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I think music has the ability to inspire people and to change hearts, and the heart has the power to change the mind, and the mind has the power to change the world.

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
Hearts
Thinking
Ability
World
Change
People
Power
Music
Heart
Mind
Inspire
Think

More quotes by Serj Tankian

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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
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I've always thought of the sky as, like, an open canvas. When I was a kid and I looked at the sky, I always remember being able to daydream, just looking at the sky, being creative, being able to design things. What would happen if we had no sky? Where would we be? Well, obviously, scientifically, without an atmosphere, we'd all be dead.
Serj Tankian
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I like African music, and I'm a huge Ravi Shankar fan.
Serj Tankian
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Spirit moves through all things.
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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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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The living ideas of the dead are more powerful and effective than the dead ideas of the living.
Serj Tankian
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Life is that perfect fine line between ironies.
Serj Tankian
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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
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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'm a huge Beatles fan, but I've only really gotten into them as an adult.
Serj Tankian
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In terms of political things, I think it's important to be more direct in terms of political statements. I think in terms of philosophical and things that you plant things and see them grow lyrically or musically, it's okay to be subtle.
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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The best way to do that is to pick up a new instrument or an instrument that you don't typically write on and see where it takes you. Whether it's using an acoustic guitar, or piano, or electronics as tools, all of these lead to creating different types of songs and I used all of these methods for this record.
Serj Tankian
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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
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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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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
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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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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 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