Quote

When I was younger, I was listening to a lot of Armenian music, you know, revolutionary music about freedom and protest. In the 70s I was listening to soul and the Bee Gees and ABBA, and funk.

Serj Tankian

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Serj Tankian
Age: 57
Born: 1967
Born: August 21
Bassist
Environmentalist
Essayist
Guitarist
Keyboardist
Lyricist
Peace Activist
Pianist
Poet
Record Producer
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Freedom
Abba
Soul
Armenians
Music
Funk
Bees
Protest
Revolutionary
Younger
Gees
Listening
Armenian

More quotes by Serj Tankian

Image
I like African music, and I'm a huge Ravi Shankar fan.
Serj Tankian
Image
Life is that perfect fine line between ironies.
Serj Tankian
Image
The living ideas of the dead are more powerful and effective than the dead ideas of the living.
Serj Tankian
Image
Political statements are usually more direct, and it works with the upbeat music as well, for some reason, the directness of your statements.
Serj Tankian
Image
We [americans] self-regulate ourselves, we self-censor ourselves a lot in this country instead of having someone else censor us so we can blame them. That's not good, either.
Serj Tankian
Image
'Elect the Dead' is a rock record that takes you on a journey with different types of genres integrated, different lyrical themes digested, and many fun and colorful moments to enjoy.
Serj Tankian
Image
People always ask me 'do you think there should be more bands doing political music?' and I say 'absolutely not.'
Serj Tankian
Image
To deny a genocide because of convenience and expediency having to do with an illegal war or occupation in Iraq to me, is double hypocritical.
Serj Tankian
Image
As an artist, you never want to write the same song again, you always want to challenge yourself to writing in a different way.
Serj Tankian
Image
I think as consumers Europeans are a lot more artist loyal irrespective of the genre of music or the type of project or the collaborative effort, and Americans are more media-loyal, because they need to be fed that media to know what's going on, because we're so inundated with promotion and marketing and everything that's going on - advertising.
Serj Tankian
Image
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
Image
Sometimes it's better to have a benign dictator than a dumb democracy, to be honest.
Serj Tankian
Image
Science fails to recognize the single most potent element of human existence...faith.
Serj Tankian
Image
With most of the songs and music that I've composed, irrespective of the myriad videos made, I was always careful not to overly define the experience, leaving room for people to internalize things for themselves, making their experience more integral.
Serj Tankian
Image
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
Image
With 'Elect the Dead,' I learned how to make a rock record without a rock band and make the rock record I've always wanted to make.
Serj Tankian
Image
Awareness in our society has flipped all types of injustice on its head.
Serj Tankian
Image
It's probably a combination of personal and non-personal matters that have led us to where we are musically.
Serj Tankian
Image
I'm a huge Beatles fan, but I've only really gotten into them as an adult.
Serj Tankian
Image
I've got my own studio, and I've got four- to five-hundred unreleased tracks. I've got stuff that's electronic, orchestral, jazz, I've got rock, I've got metal, you know, I don't have polka.
Serj Tankian