A SERJ OF CONTROVERSY
Shaun Love

The Skinny
serj-of-controversy
Aug 19 2008
UK

Since System of a Down went on an ‘extended hiatus’ in August 2006,
frontman Serj Tankian went completely solo with last year’s Elect the
Dead. Shaun Love patched in a transatlantic call ahead of Tankian’s
trip to the UK next month to discuss single life, airborne genitalia
and the consequences of being an overtly political musician Having
almost entirely written, performed and produced Elect the Dead, has the
experience of going solo improved or changed you much as a musician?

"Absolutely, as a songwriter it presented a lot of interesting
challenges and as a musician I got to exercise my chops on guitar,
piano, string arrangements, bass, programming drums, producing
and putting it out on my own label. It was like an all round arts
project that came together for me, like a composer’s way of making
a rock record."

Your touring band’s called the Flying Cunts of Chaos, what’s that
about?

"Well, I was originally thinking of naming the record that, but
I thought it might not make it into any retail stores. So when it
was time to come up with a name for the band I thought ‘Serj and
the Flying Cunts of Chaos’ just for fun, to be honest. We had two
or three different names, I ran them by the guys in the band and,
overwhelmingly, everyone liked the ‘Cunts’, so…"

You make it sound like such a reasonable suggestion. You’re well
renowned for your activism. can you tell me about your Elect the
Dead campaign?

"We set up a website (electthedead.com) to get signatures on electoral
reform points that I came up with. I’m working with Axis of Justice
and building coalitions between different democratic organisations like
RegisterToVote.org, MoveOn.org, DeclareYourself.com and Progressive.org
to get signatures. It’s building by the thousands all the time. Once
we have a decent number of signatories we want to take it to certain
members of congress and see if we can make it into a resolution or
a number of resolutions."

Video – Serj Tankian – Sky Is Over

What did you make of Bjork’s recent controversy where she was condemned
by the Chinese government and knocked off the Serbian Exit music
festival’s bill for associating her song Declare Independence with
Tibet and Kosovo during her concerts in China and Japan?

"Awesome. To be condemned by any government is awesome."

What do you say to her claim that she wasn’t making a political
statement so much as expressing the need for freedom as a human
emotion?

"Most artists make their points from an intuitive emotional point of
view rather than a political logical point of view, and that’s what
we should be doing. I have much respect for that."

I only bring it up because politics have played such a key part in
your music. Have you found yourself in any similar controversies?

"I had an article called ‘Understanding Oil’ appear on our website
on September 12th, 2001. I got death threats; radio station program
directors were dropping our single, Chop Suey, at the time; all over
the airwaves in the US people were telling me to get the fuck out of
the country if I don’t like America. All sorts of fun stuff. A lot of
reactionism prevailed in the US at the time, and people weren’t ready
to listen to logical explanations of the after-effects of our oil
policy in the last 100 years in the Middle East. So yeah, I’ve had my
share. But hers is nicer, I like that better. I’d rather be condemned
by a whole government for having emotions. I want to join her!"