Serj Tanakian

Alternate album cover for Elect The Dead (images.amazon.com)

Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter/political activist/genocidal activist/and anti-war activist Serj Tankian, was born in Lebanon August 21, 1967. Moving to the U.S. a few years later he attended the Rose & Alex Pilibosl School for Armenian children. Serj early on in his life was interested in two things, Music and Politics. He learned guitar, piano and a number of other instruments that would be used in his future band System of a Down, and FCC. After he graduated college, Serj joined fellow activist, songwriter, and musician Daron Malakian in the band Soil. Later he and Daron broke up Soil, and formed one of the most famous bands to come, System of a Down, who have this day sold over 14 million albums. Later Serj formed Serjical Strike Records which has signed a lot of underground bands whose talents would have gone unnoticed by other labels. Serj recently released Elect the Dead, his first solo album with his band FCC.

One of the most off the wall political activists ever, Serj has opposed unfair government persecution by singing it to the masses, organizing large protest marches, and publishing controversial articles. His band System of a Down was highly persecuted for their beliefs after the attacks on 9/11. Their highest selling album to date, Toxicity, was being black listed even though it was released September 4, 2001. For some people the song “Chop Suey!” was regarded as an eerie prophecy as to what was going to happen, because of such lyrics as, “I don’t think you trust in my self-righteous suicide, I cry when angels deserve to die.” As such the song was black listed by most radio stations.

Serj Tankian and his band of all Armenian born members, were using their band to bring thousands of people to the light on certain issues. Their song “Boom” was about money that could have been used for people that really needed it, but was used on bombs and weapons. When “System” went on hiatus, Serj took more time to focus on Axis of Justice, which is a non-profit organization that brings bands and people of all kinds to fight for social justice. Founding this organization with Tom Morello (Grammy award winning guitarist for bands like Rage Against The Machine, and Audioslave) Axis of Justice has put on several benefit concerts for charity causes. Axis of Justice was formed after Tom Morello witnessed some people promoting racist and fascist symbols at an Ozzfest in 2002. Serj’s record label Serjical Strike supplied all of the bands for the charity events, since Serjical Strike signs a lot of underground or unpopular bands this started off the careers for several bands, and raised money for good causes.

Serj is a vegetarian and an animal rights activist, he said in an interview that he felt it was a show of respect towards mother earth. His poem “Understanding Oil” that was published two days after the attacks on 9/11 made him open criticism during this sensitive time. Even when Serj went on the Howard Stern Show he was being interrupted and challenged by the crew.

Serj Tankian on his Elect The Dead album (Musicremedy.com)

All in all Serj has been trying to better our society through everything except physical violence. This in and of itself makes him a hero because of how he continually tries to change our society, and ultimately the world, to be a better place. His label Serjical Strike has signed a lot of bands other labels would have overlooked and Axis of Justice is a constant help to every cause they fight for, because it brings a lot of big bands together to raise money for causes that otherwise probably would have failed. This is why Serj Tankian, even in all his craziness, should be hailed as a role model and a hero especially to those who want to either be political activists or Musicians or both for his constant work to better the wrongful acts of the government, and to help unpopular charities.