This article originally appeared in a 2012 issue of Revolver Magazine.
Serj Tankian may be the hardest-working man in hard rock right now. Last year, he saw a musical he’d composed open in Boston, released his second poetry book, and toured the world with his bandmates in schizoid metallers System of a Down, who reunited after a four-year hiatus in 2010. On top of that, he began writing four new solo albums of various genres, including a classical symphony, a jazz offering titled Jazz Is Christ, and an electronic outing called Fucktronic that he’s working on with Mindless Self Indulgence’s Jimmy Urine. The first record he’s releasing this summer, though, is what he calls his “punk rock” one, Harakiri.
Full of songs chronicling the downfalls of modern society—environmental devastation, reality TV—the album is frenetic and unpredictable, sometimes serious, sometimes funny. It’s the sort of LP fans would expect from the frontman of a group who redefined “B.Y.O.B.” to mean “Bring Your Own Bombs.” And with System of a Down enjoying their own renaissance—as well as an anniversary of sorts, since it was 20 years ago that Tankian and guitarist Daron Malakian first came together in a band called Soil—the group’s frontman won’t be stopping anytime soon. SOAD will be touring the East Coast in August, and Tankian intends to embark on a solo trek this year, too.
Miraculously, the singer made some time to meet with Revolver in the office of his Los Angeles home to discuss everything that keeps him up at night.
REVOLVER Harakiri is a Japanese term for honorable suicide. What got you thinking about that?
SERJ TANKIAN I was in New Zealand in January 2011. And I heard all these stories about how birds and fish were dying all around the world. It was all happening in a matter of two or three weeks. I remember in New Zealand, there is a peninsula called Coromandel, and a certain type of fish died there. It was happening with the blackbirds and the drum fish in Arkansas. And in Southern California, Redondo Beach, there were, like, 100,000 sardines [that died].
My reasonable mind was saying, There is no way this is an accident. Why would a large number of species basically leave the earth? Do they think that a calamity will befall them? Do they think that in the future there won’t be enough nutrition for them? All of these questions really made me write “Harakiri,” the first song I wrote for the record.
Like some of your past works, the rest of the album has lyrics about global devolution. Do you feel like your music has enlightened people?
I think in certain spheres and areas, whether with System or myself—like raising awareness about the Armenian genocide—there have been quite an impact. I think certain things have made a difference.
What inspired Harakiri’s “Uneducated Democracy”?
I’ve been thinking about how education and democracy relate. There are times I believe a benign dictatorship is probably better than a democracy run by stupid people. People will hate me for making that statement, but there are points if you look back at history and you go, “Hmm.” The George W. Bush Administration is a good example. Ultimately, I think we get the leaders we deserve. If you don’t have an educated public, if your country is not spending on education, what the fuck are we going to end up with?
System reunited a year before you wrote this album. Did that have any effect on Harakiri?
During 2011, when I was making this record, I was doing all those dates with System and doing all this stuff all over the world. So I’m sure that the high-intensity, running-on-the-treadmill, making-funny-faces show that we have with System has definitely had an impact on this album being up-tempo. It’s my most punk-rock-oriented album to date, so I would say it probably did have an impact on me.
You started the pre-System group Soil 20 years ago this year. What are your memories of that time?
I remember Soil played only one show. It was at a place called Fais Do-do in LA. It’s a blues club. [Laughs] And here we were, a progressive metal band. It was so out of place and it was so awesome because of it. The stage was about three feet off the ground and during the second or third song, Daron just fell off. [Laughs] He was so excited. At the time, he was kind of learning. I didn’t really know what the fuck I was doing. I still don’t. I used a guitar distortion pedal on my vocals all the time onstage. But the feedback was so horrible, the whole time it was, “Rooarrr.” [Makes feedback noise] It was like dogs and vocals fighting. It was horrible.
At that point, could you have imagined what System has become, not to mention the four solo albums you plan to release?
The goal at the time was very simple: It was just to be able to play music every day and not do anything else for a living. Down the line, as things started rolling with System, then we started putting other goals for ourselves.
Why did System go on hiatus in 2006?
After a 12-year run [between 1994, when System of a Down was formed, and 2006], I think there comes a point where you have to take a break to gain perspective on what you’re doing. It felt like someone else was in control and none of us were in control. I didn’t want System to become a brand—it is a brand, I guess, technically—but I didn’t want it to be a brand in the sense that we always have to put out records because other people want to make money off us. This is a punk-rock band. This is not why we started this. And, of course, after years of playing together and being in each other’s face day and night, we also needed a little bit of space. You have the casual fights and because you’re good friends and respect each other, you make up and what not.
So it was just time. And I’d been trying to do my own stuff anyway. I didn’t want to have to squeeze my stuff in. Like the three months that System’s not doing anything, I’m going to do a record? Fuck that. I needed to do it right. So for me, it was time. And since we’ve gotten back together, we’ve actually had a blast playing these shows. I think our performances are much better than they were in 2006 when we left off.
What brought you back together?
I don’t know. Shavo [Odadjian, SOAD bassist] was getting married the year before last. We all saw each other there, and we also hung out before… We were in touch anyway. John [Dolmayan, drums] and I would speak all the time. Anyone’s birthday, we’d be like, “Happy birthday, bro. Haven’t seen you in a while.” So it’s not like we were out of touch. But we got together after the wedding. That was cool.
So when will we get to hear a new System record?
Oh, you didn’t get it? I sent it to you via email, bro. [Laughs] Um, we haven’t really talked about it. It’s not something on-schedule right now, so it’s something that we’ll do down the line when it’s the right time again. I’m personally enjoying doing all my different projects, and I’m really enjoying everything that I’m doing, including touring with System, which has been awesome. Because in the beginning, when it was just System, everything was System, there was no room to do anything else. Now I feel like I’ve got room to do everything, including System. So it’s a great space I think for all of us right now.