Serj Tankian on System of the Down's Future
Serj Tankian is a man of many talents and many passions. In addition to his five albums with System of a Down, Tankian has been a political activist, composer and poet. He co-founded the Axis of Justice with Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, introducing many a young metalhead to animal rights and anti-war activism; he’s worked with a symphony on his album Imperfect Harmonies; and he’s released two books of poetry, 2001’s Cool Gardens and last year’s Glaring Through Oblivion. And while System of a Down took a five-year hiatus beginning in early 2006, that project reactivated for Tankian last year, as well – though when he sat down with Matt Pinfield for this episode of The Hivecast, he made it clear that the band, right now, is more focused on the live experience than recording. “We really haven’t sat down and talked seriously about doing [another record],” Tankian explains. “We’ve just been kind of touring and having a good time. It’s so interesting, because I’ve been working so hard on Harakiri, my solo record, and then when it came time for the System rehearsals, I was just like, ‘Ahhh.’ It’s like summer vacation! I get to go out and play these songs, and there’s no record. There’s no pressure. It went from System six years ago, when we left off, there was a lot of pressure. It started to become not-fun, so we left it. Now, coming back to it, it’s kind of like the fun part of our lives. So that’s an awesome thing.”
While System of a Down might not be heading into the studio anytime soon, that doesn’t mean that Tankian is taking it easy with putting out records. Harakiri, his new solo album, was released this summer, and he’s currently on tour in Europe. Additionally, he’s got a classical album, Orca, due out next month, a jazz album called Jazz-Iz-Christ on deck for next year, and an upcoming cinematic electronic record with Mindless Self Indulgence’s Jimmy Urine called Fuktronic. Tune into the Hivecast to hear how Fuktronic draws its inspiration from Guy Ritchie, why Jazz-Iz-Christ will piss off both Christians and jazz purists, and why he named his band the Flying C***s of Chaos. [Download & subscribe to the Hivecast via iTunes.]
