Serj Tankian Refuses To Shut His Mouth On Politics: I Was An Activist Before Becoming An Artist

Serj Tankian (Instagram @systemofadown)

JAKARTA - System Of A Down vocalist Serj Tankian discussed his decision to publicly express his political views in a new interview with G1 Brasil.

Tankian is currently promoting a new documentary about the life and work of his activist.

Fans of System Of A Down have often criticized Tankian. They just want their idol vocalist to sing their favorite song and not get involved in politics.

"I was an activist before I became an artist. And I do a variety of music - I do classical music, which has no vocals, I do jazz, I make music for films," Tankian answered fan criticism.

"I do a lot of different kinds of music, also rock. And when I write something, it can be a love song, it can be a political song - there are many kinds of music that I work on. So when I write something that I deliberately feel, it doesn't. anyone can tell me what to say and what not, "he continued.

As a singer, poet, songwriter, visual artist, film producer, activist and composer, Tankian has always created music as a channel for expressing his thoughts and feelings with a level of passion and awareness that few in today's music world can match.

An Armenian born in Lebanon and rooted back in Los Angeles, Tankian was introduced to a fusion of cultures, ideas and ideals from a very young age. The principles learned from this integration and adaptation have led to his understanding of the unity of all things and since then he has maneuvered and transformed into music and art that he creates alive.

As the lead singer and songwriter for System Of A Down, Tankian has released five studio albums, won a Grammy Award in 2006 for BYOB and sold more than 40 million albums worldwide.

Despite these successes, Tankian has never been complacent about his art, always trying to open new channels of sound and arrangements to articulate his artistic expressions.

He has released five albums of solo material, starting with the hard rock album Elect The Dead (2007) which topped the charts. His second solo album, Imperfect Harmonies, was released in 2010, followed by Harakiri in 2012.

In 2013 there were two different releases from Tankian, the first being Orca Symphony No. 1, which received critical acclaim, was released in June, followed by the very unique Jazz-Iz Christ one month later.