“For those who’re chased out of your homeland,” writes Serj Tankian in his new autobiography Down With The System, “part of you is all the time attempting to get again there, even generations later.” This concept sits on the coronary heart of the System Of A Down vocalist’s highly effective memoir, reaching far again in time – past his personal dramatic life in music and activism – to inform his ancestors’ tales.
All 4 of Tankian’s grandparents survived the Armenian genocide, perpetrated in 1915 beneath the Ottoman Empire however nonetheless unrecognised by many governments immediately, together with the UK’s. Tankian has lengthy used his platform to combat for this story’s recognition – “an entire race, genocide,” he sings on System Of A Down’s 1998 observe ‘P.L.U.C.Ok.’ – and particulars it right here in harrowing prose: “It’s necessary to know who you might be,” he says, “from those that introduced you to this place.”
An particularly vivid portrait is dedicated to his grandfather Stepan. “He was the fighter within the household,” Tankian tells NME. “I’ve inherited his legacy in a manner.” A toddler throughout the genocide, Stepan was compelled from his residence on a death-march to the Syrian desert – beset by illness, torture and hunger. In opposition to all odds, Stepan lived to outdated age – lengthy sufficient to listen to in regards to the success of his grandson’s band. “He was so pleased with me,” Tankian beams. “I mentioned, ‘we’re spreading consciousness about your story, and the genocide, and the significance for correct recognition of historical past.’ It was not in his final days, however fairly shut.”
The memoir additionally particulars one other, less-discussed affect on Tankian’s views about justice. After transferring to California from Tankian’s native Beirut, his father discovered success designing ladies’s sneakers, however was financially ruined by a lawsuit from a disgruntled ex-business accomplice. “That actually degenerated my mother and father’ perception within the justice system,” Tankian explains. “They misplaced every thing.” Possessing higher English than his mother and father, the 16-year-old Tankian had to assist take care of the attorneys to guard his household. “Seeing my mother and father unravel emotionally, and bodily – it was actually tough to expertise.”
This led Tankian to contemplate a profession in regulation, till a fateful late-night drive by way of Laurel Canyon: slamming on his brakes, he vowed aloud to pursue his ardour for music. What recommendation would he give to others at an analogous juncture? “So far as we all know, there’s one life you’re residing.” Whereas everybody must make a residing, “you must have some room on your ardour. There are such a lot of doorways you can not see, they usually can all open in the event you discover out what it’s you’re right here to do,” he says. “It requires waking up within the morning and going ‘what am I enthusiastic about?’”
Down With The System particulars Tankian’s early musical efforts, together with his first flip as a singer within the band Soil. Singing didn’t come naturally, and at one level they secretly tried to interchange him. “I used to be looking for my voice, as a result of usually individuals sing with different individuals’s voices – whoever they’re influenced by,” Tankian says. After only one present, and a lineup change, Soil morphed into System Of A Down.
Of all of the memoir’s tales illustrating System Of A Down’s explosive rise, probably the most placing is of a free live performance in a Hollywood carpark on the eve of ‘Toxicity’’s launch in September 2001. “We have been anticipating three or four-thousand individuals,” Tankian says, “then I feel 10,000 individuals confirmed up.” After the hearth marshal suggested the live performance was unsafe, the LAPD threatened to arrest the band in the event that they went onstage – even simply to elucidate the state of affairs. “They only pulled our banner down, and every thing went wild,” he says. “An precise LAPD riot occurred – all of us felt horrible.”
‘Toxicity’ topped the US charts per week later, the identical day because the 9/11 assaults. Down With The System illustrates right here what it meant to be a politicised band within the media panorama of the time: main radio group Clear Channel banned their single ‘Chop Suey!’ from its stations, together with 164 different songs deemed ‘lyrically questionable’ beneath the circumstances, together with John Lennon’s ‘Think about’. “Social media and the devolution of the radio world has modified the sport,” Tankian suggests. “Politicised bands have a lot extra entry to individuals.”
Latest months have seen a brand new wave of music activism amid the Israel-Gaza battle: from gigs elevating cash for humanitarian support, to boycotts of SXSW over its sponsorship by the US military. “It’s necessary for the youth to lift their voice, as a result of we aren’t residing in a simply world,” Tankian says. “I feel in some instances, pure activism is taken hostage by sure fringe parts of society, together with within the US – sure anti-Semites who’ve gotten into that world. Nonetheless, I feel nearly all of the activists and their intentions are pure, and I feel what they’re doing is necessary,” he says.
“When it comes to the Hamas invasion of Israel, I wish to say that was clearly a terrorist act and they’re struggle criminals and should be punished,” he says. “However, the Netanyahu authorities’s response can be – as we will see with the variety of civilians which have died – a struggle crime.” Tankian additionally highlights the less-discussed story of Azerbaijan’s invasion of Nagorno Karabakh final September. “Azerbaijan attacked the 120,000 residents of this space who’ve been residing there for time immemorial,” he says. “Unbelievable injustice, humanitarian disaster, genocide, struggle crimes, is going on immediately – so sure, there’s going to be pushback.”
Tankian’s personal decades-long activism was rewarded with a milestone in 2021. “Congress handed a decision formally recognising the Armenian genocide dedicated by the Ottoman Turks in 1915,” he explains. Nonetheless, he caveats this victory. “Proper after, Joe Biden mainly wrote a cheque to Azerbaijan for navy functions,” who had “invaded elements of Armenia correct,” he says. “Even the intention of Congress to go the genocide decision was a manner of punishing Turkey for purchasing the S-400 missiles from Russia,” he suggests. “It’s all politics.”
His emotions on System Of A Down are much less reserved. “I’m extraordinarily pleased with my band for, together with non-profits and Armenian communities worldwide, lobbying for recognition of the Armenian genocide,” he says. “For us, it was a private quest – all our grandparents are survivors.” In 2015, they marked the genocide’s centenary with an infinite present in Armenia’s capital, Yerevan. “I all the time describe that as the highest of the mountain for System Of A Down,” he smiles. “It was lovely.”
Their final album was 2005’s ‘Hypnotise’, and the memoir particulars their newest, unsuccessful makes an attempt at a brand new one in 2018. In these periods, Tankian proposed a brand new set of working ideas: “egalitarian concepts of sharing publishing, not controlling the writing course of, everybody having a veto on each tune,” he lists. “There was some openness to it at first, however then it bought shut down, and I backed off.” Their variations, he stresses, should not private. “We love one another, we respect one another, however we’ve artistic variations and that’s stopped us going forwards,” he says. “Perhaps sooner or later it received’t.”
At the moment, his focus is on this memoir – shocked by its rapturous reception. “There’s a whole lot of attention-grabbing classes in my very own life, and I hope it sparks one thing in younger creators or would-be creators,” he smiles. “That will be superior.”
Serj Tankian’s memoir ‘Down With The System’ is out now
