MUSIC HISTORY 101 AUGUST 21, 1967 - Born on this day in Beirut, Lebanon: System of a Down singer/songwriter/composer/multi-instrumentalist/producer/poet SERJ TANKIAN Tankian was born to Armenian parents in Beiru. At age five, he moved with his parents to Los Angeles, California where, in his youth he attended bilingual Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School, which was also attended by Tankians future System of a Down bandmates Daron Malakian and Shavo Odadjian. Tankian was accepted into California State University, Northridge where he started his own software company and first began to play instruments and write songs. The early beginnings of System of a Down lie in a band named Soil (not to be confused with the Chicago-based band SOiL) with Tankian on vocals & keyboards, Daron Malakian on vocals & lead guitar, Dave Hakopyan on bass and Domingo Laranio on drums. The band hired Shavo Odadjian as their then-manager but for him to later join as rhythm guitarist. Laranio and Hakopyan later left the band feeling that it was not going anywhere, leading to Soil splitting up. After Soil split up, Tankian, Odadjian and Malakian formed a new band they called System of a Down, after a poem Malakian wrote called Victims of a Down. Their original drummer was Ontronik Khachaturian, with whom they had spent time playing with in Soil, though he was later replaced by John Dolmayan after breaking his hand shortly before a gig the band had been booked to play, giving Dolmayan the last-minute call up. The band quickly began touring the Southern California rock clubs, and began to attract a strong following. In 1998, System of a Down signed on to Rick Rubins American imprint, and over the following seven years released five well-received albums, the second of which, Toxicity, thrust them into the forefront of the metal community, garnered a Grammy nomination, and sold millions of copies. Tankian utilized his success to influence the political world he often commented on lyrically by co-founding a nonprofit organization called Axis of Justice with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello. He remained active with System of a Down throughout the mid-2000s and also released a book of poetry, titled Cool Gardens, before SOAD chose, in May 2006, to go on hiatus of an undetermined length. Tankian made use of this sabbatical to record his first solo album, Elect the Dead, which was released in fall 2007. Three years later, Tankian teamed up with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra to release Elect the Dead Symphony, featuring songs from his solo debut backed by a live orchestra. Tankians second solo album, Imperfect Harmonies, continued in the orchestral footsteps of his symphonically re-imagined debut. His third album, the more rock-oriented Harakiri, arrived in 2012. 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. 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 released a new song Fears in November 2008 exclusively in support of Amnesty Internationals Global Write-A-Thon. Tankian also founded the music label Serjical Strike Records, and is represented by Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group under System of a Down. On August 12, 2011, he was awarded the Armenian Prime Ministers Medal for his contributions to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the advancement of music. READ MORE: serjtankian/ systemofadown/ allmusic/artist/system-of-a-down-mn0000005501/biography https://facebook/SerjTankian https://twitter/serjtankian https://twitter/systemofadown
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 22:37:10 +0000
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