“Watch Serj Talk About His SRJ Collection For APM”
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. Tankian's solo music has diversified over the years released over 20 full length albums and EPs, weaving in and out of multiple genres, including rock, orchestral, electronic, experimental and live concert albums.
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 has 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 the 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 creating music for the highly popular and critically acclaimed Netflix Original series Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street by Oscar-nominated director Joe Berlinger. He has also scored the music for Crime Scene – The Texas Killing Fields, another chart-topping series that saw Serj collaborate with Berlinger once more.
He also composed and produced the music for the second season of Zac Efron's Down To Earth series, another prominent series for Netflix. Before the year is up, another prominent docuseries will be announced that Serj was brought on to compose.
Tankian also composed the full musical score for an 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.