A singer, poet, songwriter, visual artist, film producer, activist, and composer; Serj Tankian has always created music as an outlet to express his thoughts and feelings with a level of passion and consciousness that few in today’s world of music can rival. An Armenian born in Lebanon and re-rooted in Los Angeles, Tankian was introduced to the melding of cultures, ideas, and ideals from a very young age. The principles learned from this integration and adaptation have led to his understanding of the oneness of all things and have since maneuvered and transfigured into the music and art that he lives to create. As the lead singer and songwriter for System Of A Down, Serj has released five studio albums, winning a GRAMMY Award in 2006 for “B.Y.O.B.” and selling over 40 million albums worldwide.
Despite this success, Serj has never grown complacent with his art, always striving to open up new channels of sound and arrangement to articulate his artistic expressions. He has released multiple albums of solo material, beginning with 2007's chart-topping hard rock album Elect The Dead. His sophomore solo album Imperfect Harmonies was released in 2010, followed by Harakiri in 2012. 2013 saw two distinct releases from Serj, the first being the critically acclaimed Orca Symphony No. 1, released in June of that year, followed up with the very unique Jazz-Iz Christ one month later. Throughout 2021, Tankian released a treasure trove of new music beginning with his critically acclaimed rock EP Elasticity. Cool Gardens Poetry Suite came next, which was an amalgam of cinematic music and Serj’s recital of his own poetry. This was followed up by a two-part collection of instrumental music dubbed Cinematique Series: Illuminate and Cinematique Series: Violent Violins. 2021 was capped with Live in Edmonton, a raucous live performance Tankian and his backing band The F.C.C. recorded shortly after the release of Elect The Dead. Live at Leeds, another concert performance recording was released in April of 2022 followed by Perplex Cities in October of the same year. The 5 song EP is Tankian's latest studio release that he describes “is a completely different sound than what I’ve done before. More electronic, subtle and deeper in terms of its layers of presentation musically."
Over the past few years, his time spent in the recording studio has been focused on creating musical scores and compositions for film and video game projects. Serj recently lent his vocals to a modern-day cover of Blue Öyster Cult’s rock classic “Godzilla” for the blockbuster Michael Dougherty film Godzilla: King Of The Monsters. In 2022, Serj also lent his vocals for critically acclaimed video game Metal:Hellsinger on the epic track "No Tomorrow". He also recorded a modern version of the Armenian folk song “Sari Siroun Yar” along with the Authentic Light Orchestra for the film The Promise, directed by Terry George and starring Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac. Serj was also brought on by Survival Pictures, the producers of the film, to serve as an Executive Music Consultant.
His most recent cinematic works include music for upcoming Netflix Original series Crime Scene – The Texas Killing Fields created by Oscar nominated director Joe Berlinger as well as composing for the second season of Zac Efron's Down To Earth series. Before the year is up, another prominent Netflix docuseries will be announced that Serj was brought on to compose. Tankian also composed the full musical score for award winning documentary I Am Not Alone directed by Garin Hovannisian and Live Nation Productions film Truth To Power, which chronicles Serj's own journey through the crossroads of music and activism. In 2017, he composed music for Emmy nominated Intent To Destroy, a gripping film directed by award winning documentarian Joe Berlinger. That same year he created an intense score for the epic Russian action film Furious - The Legend of Kolovrat, followed by his 2018 musical score for award winning film Spitak, directed by Alexander Kott. Additionally, Tankian composed the full musical score for independent films 1915 and The Last Inhabitant, an original composition for Ilya Naishuller's Hardcore Henry and video game musical scores for Midnight Star and its sequel, Renegade, which were created by one of the chief architects of the famed Halo game franchise.
Serj’s resume also includes the formation of a record label, Serjical Strike Records (established in 2001), which has released albums from many critically acclaimed artists, including Fair To Midland, Buckethead and Death By Stereo.
Along with fellow musician Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave), Serj co-founded the non-profit organization Axis Of Justice in 2002, which strives to bring together musicians, music fans and grassroots political organizations to fight for social justice. He has also dabbled in the world of broadcasting as co-host of the Axis Of Justice Radio Network, which can be heard via Sirius Satellite Radio and KPFK in Los Angeles. With a mission of spreading diversity and understanding through music, poetry and activism, Serj Tankian will continue to surprise and enlighten those who listen to his music and hear his words.
In recent years, Tankian has split his time between holding a mic and a paintbrush, having feverishly created over 80 pieces of art since 2013. His journey into the world of fine art began with his Disarming Time Musical Paintings, which were exhibited at Project Gallery in Los Angeles. Since then, he has had multiple exhibitions at galleries in both the United States and New Zealand. In 2015, his artwork was exhibited at the grand opening of New Museum Los Gatos in Northern California as part of a group exhibit that ran from May through September of that year. Most recently, Serj’s artwork was exhibited in Los Angeles at Tufenkian Fine Arts in summer of 2021 and most recently at Stephanie's Gallery in October of 2022. Across the Pacific in New Zealand, Tankian exhibited work February and March of 2019 at The Vivian and Boyd-Dunlop Gallery respectively. He has two upcoming New Zealand exhibits slated for Auckland and Wellington for February of '23. Serj has also taken his artistic creations into the realm of the digital with his NFT collection “Not For Touching: The Intangible Composition”, which successfully launched on the Curio platform in December of 2021.