Serj Tankian talks about Bob Marley and John Lennon

Serj Tankian talks about who is influential in music life and who were inspired by him. Besides, the artist spoke about his musical journey.

He is an Armenian-American singer, musician, and political activist and SYSTEM OF A DOWN frontman, born in 1967. He thinks his title of political activist is one thing that best describes him. In the content of this news, we will learn why the title of ‘political activist’ is important for him and how effective it is in his music life.

Serj Tankian talked about METALLICA and said he wanted to make music like them. Click here to read the interview.

Serj Tankian, who recently interviewed Rolling Stone, spoke about the artists who influenced him, his musical adventure.

During the interview, Kory Grow talked about the activist side of the SYSTEM OF A DOWN. Serj Tankian, who recorded songs with open messages such as ‘Prison Song’, has always criticized the country and world problems from his perspective. When Kory Grow asked if there was a purpose to make activist and absurd music, Serj replied:

“It totally evolved naturally, it’s not something that we planned. It’s kind of interesting. I like how you said we melded activism with absurdity really well, and that’s unique with System of a Down. It’s kind of like Zappa, what Zappa would do in some ways make statements, but also have absurd music integrated into that.”

Who inspired Serj Tankian?

Serj had previously said that he was an activist while not a musician. Though, he still reflects his activist spirit in his music. However, he answers what drove him from being an activist to music: “John Lennon, Bob Marley, artists that not only did arts for the sake of art but also put something in because something fucking pissed them off, something made them speak out, speak truth to power, or wanting to find justice in some ways.”

So we can say that artists like Bob Marley and John Lennon are the people who inspired Serj Tankian. Serj also said that Bob Marley did incredible things, combining activism and dance.

In addition, Serj said that he did not listen to heavy metal in the past, he started to listen to this music thanks to a friend and that his musical life was shaped: “My musical roots are way more world-music, jazz, pop, classical, you name it. “I never decided that, it’s the guys I started jamming with that were really into heavy music, that made me into a heavy musician.

So when we started collaborating, he (Daron) would play me all this heavy music. At the time, I had this really crazy thing, and Daron did it as well, but we would both binge and purge on music.”

You can listen to the SYSTEM OF A DOWN‘s ‘Prison Song’ below.