Armenian Սերժ Թանգյան [ˈsɛɾʒ tʰɑnˈkʰjɑn]; born August 21, 1967 in Beirut , Lebanon ) is an Armenian - American singer and composer. He became known as the singer of the metal band System of a Down .
Career
1967-2005
Serj Tankian was born in Beirut , Lebanon in 1967 . When he was five years old, he and his family moved to Los Angeles, USA. After leaving school, he studied marketing . In 1993 he founded the band Soil together with Daron Malakian (not to be confused with the band SOiL ), which later became System of a Down. He took singing lessons for four years. Tankian is not only a member of the band System of a Down, but also has his own record company. With Serjical Strike Records he offers musicians who are ignored by the mainstream an opportunity to publish their music. The first release of the new label was Serart , a project consisting of Tankian himself and Arto Tunçboyacıyan , an Armenian friend of Tankian's.
Tankian is also politically active. Together with Tom Morello he founded the organization Axis of Justice , with which he also released a live CD and DVD in 2004 with the title Concert Series Vol. 1 . Tankian speaks out openly against violence and injustice in the world. Tankian is particularly committed to the recognition of the Armenian genocide . On this subject Tankian produced the film Screamers , which contains images and information about the genocide.
On September 13, 2001, shortly after the 9/11 attacks , Tankian wrote an essay entitled "Understanding Oil". Sony immediately removed it from the System of a Down website, as critics saw a justification for the terrorists' actions. Tankian, however, wanted to use the article to advocate peace, research and the development of alternative fuels.
"[...] my belief is that the terror will multiply if concrete steps are not taken to sponsor peace in the middle east, NOW. This does not mean that we should not find the guilty party (s), Bin Laden, or whoever they may be, and not try them. Put simply, as long as a major injustice remains, violence precipitates to the surface of life. "
“[...] I believe that the terror will spread unless concrete steps are taken to promote peace in the Middle East, NOW. This does not mean that the guilty party, be it bin Laden or whoever, cannot be found and condemned. Put simply: As long as there is a great injustice, it will manifest itself as violence. "
Tom Morello and Tankian jointly host the radio program Axis of Justice , where they conduct interviews with well-known American leftists such as Michael Moore , Noam Chomsky and death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal and discuss topics such as racism in America, censorship and the Iraq war.
In 2005 Serjical Strike signed experimental guitarist Buckethead , and in October the album Enter the Chicken was released with three vocal contributions from Tankian, including the single We Are One . In the following years Tankian appeared occasionally with Buckethead.
Since 2006
On October 23, 2007 his solo album Elect the Dead was released in the USA. In Germany and in some EU countries the CD was released on October 19th. Music videos were made for all twelve songs on this album.
On January 1, 2008, the album Profanation (Preparation for a Coming Darkness) by the band Praxis led by Bill Laswell and Buckethead was released in Japan , for which Tankian sang the title Sulfur & Cheese .
A few weeks later, on July 1, 2008, Serj Tankian released the EP Lie Lie Live , which contains live recordings and remixes of some songs from Elect the Dead . The five titles on Lie Lie Live are only distributed via the Internet.
On September 26, 2008 he released the second The Nightwatchman album The Fabled City with Tom Morello . Serj wrote the lyrics for the song Lazarus on Down , which he sings in a duet with Morello. During this period, the film was Body of Lies published for Tankian along with Mike Patton song Birds Eye einsang.
Towards the end of 2008, Serj Tankian contributed the song Fears to the Amnesty International Global Write A-Thon , and Tankian had already spoken to activists of the organization on his radio program Axis of Justice .
On March 16, 2009 Tankian played his album Elect the Dead in Auckland with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and the composer John Psathas, on which the orchestra played almost exclusively and Tankian's voice could be heard. This gig was originally supposed to be released on DVD and CD in late summer 2009, but the live album was finally released on March 12, 2010 in Germany.
In 2010, Tankians ' second solo album, Imperfect Harmonies , was released, which had the original working title Music Without Borders . One of Tankian's future projects is to work on the musical Der gefesselte Prometheus .
In 2011 he performed again with System of a Down at the twin festival Rock am Ring / Rock im Park in Germany and Austria at Nova Rock .
After it became rather quiet about Tankian, he announced a new album, Harakiri , on his website in early April 2012 , which was released in July 2012. The first single, Figure it Out , was released on May 1, 2012 .
In the last few years he wrote his first symphony ORCA .
"Orca is known as the killer whale, but is really a dark dolphin, a symbolism for human dichotomy."
"An orca, also known as a killer whale, is actually a dark dolphin, a symbol of the human dichotomy"
The symphony has four acts and is a mix of classical music from the 20th century. and modern film music. On October 28, 2012, ORCA was performed live in the Brucknerhaus in Linz. It went on sale as a live recording on June 25, 2013. In addition, Tankian will release the jazz album "Jazz-iz Christ" on July 23, 2013 via his Serjical Strike Records label .
In 2017 Tankian performed again with System of a Down at Nova Rock in Austria and at the twin festival Rock am Ring / Rock im Park in Germany. There he sang the song Like a Stone with the band Prophets of Rage in memory of Soundgarden front man Chris Cornell , who had committed suicide on May 18, 2017.
On the soundtrack of the eighth season of Game of Thrones , he sings the song "The Rains of Castamere" composed by Ramin Djawadi .
Private life
Very little is known about Tankian's personal life. On June 9, 2012, Tankian married longtime girlfriend Angela Madatyan in a private ceremony in Simi Valley, California. On October 24, 2014, Tankian announced that he and his wife had had their first child, a son named Rumi. You live in New Zealand and live there in Warkworth. He enjoys writing and reading poetry, especially by Shakespeare , TS Eliot and Edgar Allan Poe . In addition, he has published the volume of poetry Cool Gardens , in which he brought influences from his favorite poems. Tankian also deals with socially and world-critical issues in his book.
Discography
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Albums
with System of a Down
- 1998: System of a Down
- 2001: Toxicity
- 2002: Steal This Album!
- 2005: Mezmerize
- 2005: Hypnotize
with Arto Tunçboyacıyan
- 2003: Serart
solo
- 2007: Elect the Dead
- 2010: Elect the Dead Symphony (CD + DVD)
- 2010: Imperfect Harmonies
- 2012: Harakiri
- 2013: Orca
- 2013: Jazz-Iz-Christ
Singles
- 2007: The Unthinking Majority
- 2007: Empty Walls
- 2007: Lie Lie Lie
- 2008: Sky Is Over
- 2010: Left of Center
- 2012: Figure It Out
Guest appearances
- 2000: (hed) pe - Feel Good
- 2000: Tony Iommi - Iommi
- 2004: Axis of Justice - Concert Series Vol. 1
- 2005: Buckethead & Friends - Enter the Chicken
- 2006: Deftones - Mine
- 2007: Foo Fighters feat. Serj Tankian - "Holiday in Cambodia"
- 2007: Riot with Wyclef Jean and Sizzla on the album Carnival Vol. II: Memoirs of an Immigrant
- 2008: Praxis - Album Profanation (Preparation for a Coming Darkness)
- 2008: The Nightwatchman - album The Fabled City
- 2008: Birds's Eye (with Mike Patton) in The Man Who Never Lived
- 2010: Viza - album Made in Chernobyl in the song Viktor
- 2013: Device - Device in the song Out of Line
- 2013: Tech N9ne - album "Something Else" in the song "Straight Out The Gate"
- 2014: Benny Benassi feat. Serj Tankian - Shooting Helicopters
- 2019: Game of Thrones soundtrack ( season 8 ): "The Rains of Castamere" (together with Ramin Djawadi )
Instruments
Tankian plays keyboard , piano , guitar , bass and created the drum parts on the computer for some songs .
Books
- Serj Tankian: Cool Gardens. MTV Books, New York 2002, ISBN 0-7434-5741-2 .
- Serj Tankian: Glaring Through Oblivion. It Books, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-06-201205-0 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ mtv.com: Serj Tankian (English)
- ↑ "Understanding Oil" (English)
- ↑ rollingstone.com: Serj Tankian: “We Haven't Decided If the Future Contains System or Not”. Accessed January 2, 2010. (English)
- ↑ musicforhumanrights.com: Global Write-A-Thon ( Memento from February 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved on December 2, 2015. (English)
- ↑ message when my-artist.net accessed on 6 July 2009
- ↑ Serj Tankian and the APO - Empty Walls teaser youtube.com, September 24, 2009. Accessed October 1, 2009 (video)
- ↑ metal-hammer.de: Serj Tankian releases an orchestral album January 16, 2010, accessed on December 2, 2015. (English)
- ↑ laut.de: Serj Tankian: Own plans instead of SOAD comeback January 26, 2010. Retrieved January 26, 2010.
- ↑ spinner.com: Serj Tankian Co-Writing a Musical ( Memento from May 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved on January 2, 2010. (English)
- ↑ Announcement on Serj Tankian's website ( memento of the original from May 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Message on the Tankians website ( Memento of the original from May 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from November 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from November 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian will release two solo albums this summer via his own Serjical Strike Records. Orca, his "first true symphony," will be released on June 25th, and his collaborative jazz-infused album, Jazz-iz Christ, will be released on July 23th. ( Memento of October 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) of April 30, 2013
- ↑ a b Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US1 US2
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Official website (German)
- Serj Tankian at Discogs (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Tankian, Serj |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Սերժ Թանգյան (hyS) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Armenian-American metal singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 21, 1967 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Beirut , Lebanon |