Serj Tankian’s weekly singles series continues with the launch of a new, electronic beat-heavy collaboration with mouse-masked EDM veteran DeadMau5. Together, they’ve planted “A Seed” onto streamers.
The song marks the second single drop on the path to Tankian’s forthcoming Covers, Collaborations & Collages release, which collects a number of previously unreleased tracks from the System Of A Down singer’s personal archive.
In an Instagram vid, Tankian explained that DeadMau5 had approached him to work on the track a few summers ago. The vocalist had been in New Zealand at the time, and recalls first hearing the haunting piano melody of the intro, which bleeds into a “crazy synth…polyrhythmical trip” that he likened to a carousel (“You had to find exactly where to hold onto”).
He reiterated in a statement: “‘A Seed’ begins with a haunting piano intro that opens itself to a polyrhythmic trip; a carousel that has no beginning or end. The lyrics are derived from Cool Gardens – my first book of poetry.”
The piano intro finds Tankian entwining poetic lucidity (“I wake up from life”) with harmonious backups, while the squelching electronic pivot point — beats slapping, synths skittering manically — leads him towards a mix of spoken word interjections and melodic phrasings. The arrangement ebbs and flows between both feels a few times.
As previously reported, “A Seed” is part of a ten-week campaign that will find Tankian dropping a new song each week until Covers, Collaborations & Collages releases in full October 24th, via Serjical Strike Records/Create Music Group.
You’ll find the latest tune up above, while you can hear Tankian describe the making of “A Seed” via the video down below.
In related news, System Of A Down began a short series of North American two-night stands, this week. They hit Chicago, Illinois, with Avenged Sevenfold this weekend, and play Toronto, Ontario, with Deftones later next week. You’ll find more show info here.