BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) SOLO SERJ
Serj Tankian is best known for awesome genius and vocal work in System of a Down. His voice is unique and has become one of modern rock’s signature sounds. But not that the band is on hiatus, Serj has been putting his voice to his own solo works. In 2007 he released “Elect the Dead”, which for the most part, sounded like a really good System album. The even better part was the follow up, “Elect the Symphony”. You have not heard Serj until you’ve heard him with a fully trained back up symphony. Then recently, Serj put out another solo album “Imperfect Harmonies”. Just because the band is taking a break, Serj continues to put out some great material.
(THREE) ANIMAL ACTIVIST
Serj has become a vegetarian and a huge activist on behalf of animals and specifically PETA. His biggest issue is how animals are treated in industrial slaughterhouses. In the summer of 2009 he signed a PETA petition against KFC’s slaughter methods. Outside of doing it for mother earth, he credits the change to being forced/tempted to eat tons of junk while on the road touring.
(TWO) TRAVELER
I know most famous musicians are travelers by craft, but this is different. Serj was born in Lebanon and was moved to Los Angeles, California when he was eight. He is now a resident of New Zealand. So that’s a pretty big balance of home bases and then add the extensive touring the guy does all the time. Serj might as well be a nomad.
(ONE) NERD
To make Serj even cooler, he’s a nerd like the rest of us. He has a 4.0 GPA in high school and went on to study marketing. He was the CEO for a computer software company called eGames. He came up with the game “Speedy Eggbert” and other software. I’m sure the marketing really helped the band situation once that got rolling. He’s not just a techie nerd, he’s also an artsie one. He has two poetry books that he wrote. He does it all….
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