Sure, the vocals will be instantly recognizable, but other than that, the debut solo album by System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian, Elect the Dead, will be a different sort of beast. Not that it’s a simple pop record anything. Tankian has already recorded layers of pianos, strings and bizarre synth noises as well as a multitude of rock sounds.
“There are a lot of instruments,” he told MTVnews.com. “There’s a lot of guitars and lots of different affected guitars, heavy guitars — way too many guitar tracks. It’s just a different vibe. There’s maybe a song or two that may be reminiscent of some of the System stuff, but I think [this material] takes a lot of new directions.”
The disc will feature 11 tracks, including the likely first single “Empty Walls,” “Honking Antelope,” “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition,” “Lie, Lie, Lie,” and “The Unthinking Majority.” If the titles sound political it’s because they are. Tankian’s got some things to say about the current administration and the state of the nation, however, Elect the Dead isn’t merely a left-wing diatribe.
“It deals with everything in my daily life, whether it’s my daily ritual or interactions with people, politics, economics — anything in the world that touches me is an influence and comes through in the music, whether I know it or not,” he told MTVnews.com. “There’s humor, political stuff, ecological stuff, personal pain, transcending personal pain, transcending the material and physical — there’s a lot of things, whatever I felt at the moment and whatever came through.”
Even before System of a Down went on indefinite hiatus, Tankian was writing his own music. Then, when he no longer had to tour or write with the band, he started penning tracks for films, including William Friedkin’s “Bug,” and videogames. He also spent time working on his label Serjical Strike, home of Fair to Midland, Buckethead, Bad Acid Trip and others. While all of that was satisfying, Tankian felt the itch to start working on a solo album.
“I had never written full songs for me to sing, where I play all the instruments and produce it myself,” he said. “So I had all these songs that I felt really strong about, that I thought that I should be performing myself and not have them as songs for other people or for film or anything else. And that’s [how] Elect the Dead came about. It’s been a fun, liberating process.”
For the complete interview with Tankian, check out MTVnews.com.
For the System of a Down video for “B.Y.O.B.” look no further:
