Quotes by Serj Tankian

About Serj Tankian:

Serj Tankian is a Lebanese-born Armenian singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, poet, and political activist. He is best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, keyboardist and occasional live rhythm guitarist of the rock band System of a Down, formed in 1994 by four Armenian-American friends.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Awareness in our society has flipped all types of injustice on its head.

Serj Tankian

Composing is what I love most from what I do. Each genre has a unique expression that you cannot supplant with another. All the records co-inspire each other though they are not tied conceptually in any way to another.

Serj Tankian

People think our music's very aggressive or angry or whatever, and it's just the opposite, really... I like laughing. And I like being really calm before a show, and smiley.

Serj Tankian

The most important thing about music that I've learned after all this time is that to me, it's a way of reaching the truth.

Serj Tankian

With rock music, the amount of power that you can generate, the intensity behind the intentions of your lyrics that you can really reflect through rock music - you can't do that in jazz. You can't do that with classical.

Serj Tankian

I'd rather let the music speak for itself.

Serj Tankian

I've always worked on all different types of music, some with specific project goals and deadlines and some not. Sometimes I would write a piece of music that is almost like a film score or weird electro pieces, wherever the muse took me, and I still...

Serj Tankian

I think music is a powerful medium because it co-inspires. It inspires the artist who then inspires the listener, and it's a back-and-forth process.

Serj Tankian

I write music when I'm free and for no particular project in mind.

Serj Tankian

In America, there's more of the question, should music be political or should it just be for entertainment purposes, whereas around the world that's not even an issue. I think people just assume that music should be everything.

Serj Tankian

A lot of pop music is based on trying to make people remember it so that they'll buy it. To me, it was not about that.

Serj Tankian

In the last few years I've been listening to jazz more than anything else. I listen to a lot of world music and experimental here and there.

Serj Tankian

I've always tried to listen to a lot of different music from around the world.

Serj Tankian

I like African music, and I'm a huge Ravi Shankar fan.

Serj Tankian

People always ask me 'do you think there should be more bands doing political music?' and I say 'absolutely not.'

Serj Tankian

As long as people are living their truth or their vision, whether they're activists or not, that's the important thing.

Serj Tankian

I'm not comfortable with just entertaining. Although I like entertaining, I also like bringing forward the truth of our times as minstrels used to in the old days.

Serj Tankian

I hate injustice, and I can't help but speak against it. But I don't want to get involved in politics.

Serj Tankian

My two interests are spirituality and politics. I would mesh them in some way; maybe try to figure out the politics of spirituality, or the spirituality of politics. Or maybe come up with this really crazy naive solution for the end of civilization.

Serj Tankian

I think I might write a book. I like writing. People have asked me if I would get into politics, but I think I feel a lot more effective being a representative of truth through the arts.

Serj Tankian

Author Bio

  • NameSerj Tankian
  • Descriptionmusician
  • BornSeptember 21, 1967
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionSinger; Poet; Essayist; Songwriter