Serj Tankian

Serj Tankian (, Սերժ Թանգեան; born August 21, 1967) is a Lebanese-born Armenian-American musician and songwriter.

Tankian was born in Beirut, Lebanon, on August 21, 1967.

He traces his ancestry to the cities of Dörtyol, Kayseri, Tokat, and Urfa, all of which are in modern-day Turkey.

His four grandparents were survivors of the Armenian genocide.

At age seven, he moved to the U.S. with his parents, and the family settled in Los Angeles.

In his youth, he attended the bilingual Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School, which was also attended by his future System of a Down bandmates Daron Malakian and Shavo Odadjian.

Tankian was accepted into California State University, Northridge, graduating with a marketing degree in 1989.

During his sophomore year, he first began to play instruments, particularly the keyboard, and write songs.

In an interview in 2021, Tankian stated; "'I was very lost. I was playing music at home, but I didn't have a band, I didn't have any connection, and my vision hadn't interpreted that this was my future yet. I was like, probably 22, 23 when I was really, when I discovered it... I was driving home, I had a Jeep Wrangler, I remember it was raining, very dramatic, and I really, I always say I have to go to the far reaches of who I don't wanna be to admit to myself who I really am. And I was in my car, and I literally stopped, and I just go, 'I want to fuckin' do music. This is bullshit. I don't want to do all this shit.' And that was the day that changed my life. From then on, anything I did was with the idea that I'm going on this path, and I gotta do whatever I gotta do to be on this path.'"After graduation, he briefly worked with his uncle, who was a jeweler.

He also signed up for the L-SAT, even though he hated lawyers.

When he went to the first class, he said that he noticed that everyone else who attended was happy to be there and that he was miserable.

He never showed up to a law class again.

He also, briefly, was the CEO of a software company (in his words "quite successful," considering it was pre-Windows) he made in the era of MS-DOS, making software for jewelers, whom he had experience with.

He eventually sold the company soon before he got the first check from System of a Down.

He also started his activism during his college years, attempting to draw attention to the recognition of the Armenian genocide during his time as president of the university's Armenian Students Association.

He has said that his activism started with the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) and the Shant Student Association of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF).

The beginnings of System of a Down lie in a band named Soil (not to be confused with the Chicago-based band SOiL) with Tankian on vocals & keyboards, Malakian on vocals & lead guitar, Dave Hakopyan on bass, and Domingo Laranio on drums.

The band initially hired Odadjian as their manager before he was to transition into their rhythm guitarist.

Laranio and Hakopyan later left the band feeling that it was not going anywhere, leading to Soil splitting up.

After the split, Tankian, Odadjian and Malakian formed System of a Down, named after a poem Malakian wrote called Victims of a Down.

The band recruited drummer Ontronik "Andy" Khachaturian, an old school friend of Malakian, and Odadjian who had played with Malakian in a band called Snowblind during their teens.

He is best known as the founder, lead vocalist and primary lyricist of System of a Down, which was formed in 1994.

Tankian has released five albums with System of a Down (System of a Down, Toxicity, Steal This Album!, Mezmerize, Hypnotize) and five solo albums (Elect the Dead, Imperfect Harmonies, Harakiri, Orca, Jazz-Iz-Christ, and Elasticity), as well as collaborating with musicians such as rapper Tech N9ne and folk singer Arto Tunçboyacıyan.

He also released Elect the Dead Symphony, a live orchestral version of Elect the Dead featuring the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.

He is the founder of the record label Serjical Strike Records, and is currently represented by Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group.

Tankian is regarded as one of the best vocalists in heavy metal, with praise given to his unusual delivery and his wide vocal range.

In mid-1997, Khachaturian left the band because of a hand injury (he subsequently co-founded The Apex Theory, which included former Soil bassist Dave Hakopyan).

Khachaturian was replaced by John Dolmayan.

Dolmayan is also the drummer for the band Indicator and former drummer for Scars on Broadway.

The band began touring the Southern California rock clubs, building a strong following.

The band achieved commercial success with the release of five studio albums, three of which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.

In 2002, he co-founded the non-profit political activism organization Axis of Justice, alongside guitarist and fellow activist Tom Morello.

In 2006, he was ranked No. 26 on the Hit Parader list of "Top 100 Heavy Metal Vocalists".

A study conducted by VVN Music found that Tankian possesses a high and diverse vocal range of 4.2 octaves.

System of a Down has been nominated for four Grammy Awards, and their song "B.Y.O.B." won the Best Hard Rock Performance of 2006.

In May the same year, the band announced they were going on hiatus.

On November 29, 2010, following several weeks of internet rumors, System of a Down officially announced that they would play shows in Europe during Festivals and in North America, mostly in the U.S., embarking on a tour for the following three years.

In 2011, he was awarded the Armenian Prime Minister's Medal for his contributions to the recognition of the Armenian genocide and the advancement of music.

The band was in limbo of not releasing any new tracks until November 2020, when they released "Protect the Land" and "Genocidal Humanoidz", which were songs that were made to help the cause of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.

The song's profits went to the Armenia Fund.