Overview (2)

Mini Bio (1)

Serj Tankian was born on August 21, 1967 in Beirut, Lebanon. He has been married to Angela Madatyan since June 10, 2012. They have one child.



Spouse (1)

Angela Madatyan (10 June 2012 - present) ( 1 child)

Trade Mark (1)

Vandyke looking beard



Trivia (6)



Was a CEO for a computer software company before joining System of a Down

Serj has also sung 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.



Serj owns his own record label which is called 'Serjical Strike Records'.



He wrote the lyrics and music for the System of a Down song 'Shimmy'.



System of a Down went on hiatus in 2006, but are back together and will tour next year. [November 2010]



Personal Quotes (35)

Awareness in our society has flipped all types of injustice on its head.



Civilization is a failure. We need to think what we can do together in love and peace.



Pretending that we live doesn't make us alive.



We first fought... in the name of religion, then Communism, and now in the name of drugs and terrorism. Our excuses for global domination always change.



People think our music's very aggressive or angry or whatever, and it's just the opposite, really... I like laughing. And I like being really calm before a show, and smiley.



I believe very firmly that indigenous populations had a really good, intuitive understanding of why we're here. And we're trying to gain that same understanding through psychology and intellect in modern civilization.



As an artist, you never want to write the same song again, you always want to challenge yourself to writing in a different way.



As long as people are living their truth or their vision, whether they're activists or not, that's the important thing.



I hate injustice, and I can't help but speak against it. But I don't want to get involved in politics.



I think every artist should follow their vision, their hearts is what they need to reveal, not something that society is looking out for.



I'd rather let the music speak for itself.



The percentage of Americans in the prison system, has doubled since 1985.



I think anytime that you go to the extreme of any mode of economics, be it capitalism or communism, you have these feedback mechanisms that make the system turn in on itself.



We first fought the heathens in the name of religion, then Communism, and now in the name of drugs and terrorism. Our excuses for global domination always change.



You listen to Bob Dylan and you can't help but think of the 60s, it's very relational and if artists are true artists and not just mere musicians they need to be truthful because the music doesn't come from them it comes from the universe and it's to be shared. At best, we're skilled presenters, and I say that at best.



Capitalism unchecked is not a democratic system.



I have a more direct avenue to expression as an artist than I ever would as a politician.



I like African music, and I'm a huge Ravi Shankar fan.



I'm a huge Beatles fan, but I've only really gotten into them as an adult.



I've always tried to listen to a lot of different music from around the world.



In the last few years I've been listening to jazz more than anything else. I listen to a lot of world music and experimental here and there.



It's probably a combination of personal and non-personal matters that have led us to where we are musically.



People always ask me 'do you think there should be more bands doing political music?' and I say 'absolutely not.'



Sometimes a good love song can change the world and create positive energy more than any political song can.



Sometimes it's better to have a benign dictator than a dumb democracy, to be honest.



The most important thing about music that I've learned after all this time is that to me, it's a way of reaching the truth.



Composing is what I love most from what I do. Each genre has a unique expression that you cannot supplant with another. All the records co-inspire each other though they are not tied conceptually in any way to another.





Harout Pamboukjian is one of the biggest Armenian folk singers in the world. In the '70s, he was making these records that were really Zeppelin-influenced.

I'm not comfortable with just entertaining. Although I like entertaining, I also like bringing forward the truth of our times as minstrels used to in the old days.



I've got my own studio, and I've got four- to five-hundred unreleased tracks. I've got stuff that's electronic, orchestral, jazz, I've got rock, I've got metal, you know, I don't have polka.



If you allow for a purely capitalistic society, without any type of regulation at all, you will get one monopoly that will eat all of the smaller fish and own everything, and then you'll have zero capitalism, zero competition - it would just be one giant company.



People get so attached to a position which they identify themselves with that they just spurt it out, but they can't really give you a viable reason why they feel that way.



The best way to do that is to pick up a new instrument or an instrument that you don't typically write on and see where it takes you. Whether it's using an acoustic guitar, or piano, or electronics as tools, all of these lead to creating different types of songs and I used all of these methods for this record.



When I was younger, I was listening to a lot of Armenian music, you know, revolutionary music about freedom and protest. In the 70s I was listening to soul and the Bee Gees and ABBA, and funk.

