Serj Tankian on the possibility of new System of down music/tour, his memoir, activism, nu-metal

Serj Tankian is best known for being the frontman for System of a Down, an activist and now an author with his new memoir “Down with the System.” We talk about the early years of SOAD, how he felt about nu-metal, his past life as a software entrepreneur, unreleased SOAD songs and the one thing it would take for the band to put out a new album.

Also, people used to scream “wake up” at him n the street because of their song “Chop Suey” so I find out if they are still doing that, what bands he’d love to tour with, his thoughts on new artists like, how he ended up doing a song for the Godzilla movie. Speaking of movies, will his memoir be turned into a movie one day?

Serj also has a new solo EP called Foundations coming out soon, but the first single “A.F Day” is out now. Serj told me that the song was written in the early days of SOAD and the vocals on the track are actually the original vocals from 25 years ago. So be sure to give that a stream when you’re done here and of course check out the book.

Connect with Serj Tankian
https://linktr.ee/serjical

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00:00 intro
04:36 writing a memoir
06:03 how the "Godzilla" cover happened
07:45 the unexpected success of System of a Down
09:23 how they felt about nu-metal
11:42 blur at Coachella
13:31 owning a software company before SOAD
17:13 do people still scare him with "wake up!"
18:50 using music for a positive change
24:59 what would it take for a new album
28:29 who would he like to tour with
33:36 unreleased SOAD songs