SYSTEM’S DOWN: SERJ TANKIAN
Glenn Dixon
Express from The Washington Post
/05/systems_down_serj_tankian.php
May 15 2008
DC
ASIDE FROM RAW POLITICAL FERVOR, one of the things that sets
System of a Down apart from the host of nu-metal also-rans was the
Armenian-American quartet’s defiantly non-Western sound.
But when asked to get all music-theoretical on it, the guy behind
some of the most distinctive hard-rock harmonies since Alice in Chains
shrugs it off.
"I try to get on scales that don’t make me look fat," Serj Tankian
deadpans. "I have no idea, ’cause I’ve never studied music. I really
just do whatever comes naturally to me."
Though born in Beirut, he doesn’t dwell on his songs’ Middle Eastern
vibe:
"I think it’s more in my voice than in my music, to be honest, kind of
like a deep melancholy that comes from the Old World with an optimism
that comes from the New."
The words he pens are a similar no-go. Here’s an odd bit from "The
Unthinking Majority," the second track off Tankian’s solo debut,
"Elect the Dead": "Anti-depressants / Controlling tools of your system
/ Making life more tolerable / Making life more tolerable."
There’s no mistaking the critical tone, but is he pulling a Tom Cruise?
Apparently, the antidepressants Tankian tackles needn’t come from CVS.
"I usually like leaving lyrics pretty much open to interpretation,"
he replies. "When you ask me a question in terms of what I think
about life or civilization or whatnot, I respond pretty openly. But
when it comes to lyrics, I kinda like having the listener internalize
it and live with it and decide what it means. Because over the years
I’ve realized that, just like music, lyrics don’t necessarily solely
belong to the songwriter. They come from somewhere else, from beyond
us, in terms of inspiration. And sometimes the meaning is elusive
even to the person who wrote it."
Still, many of the fans drawn to the 9:30 Club Thursday will be there
for Tankian’s sharp-tongued point of view.
He’s on record as thinking that globally we’ve reached a dead end:
"We’re so addicted to the concept of civilization that we can’t
imagine living ‘outside’ this city called civilization. What would
happen if civilization crashed? No one ever says that."
He decries the tendency to think of war, global warming, population
growth and the consumption of natural resources as separate issues.
"I always see the new world as a more local type of world," he says. "I
don’t see large cities. I see very small communes. I see naturally
produced energy. I see naturally and locally grown organic food. I
see a very beautiful, modern community that still utilizes a high
amount of technology but lives in a very plain type of way."
What’s perhaps weirdest about our conversation is that the voluble
yet somehow easygoing Tankian never comes off defeated.
Knowing he doesn’t have all the answers doesn’t keep the questions
from rocking like hell.
" 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; 7:30 p.m. $25; 800-955-5566. (U St.-Cardozo)