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KCET's Artbound
Aug 24 2012
Serj Tankian: Where I'm From
by Juan Devis
For Artbound's "Where I'm From" series, we aim to delve into the
cultural landscape of Southern California through in-depth interviews
with musicians, artists, and other culture creators, exploring the
role that their environment plays, or played, in their creative
development. Through these portraits, we hope to gain exclusive
insights into the interaction between place and imagination. These
videos will attempt to answer the questions: Why here? How did
California become the creative capital of the world?
Can you describe your cultural background, your experience moving to
Los Angeles and how that has shaped you as a person and an artist?
My parents and I migrated here in 1975 at the beginning of the
Lebanese Civil War. There is a good amount of Armenians in Lebanon who
have left and come to the US and other places. There is obviously a
big Armenian population here. So I grew up in the Armenian community
in Los Angeles, went to an Armenian School until end of high school,
and then went to Cal. State Northridge and got a degree from there. I
think growing up in the Armenian community and realizing the kind of
hypocrisy of the denial of a well known genocide within a well-known
democracy kind of made me aware of other things, made me an activist
in life. I said to myself, "How many other things are there that are
denied for political expediency or economic reasons and hidden from
the public because it shoots a certain class of people in this country
or elsewhere in the world?" So that kind of opened me up to many
causes, be they human rights causes, environmental, animal, labor
causes, inequities, injustice. So that's a big thing for me in my life
is to find ways to create justice - because I think it brings a new
beauty to the world. A new culture.
How would you characterize the culture of the Armenian Diaspora here
in L.A.? Is there a specific culture that can be defined?
The Armenian Diaspora in Los Angeles is from different parts of the
world. A lot of Armenians have immigrated here from Armenia proper,
but there are also Armenians from different parts of the Middle East,
from Iran, from Lebanon and Syria, Jordan and Kuwait, and you name it,
as well as some Armenians from Europe. There are Armenians in Fresno
in Northern California that have been here for a century or more, like
William Saroyan, the known writer from that area and that era. And
there is a good Armenian community in Watertown, Mass. near Boston as
well.
Armenians have things that tie them together. One is the injustice
that's been done to our people, with 600 years of oppression under the
Ottoman Empire, which is now modern day Turkey, the Armenian Genocide
which has been committed by the Turks, etc. But, you know, there is
the food, there's the music, there's the arts, there's the events, and
a way of living, a lifestyle, and a way of doing things.
How did this experience influence or define the music of System of a
Down? How do you think it was received within your community and here
in L.A.?
I think there is definitely an infusion of melancholy into System's
music from the beginning that is very much Armenian. You know, it's
not defined really well, in other words, it's digested really well.
None of the music that we are influenced by is directly spit out. It's
more well defined and then presented. But I think there is definitely
an aspect of that in System's music. In terms of the themes, in my
lyrics, injustice definitely plays a huge role in lyrical output.
I think when System first came out everyone had a tough time
understanding what we were doing, whether it is the Armenian community
or L.A. music community in general. We came in from the left. We
weren't really in the music scene in any way, and we were just brewing
our own little experiment in the valley and kind of building it up. We
had a warehouse such as this and we would have these friends over for
rehearsal and little parties and build up the interest from people.
And then when we had our first show we actually played at the Roxy in
Hollywood on Sunset Blvd. I was thinking about that driving over here
today is how many musicians in different cities in the world have the
ability to go play a place like the world-famous Roxy, irrespective of
getting discovered or not getting discovered or anything like that. I
think that is really special about Los Angeles is we have a heritage
of rock music, of music in general, and 60s clubs, like all this stuff
that was going on, the entertainment center of the world, both in
terms of music and film, which is very important. All the
collaborations I do, it's easiest to do them in L.A. because there is
a lot of musicians, a lot of great musicians. I've worked with
orchestra players in L.A. that are phenomenal because they do so many
music cues for Hollywood films and jazz musicians, virtuosos, rock
musicians. It is such an amazing place for that kind of collaboration
and for production.
Let's go back to System and the influence of the Diaspora in your
music. Is there a particular lyric that stands out for you?
There is not a particular lyric that stands out for me. I think it is
a culmination of of a lot of things. And, to be honest with you,
System's music was never just unilaterally political or social based.
You know, we have a lot of humorous songs and dadaesque things and
philosophies and personal stories intermixed. So it's a combination of
a lot of these things. But because there are not a lot of artists that
kind of get political with their music and take sides strongly, and
because they always want to walk in the center like politicians so
they don't lose any of their constituency, which artists shouldn't
have, artists should have fans and friends, not constituents. I think
we have always taken the stand that we've taken and we've done it in a
very--this is what we believe, this is what's in our heart, and this
is what we're doing, and if you like it, great, if you don't like it,
great.
So let's talk a little more about the heritage piece that you're
talking about. All of a sudden you became part of that heritage. Are
there any particular people within that musical heritage or this sort
of entertainment heritage that stand out for you as influencers in
your trajectory?
There's a number of bands that we've played in in L.A. once we
actually joined the scene and figured out what everyone is doing. We
were those crazy guys coming in from the left going, "What? What the
hell are these guys doing? What are they?" People seemed to be
actually gravitating towards it and coming and we sold out a bunch of
gigs all around L.A., the Roxy, the Whiskey, and Coconut Teaszer, at
the time that was still there, and whatnot. Our influence and our
message and music started to grow and that's when labels started
noticing and kind of coming in. We signed with American Columbia, at
the time, Rick Rubin's label. He was very influential, he produced our
first record. So I think that had a huge impact on the industry and on
press. So we did the streets and we were lucky enough to find a great
producer that believed in what we were doing. So that would be
definitely a very important point in a trajectory of the band's
career. There are many people, obviously that we've worked with, from
managers to good lawyers, as well as other musicians that we've toured
with. It's hard to include all of them.
If you look at the past, maybe in the past is there a group of people
or some people that--as a filmmaker or public media producer there is
always those 2 or 3 films or documentaries that I saw that really made
a mark on me.
See, I'm not that way. I have a lot of favorite filmmakers. I have a
lot of favorite artists. I have a lot of favorite genres or music I
listen too. Growing up I was listening to Armenian music, Arabic
music, Greek music, Italian music, French music. Coming to the U.S., I
was listening to disco, 70s, soul, early soul, then goth, and new
wave, and then got into metal, punk, and rock, and hip hop, and death
metal, and noise and then jazz, classical. So to me, I can't name
specific people that I'm influenced by, whether it is in the music
industry or in the film industry.
Let's talk about Serj, after System of a Down. What has happened to
you after that? You have had a really dynamic output of work. How was
taking the road solo?
Musically, it was one of the best things I've done, going solo and
doing my own thing. I always say, everyone is first a solo artist then
joins a band because if you have nothing to offer a band, you're not
going to be in one. Obviously I'm known for being in System of a Down
but as a songwriter, I've put out three records, a live CD/DVD.with an
orchestra. I've toured with the world with my back up band as well as
with 12 or 13 different orchestras around the world. I've written
another three or four records that we are releasing between this year
and next year, from rock to jazz to electronic to my first symphony,
which is called "Orca." My confidence as a composer has really really
increased well and beyond what it was in System. In System, I was
mainly known as a lyricist, a lead singer, which I got a lot of
praise, thankful praise for. But I wasn't able to express myself as a
composer as much because there were so many songwriters in the band.
So I think that has really taken off for me and I'm very happy about
that. So now I'm scoring videos, starting to get attached to film
project for scoring which I really want to do, probably more than
anything in my life at this point in my life. I got a new record
coming out and all that. But I'm also enjoying touring with System.
That's the beautiful thing. We're back in each other's lives after six
years of hiatus. We toured three continents last year and we've played
tighter, better than ever before and had a blast. So I like having it
all. I like doing it all. I like performing with System, performing
with an orchestra, performing with my band guys, doing a jazz project
with Tigran Hamasyan and some of the other friends from the Jazz
record I'm doing, called Jazz-Iz-Christ, that's going to definitely
piss people off, but that's good. So I feel great, I feel creative.
You arrived here in 1975. How do you see the Armenian community now
after almost 40 years.
In '75 there was a very small Armenian community in Los Angeles. Now
it has grown to, I don't know what the numbers are but it's pretty
huge. You know, Glendale, Little Armenia in Hollywood, and all over
the valley, and everywhere. It's probably the biggest, if not the
second biggest, Armenian diaspora outside of Armenia proper. So those
are changes, obviously and massive populations bring changes as well.
In the 70s, I never related Glendale to Armenians, for example because
there weren't that many Armenians in Glendale. Now obviously there
are. There have been a lot of changes in the community but
specifically, that's a tough one to decipher.
When I was with Tigran last year, the place was filled and I was like,
oh my god you filled a house. This is fantastic." He said, "Yeah but
there are too many Armenians." It made me think, in a sense he didn't
want to be labeled as the Armenian piano player, he just wanted to be
seen as a piano player and in a way he was making a commentary. It's
great to have my Armenian fans but...
Have you found yourself kind of struggling with that?
Not really, I mean, people make the assumptions sometime when they
meet me, "oh you're from Glendale" and I'm like, "No not really." But
otherwise, I haven't really struggled with that that much because I
think by the time Armenians caught up to what System of the Down
actually was, the whole world had caught up to what System of the Down
was in some ways. I don't want to say what it may be in Tigran's case,
or hypothesize. But Armenians are very proud of System of a Down more
than just in terms of the celebrity aspect of a band that's taken off
but a band that has represented the justice interests of the Armenian
people. Having to do with the awareness of the Armenian Genocide.
Do you think that new generations of young Armenians that are growing
up here--have you noticed or have you seen any type of how you have
inspired them in some way?
Definitely. I'm asked all the time to go and give lectures and stuff
in schools and universities, Armenian and not Armenian, as well,
actually. Once in awhile, I do, although I don't want to be a speaker
per se. I like conversing but not speaking on a podium. We're told,
myself and System, that we've had a tremendous impact on inspiring
Armenian youth. People who have gone through a holocaust or genocide,
they are so insecure about their children's lifestyle that they want
them to be professionals, sometimes correctly, sometimes mistakenly.
The Armenian people are a very artistic people and our heritage has a
lot of music, architecture, and painters, and the Ottoman Empire's top
musicians, and composers and architects were all Armenians. We kind of
reminded the the youth and the Armenian community here that that is
one of our heritages, that it is okay to do these things and that not
everyone has to be a doctor or lawyer. That's really interesting as
well, besides the genocide awareness thing for System, I think that
has been an interesting inspiration to Armenian youth.
http://www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/counties/los-angeles/serj-tankian-where-im-from.html
From: Baghdasarian
Aug 24 2012
Serj Tankian: Where I'm From
by Juan Devis
For Artbound's "Where I'm From" series, we aim to delve into the
cultural landscape of Southern California through in-depth interviews
with musicians, artists, and other culture creators, exploring the
role that their environment plays, or played, in their creative
development. Through these portraits, we hope to gain exclusive
insights into the interaction between place and imagination. These
videos will attempt to answer the questions: Why here? How did
California become the creative capital of the world?
Can you describe your cultural background, your experience moving to
Los Angeles and how that has shaped you as a person and an artist?
My parents and I migrated here in 1975 at the beginning of the
Lebanese Civil War. There is a good amount of Armenians in Lebanon who
have left and come to the US and other places. There is obviously a
big Armenian population here. So I grew up in the Armenian community
in Los Angeles, went to an Armenian School until end of high school,
and then went to Cal. State Northridge and got a degree from there. I
think growing up in the Armenian community and realizing the kind of
hypocrisy of the denial of a well known genocide within a well-known
democracy kind of made me aware of other things, made me an activist
in life. I said to myself, "How many other things are there that are
denied for political expediency or economic reasons and hidden from
the public because it shoots a certain class of people in this country
or elsewhere in the world?" So that kind of opened me up to many
causes, be they human rights causes, environmental, animal, labor
causes, inequities, injustice. So that's a big thing for me in my life
is to find ways to create justice - because I think it brings a new
beauty to the world. A new culture.
How would you characterize the culture of the Armenian Diaspora here
in L.A.? Is there a specific culture that can be defined?
The Armenian Diaspora in Los Angeles is from different parts of the
world. A lot of Armenians have immigrated here from Armenia proper,
but there are also Armenians from different parts of the Middle East,
from Iran, from Lebanon and Syria, Jordan and Kuwait, and you name it,
as well as some Armenians from Europe. There are Armenians in Fresno
in Northern California that have been here for a century or more, like
William Saroyan, the known writer from that area and that era. And
there is a good Armenian community in Watertown, Mass. near Boston as
well.
Armenians have things that tie them together. One is the injustice
that's been done to our people, with 600 years of oppression under the
Ottoman Empire, which is now modern day Turkey, the Armenian Genocide
which has been committed by the Turks, etc. But, you know, there is
the food, there's the music, there's the arts, there's the events, and
a way of living, a lifestyle, and a way of doing things.
How did this experience influence or define the music of System of a
Down? How do you think it was received within your community and here
in L.A.?
I think there is definitely an infusion of melancholy into System's
music from the beginning that is very much Armenian. You know, it's
not defined really well, in other words, it's digested really well.
None of the music that we are influenced by is directly spit out. It's
more well defined and then presented. But I think there is definitely
an aspect of that in System's music. In terms of the themes, in my
lyrics, injustice definitely plays a huge role in lyrical output.
I think when System first came out everyone had a tough time
understanding what we were doing, whether it is the Armenian community
or L.A. music community in general. We came in from the left. We
weren't really in the music scene in any way, and we were just brewing
our own little experiment in the valley and kind of building it up. We
had a warehouse such as this and we would have these friends over for
rehearsal and little parties and build up the interest from people.
And then when we had our first show we actually played at the Roxy in
Hollywood on Sunset Blvd. I was thinking about that driving over here
today is how many musicians in different cities in the world have the
ability to go play a place like the world-famous Roxy, irrespective of
getting discovered or not getting discovered or anything like that. I
think that is really special about Los Angeles is we have a heritage
of rock music, of music in general, and 60s clubs, like all this stuff
that was going on, the entertainment center of the world, both in
terms of music and film, which is very important. All the
collaborations I do, it's easiest to do them in L.A. because there is
a lot of musicians, a lot of great musicians. I've worked with
orchestra players in L.A. that are phenomenal because they do so many
music cues for Hollywood films and jazz musicians, virtuosos, rock
musicians. It is such an amazing place for that kind of collaboration
and for production.
Let's go back to System and the influence of the Diaspora in your
music. Is there a particular lyric that stands out for you?
There is not a particular lyric that stands out for me. I think it is
a culmination of of a lot of things. And, to be honest with you,
System's music was never just unilaterally political or social based.
You know, we have a lot of humorous songs and dadaesque things and
philosophies and personal stories intermixed. So it's a combination of
a lot of these things. But because there are not a lot of artists that
kind of get political with their music and take sides strongly, and
because they always want to walk in the center like politicians so
they don't lose any of their constituency, which artists shouldn't
have, artists should have fans and friends, not constituents. I think
we have always taken the stand that we've taken and we've done it in a
very--this is what we believe, this is what's in our heart, and this
is what we're doing, and if you like it, great, if you don't like it,
great.
So let's talk a little more about the heritage piece that you're
talking about. All of a sudden you became part of that heritage. Are
there any particular people within that musical heritage or this sort
of entertainment heritage that stand out for you as influencers in
your trajectory?
There's a number of bands that we've played in in L.A. once we
actually joined the scene and figured out what everyone is doing. We
were those crazy guys coming in from the left going, "What? What the
hell are these guys doing? What are they?" People seemed to be
actually gravitating towards it and coming and we sold out a bunch of
gigs all around L.A., the Roxy, the Whiskey, and Coconut Teaszer, at
the time that was still there, and whatnot. Our influence and our
message and music started to grow and that's when labels started
noticing and kind of coming in. We signed with American Columbia, at
the time, Rick Rubin's label. He was very influential, he produced our
first record. So I think that had a huge impact on the industry and on
press. So we did the streets and we were lucky enough to find a great
producer that believed in what we were doing. So that would be
definitely a very important point in a trajectory of the band's
career. There are many people, obviously that we've worked with, from
managers to good lawyers, as well as other musicians that we've toured
with. It's hard to include all of them.
If you look at the past, maybe in the past is there a group of people
or some people that--as a filmmaker or public media producer there is
always those 2 or 3 films or documentaries that I saw that really made
a mark on me.
See, I'm not that way. I have a lot of favorite filmmakers. I have a
lot of favorite artists. I have a lot of favorite genres or music I
listen too. Growing up I was listening to Armenian music, Arabic
music, Greek music, Italian music, French music. Coming to the U.S., I
was listening to disco, 70s, soul, early soul, then goth, and new
wave, and then got into metal, punk, and rock, and hip hop, and death
metal, and noise and then jazz, classical. So to me, I can't name
specific people that I'm influenced by, whether it is in the music
industry or in the film industry.
Let's talk about Serj, after System of a Down. What has happened to
you after that? You have had a really dynamic output of work. How was
taking the road solo?
Musically, it was one of the best things I've done, going solo and
doing my own thing. I always say, everyone is first a solo artist then
joins a band because if you have nothing to offer a band, you're not
going to be in one. Obviously I'm known for being in System of a Down
but as a songwriter, I've put out three records, a live CD/DVD.with an
orchestra. I've toured with the world with my back up band as well as
with 12 or 13 different orchestras around the world. I've written
another three or four records that we are releasing between this year
and next year, from rock to jazz to electronic to my first symphony,
which is called "Orca." My confidence as a composer has really really
increased well and beyond what it was in System. In System, I was
mainly known as a lyricist, a lead singer, which I got a lot of
praise, thankful praise for. But I wasn't able to express myself as a
composer as much because there were so many songwriters in the band.
So I think that has really taken off for me and I'm very happy about
that. So now I'm scoring videos, starting to get attached to film
project for scoring which I really want to do, probably more than
anything in my life at this point in my life. I got a new record
coming out and all that. But I'm also enjoying touring with System.
That's the beautiful thing. We're back in each other's lives after six
years of hiatus. We toured three continents last year and we've played
tighter, better than ever before and had a blast. So I like having it
all. I like doing it all. I like performing with System, performing
with an orchestra, performing with my band guys, doing a jazz project
with Tigran Hamasyan and some of the other friends from the Jazz
record I'm doing, called Jazz-Iz-Christ, that's going to definitely
piss people off, but that's good. So I feel great, I feel creative.
You arrived here in 1975. How do you see the Armenian community now
after almost 40 years.
In '75 there was a very small Armenian community in Los Angeles. Now
it has grown to, I don't know what the numbers are but it's pretty
huge. You know, Glendale, Little Armenia in Hollywood, and all over
the valley, and everywhere. It's probably the biggest, if not the
second biggest, Armenian diaspora outside of Armenia proper. So those
are changes, obviously and massive populations bring changes as well.
In the 70s, I never related Glendale to Armenians, for example because
there weren't that many Armenians in Glendale. Now obviously there
are. There have been a lot of changes in the community but
specifically, that's a tough one to decipher.
When I was with Tigran last year, the place was filled and I was like,
oh my god you filled a house. This is fantastic." He said, "Yeah but
there are too many Armenians." It made me think, in a sense he didn't
want to be labeled as the Armenian piano player, he just wanted to be
seen as a piano player and in a way he was making a commentary. It's
great to have my Armenian fans but...
Have you found yourself kind of struggling with that?
Not really, I mean, people make the assumptions sometime when they
meet me, "oh you're from Glendale" and I'm like, "No not really." But
otherwise, I haven't really struggled with that that much because I
think by the time Armenians caught up to what System of the Down
actually was, the whole world had caught up to what System of the Down
was in some ways. I don't want to say what it may be in Tigran's case,
or hypothesize. But Armenians are very proud of System of a Down more
than just in terms of the celebrity aspect of a band that's taken off
but a band that has represented the justice interests of the Armenian
people. Having to do with the awareness of the Armenian Genocide.
Do you think that new generations of young Armenians that are growing
up here--have you noticed or have you seen any type of how you have
inspired them in some way?
Definitely. I'm asked all the time to go and give lectures and stuff
in schools and universities, Armenian and not Armenian, as well,
actually. Once in awhile, I do, although I don't want to be a speaker
per se. I like conversing but not speaking on a podium. We're told,
myself and System, that we've had a tremendous impact on inspiring
Armenian youth. People who have gone through a holocaust or genocide,
they are so insecure about their children's lifestyle that they want
them to be professionals, sometimes correctly, sometimes mistakenly.
The Armenian people are a very artistic people and our heritage has a
lot of music, architecture, and painters, and the Ottoman Empire's top
musicians, and composers and architects were all Armenians. We kind of
reminded the the youth and the Armenian community here that that is
one of our heritages, that it is okay to do these things and that not
everyone has to be a doctor or lawyer. That's really interesting as
well, besides the genocide awareness thing for System, I think that
has been an interesting inspiration to Armenian youth.
http://www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/counties/los-angeles/serj-tankian-where-im-from.html
From: Baghdasarian