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(7/6/02 11:43 am)
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Interview with System of a Down's Serj Tankian in Holland
Interview with System of a Down's Serj Tankian in Holland
Armenian News Network / Groong
Entertainment Wire
By Inge Drost and Nairi Hakhverdian
AMSTERDAM, The NETHERLANDS
On Saturday March 16 2002, System Of A Down gave a concert in Amsterdam at the Heineken Music Hall. We met with lead singer Serj Tankian a few hours prior to the concert for an interview.
Q: This is your fourth time in Holland. What are your impressions of Holland and your Dutch audience?
ST: The ability to speak freely on television. Completely freely. It gives a new twist to a free country. Holland is what America publicly aspires it is, but it's not. Free media, I like that.
The Dutch audience have been great. I don't know how to specialize them in comparison to other audiences because as far as I'm concerned major cities of any nation are more like each other, like rural areas are more like each other rather than this country versus that country versus that country.
Q: System of a down. A destructive system. You often coin the term with America. Do you feel the same applies to Armenia(ns)?
ST: I think only people themselves can bring themselves down, doesn't matter whether you're Armenian or not. I think that we help create our destiny and therefore we help create our downfall too.
I'm quite negative about the political system in Armenia as well. Very corrupt government. I mean, a lot of Armenians are on the world wanted list in Armenia, but many have been so raped and ****ed up by the thugs, ministers, whatever you want to call them, that it's very difficult for them to open up a business and not get robbed. Not robbed by your average guy. There is no crime in Armenia. Robbed by the mafia or the government which is... whatever, let's not get into that. But I think if they opened it up, and I really think that the assassinations that happened in the Armenian parliament had something to do with that, the Prime Minister was one of the biggest thieves who decided that the thievery should stop, and there were many other people around him, as well as Turkish backed and CIA backed operatives that made the deaths necessary. Not necessary for me, I think it was a terrible tragedy. I think that we have to be very careful and that the Armenian administration has to be very careful not to cause a tragedy to the Armenian people that the Turkish could never cause. In the last five years a million Armenians have left Armenia because of the economic deprivation. And that has a lot to do with how the government is raping that country. It's time to stop.
How can it be stopped? You've got a government, you've got parliament and you've got a lot of them that are fed by this old Soviet system of corruption. I don't know how to stop that. I don't know if that's a one-day transition. I'm hoping that in time they realize that if they stop the corruption, even if they limit the corruption, if you will, that foreign investment, primarily from Armenians who really in their hearts want to invest in their own country could be mutually beneficial for the country, for those ministers, as well as for unemployment. The country could be an economic boom like no other because it's a small country with not a lot of people, but it's got a lot of support in the diaspora that could really really make a huge economic significance upon it if it's done in the right way.
Q: Many Armenians support you, but as you probably already know, there are also Armenians who find your appearance and music 'a disgrace' to the Armenian culture. How do you feel about that?
ST: I've never been exposed to that. We haven't had many people really criticize what we're doing or whatever we appear to be and appearances are misleading, aren't they? When we first came out we were a lot more dramatic, with make-up and all this stuff so it might have been a cultural shock to Armenians. But I think we kind of opened something up. One thing I do want to say, since this is an Armenian interview, is this: being children of many generations of genocide, just like the Jews, our parents are usually wanting us to be lawyers and doctors because they want financial success. They want the stability that they didn't have when they started generally. But Armenians are very much artists at heart and we kind of brought that back to the Armenian community; to say that it's ok to be into music and the arts, you don't need to be a doctor or lawyer or anything. You could succeed in other ways.
Maybe there are people that don't like the way we look or whatever, we've had a large tremendous support from the Armenians, because they've realized what we've been doing and speaking about the genocide and even our success in the rock world. That they're very proud of. Armenians do have one thing that I don't like and it's that they don't commend their own before somebody else commends our own. That's kind of like a serf mentality. Living under Turkish rule for 600 years. I don't like that.
Q: We've understood that you like to consider yourselves a metal band rather than an Armenian band. Do you feel the same in your private life? i.e. We heard you speak Armenian, but do you also read and write Armenian, listen to or make Armenian music, eat Armenian food, practice Armenian religion etc.? How do you feel about 'keeping the Armenian culture alive'?
ST: Let me just state it this way: Armenian is who we are. Whatever we do it climbs into it, but our music is not just Armenian. If it was we'd be writing Dle Yaman and not ****ing PLUCK. So you don't have to worry about your culture if it's in you. Just let it be. You create from there on.
I don't really know what I am, I don't really pretend to know what I am, I don't know where I'm going, I don't know where I've been. I'm just riding it. I know where my people are from, I know where my roots are, I've learned a lot being Armenian. About injustice. The genocide opened my eyes to a lot of other injustices in the world. I believe that knowing who you are is very important. But I also believe that waving any flag is egotistical as well.
I think it's very important for us to realize that no matter where we live, the true elements of what we are are generally in use. But it's important for us to realize what we are all. It's not just an Armenian thing. The truism of our existence, not as Armenians, as animals, comes before all modern religions; it comes before all nationalities. The truism of what we are and why we're here on this planet is closer to native peoples, tribal peoples and all of the truth was more apparent than from what I've seen, from what I've read from what it is now. We're living a historic reality. And it doesn't matter whether you're Armenian or not. You're still living that historic reality. If you want to be a true Armenian, go find out how Armenians lived before Christianity, before the kings, before cities, before civilization.
[About religion] My religion is the same as the trees out there. It's the same inspiration. Whatever moves them, moves me. I believe that we're animals. I know we are because we die and we eat and we ****. And all modern religions to me are false. All modern religions come from a time of what we call civilization. Civilization has only existed ten thousand years among millions of years of man being on this planet. Everything before civilization is called prehistory. The reason that I don't give credence to modern religions is because they are only partially true. Because they were started from after civilization. Therefore they all start from a place that's not already to me natural. So if you want to know what my religion is, it's the same religion as the native American, same religion as the Aborigine, as the Maori in New-Zealand, as the Kahunas in Hawaii. I believe in beginnings.
Q: What does the future of System Of A Down look like?
ST: I have no idea and I don't pretend to know.
Q: Many young Armenians in Holland are ashamed of their ethnic background. They live quite isolated from the rest of the Armenian world. Is there anything you could say to them?
ST: It's ok to eat badeljan and hamburger on the same day.
Q: You also have many young Armenian fans here who are very proud of you. What would you like to say to them?
ST: Thank you. Quite generally it's a mad thing though.
Q: Serj, as the writer, lyricist and poet of the band: have you ever written a song or poem in Armenian? If so, would you be so kind as to sing or recite one?
ST: I've written stuff in Armenian, yea. I can't really recite it. It's out of my memory but I've written certain things in Armenian poetry. Lyrics and Armenian with music, I've never recorded that.
Q: Finally, any Armenian composers that inspired you?
ST: Gomidas is great, Sayat-Nova is great, Khachadurian is great. I don't know that many composers besides those I think. I've heard composition by all those three composers that I've enjoyed.
A favorite one? I don't even have a favorite band in modern music. I don't have a favorite singer, I don't have a favorite writer, I don't have a favorite anything. Because how can I say it's my favorite if I've learned different things from different places? What if I learned two more things from this guy than that guy? That's favorite? Makes no sense.
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