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People always ask me 'do you think there should be more bands doing political music?' and I say 'absolutely not.'

Serj Tankian

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Serj Tankian
Age: 57
Born: 1967
Born: August 21
Bassist
Environmentalist
Essayist
Guitarist
Keyboardist
Lyricist
Peace Activist
Pianist
Poet
Record Producer
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
People
Absolutely
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Political
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Always
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Thinking
Bands

More quotes by Serj Tankian

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What does civilization mean to you, and what would its ending bring to the world?
Serj Tankian
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I really feel like civilisation's already over. It's not ending but it's already done. We're all addicted to the concept that humanity equals civilisation and that's not the case. We need a global conversation to be able to decipher how we can live from this point forward. We have to redefine our relationship with our environment.
Serj Tankian
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Awareness in our society has flipped all types of injustice on its head.
Serj Tankian
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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
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It's probably a combination of personal and non-personal matters that have led us to where we are musically.
Serj Tankian
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As long as people are living their truth or their vision, whether they're activists or not, that's the important thing.
Serj Tankian
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I don't find most people to be as politically engaged as I am. I do find people that appreciate eye-opening events and words, and who want to learn more about what's going on. I do find people with a lot of opinions. And I get a lot of people who come up to me and give us props for what we do.
Serj Tankian
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Sometimes it's better to have a benign dictator than a dumb democracy, to be honest.
Serj Tankian
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I hate injustice, and I can't help but speak against it. But I don't want to get involved in politics.
Serj Tankian
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The living ideas of the dead are more powerful and effective than the dead ideas of the living.
Serj Tankian
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'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
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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
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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
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Spirit moves through all things.
Serj Tankian
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The next song I wrote in Paris years ago in a dream. So I didn't really write it, the universe wrote it. And that's what I believe about music, I believe it belongs to the universe, it comes from there and it's this beautiful energy that we share that transcends normal flash existence and that we inspire each other through.
Serj Tankian
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Day is just a collection of hours.
Serj Tankian
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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
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We're addicted to this concept of civilization - we can't imagine living outside of it because we've had it for 10,000 years, all of what we call history. But according to archaeologists, humanity has been on this planet for millions of years in indigenous form.
Serj Tankian
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I believe very firmly that indigenous populations had a really good, intuitive understanding of why we're here. And we're trying to gain that same understanding through psychology and intellect in modern civilization.
Serj Tankian
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I have a more direct avenue to expression as an artist than I ever would as a politician.
Serj Tankian