Original subtitles

Downloaded from YTS.MX

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

Okay.

So I wanna begin with a... with a simple question:

you've been pursuing justice all your life,

you've been singing about justice all your life.

Right.

So, can music change the world?

In 2015, System of a Down played our first show in

Armenia.

We were so excited to perform for our people.

But there was something that was really gnawing at me.

I knew that Armenia's government was corrupt to the core and

needed to change.

And the country's biggest square was filling up with people

waiting to hear what we had to say.

Before the show...

I had this sense of calmness that is rare.

And I just looked at the guys and it almost felt like we

were... created...

to play that night.

We've come a long way, Armenia.

But there's still a lot of fucking work to do.

I didn't know how long it would take for the reversal

of fortunes.

But I knew that it was coming.

We are System of a Down, and it's our responsibility...

to tell you these things and to rock you at the same time.

The Armenian hard rockers System of a Down are political

and popular.

They're a damn good rock and roll band!

System of a Down!

The Grammy Award-winning band...

Sold nearly 20 million CDs.

Propelled by the powerful band,

frontman Serj Tankian...

Serj Tankian has emerged as a voice of

justice for the Armenian people.

My grandfather's a survivor of the Armenian genocide.

Calling on the world to recognize the forgotten

Armenian genocide of 1915, but also taking on Armenia's own

government.

The people are out there, tired of a corrupt regime,

and they want it to change.

And calling on his millions of fans...

to bring down the system.

Continue your path of peaceful resistance and don't fall into

the traps of provocateurs.

This is our living room, and, uh, we're surrounded

by trees and... and love living amongst them.

Because of touring, I... I don't get a lot of time to relax on

the road, so when I come home, I like being in a silent place.

So we've got, uh, a Grammy here.

"System of a Down...

B.Y.O.B, Best Hard Rock Performance."

They used to be downstairs in my office but that turned into our

son's room so...

now they hang out here.

All right.

So that's the closet.

Music was always important to me.

Um, you know, I listened to music at home as a kid.

Let's see what's in here.

But I've been writing poetry longer than I've been playing

music.

So this is '97.

January 8, '97.

So this is... this must be the year we got signed with System.

Poetry, to me, was very important because it was a way

of reaching the truth without necessarily,

uh, reasonable prose.

I had a habit of writing every night before I went to sleep.

That's why a lot of it, I've converted into lyrics.

Oh, here's... here's a... here's an early System song that no

one's ever heard because we've never released it.

It's called "Friik."

F-R-double I-K.

So it goes, "What's my problem?

Here's my problem.

My problem is that I'm too visual to be blind,

too audiological to be deaf, too idealogical to be in peace,

too compassionate to be in war, too crazy to be sane,

too sane to be lazy, too emotional to be you."

It's kind of interesting because when I first started music,

I had no idea of where I would end up.

My own family came here to Los Angeles,

migrated in 1975.

You can see some of the signs, uh,

written in Armenian.

You can see a sign that says "Little Armenia"...

here.

Where?

I don't see it.

Um, trust me, it's Little Armenia.

Right in the middle of Hollywood,

the Armenian community had a school,

a church, different cafes, bakeries,

restaurants.

- Hey! - Hey!

- How are you, bro? - Hey, Serj.

You know, it was... it was a settlement with Armenians

from all over the world. Very good!

- How's everything? - Good.

Good to see you.

Very good!

You know, the different foods...

the smells that you'd get walking on Hollywood Boulevard

or Fountain...

I mean, look at this.

It's like heaven.

Gata.

Or the yelling on the streets and... and honking for someone to

come down.

All of those are kind of a really beautiful tapestry in...

in my mind as a child.

Mm.

Wow.

That's good.

That looks good, too.

I'm gonna try the same one.

When my parents came here, they had zero money and

they did not neglect our education.

From day one, they put us in Armenian school.

And within that community, I made a lot of great friends.

After graduating high school,

I got accepted to Cal State University Northridge.

At the time, I didn't really know what I wanted to do as a

career, so I thought I'd do business.

It's while I was going to university that I got a small

Casio keyboard and started playing it as a way to kind of

relieve my senses from my mind always working,

whether it was on studies or what was going on with the rest

of my life at the time.

I was always very rational, very studious,

very... kind of thinking and the studying mind.

But once I started doing music, I realized that the right side

of my brain can really take off.

The first band that I ever played in,

uh, was called Forever Young.

I started playing keyboards with them.

The one and only show that we ever played was

at the Armenian Cultural Center in Hollywood.

It was an interesting start,

'cause first of all, we were doing songs in English and in

Armenian.

'Cause that really was our lives as young

Armenian-Americans growing up in Los Angeles.

You know, we were a part of both cultures simultaneously.

So while in Forever Young,

we... we were sharing a rehearsal space with another band,

ano... uh, a bunch of friends of ours.

And at one point, they brought in a new guitarist,

and that was Daron Malakian.

The first time we actually worked together was

on a song called "Waco Jesus."

It's a song that we both co-wrote along with the guys

from Forever Young.

And it's the first song I ever recorded as a vocalist.

And the reason I sang on it was our singer wasn't around to sing

and... and I had written the lyrics already for it.

So after working on the song with Daron,

we clicked.

Dave Hakopyan was our bassist in both bands,

so he joined us as our bassist.

- Is it recording? - Yeah.

And formed a band called Soil.

♪ Why can't you ♪

♪ Look at me... ♪

Soil was around for eight months.

And it's in Soil that I started developing my chops.

I was, like, going for anything.

Why did you guys play it so fast,

man?

I was playing music at nights, but still,

I wouldn't admit to myself that that was my calling.

And after university, uh, started working with my uncle in

the jewelry business in downtown LA.

You know, uh, doing trade shows and being on the calls,

taking orders.

And a few years in, I was... I was really disgruntled.

I'm like, "This is not my vision.

This is not my path."

After a long day of work downtown,

I drove to Long Beach, uh, to take these Kaplan classes to,

uh, learn how to take the L-SAT, and I realized I had zero

enthusiasm for the legal field, even though I thought I could do

it, you know?

And I remember going once or twice and it was horrible.

I... I... I didn't know what I was doing there.

I was fuckin' depressed.

It was really late at night, raining like crazy,

and I had an epiphany, I just...

I got overwhelmed.

My subconscious literally took over.

I slammed on the... on the brakes.

I started hitting my dashboard and going "I wanna fucking do

music.

Fuck all this shit."

And from there, my life changed.

603, take two, common mark.

Ouch.

I was playing in a band...

off of Verdugo in Burbank at Nightingale Studios where Serj

was at, so that's where I met Serj.

I kind of saw him as a keyboard player.

He was always, like, the elder and he had businesses and he was

doing other things.

He's always done too many... a lot of things.

I said "too many."

He's always done a lot of things.

Two weeks later, I get a call from their bass player,

Dave, and he's like, "You know, I'm not gonna be in the band

anymore.

I don't know if... I think they want to play with you."

And I'm like, "What do you mean 'play with me?'"

A couple of days... a couple of weeks passed and...

we talked and we said, "We're gonna do a different band.

We're not doing Soil.

We're not continuing Soil.

Soil is... Soil was what it was.

We're gonna go somewhere else with me.

And we'll find a drummer."

So, it was on.

Daron's always been a great songwriter.

I was bringing in the lyrics, Shavo would bring in a riff or

two.

But I can tell you, I remember the day when John first played

with us.

System of a Down's sound went from this...

to this.

Praise the Lord!

Pass the ammunition!

God wants you to go to war.

Being that we're all Armenian,

it is pretty unique, you know?

Um, not too many people knew what Armenians were,

especially in the United States at that time.

Uh, there were no Kardashians yet.

It wasn't just a band playing music.

It was a musical cause taking the stage.

And Serj came with a chip on his shoulder.

Once you're onstage, I've called it the "truth serum" in a

way, because I don't think about what I'm going to say,

how I'm going to say it.

I just open my mouth and it comes out.

But all of it comes from a personal place.

One of the songs that I remember from my childhood very

vividly is a song that my dad used to always sing.

A song called "Bari Aragil."

As a kid, I didn't know what the lyrics meant.

"Bari aragil," uh, literally translated means "kind stork."

And the stork is known as the bird that returns home.

And so, um, it's been used as a symbolism for Armenians that

want to return home because most Armenians are diasporan

Armenians.

Most Armenians have lived outside of the homeland.

The reason that the Armenian community is spread

around the world is because of the genocide.

During the first World War, the Ottomans committed their

atrocities, there was a genocide,

one-and-a-half million people were killed,

and those that escaped... you know,

the orphans and whatnot... made it all the way to the

Middle East and different parts of the world.

When we were at an age where we could actually understand and

speak about these things, my grandparents explained to us

their family story and how they survived the genocide.

After witnessing the murder of his father and going blind from

hunger, my grandfather eventually ended up in an

orphanage in Lebanon.

So I was actually born in Beirut.

But a civil war in 1975 forced my family to escape again,

this time, to Los Angeles.

The continued denial of the genocide by the government of

Turkey has further fueled this trauma.

And it doesn't help the US government being a NATO ally for

political expediency or to sell them more Apache helicopters or

different economic reasons.

Congress has once again failed to recognize

the Armenian genocide, presumably fearing repercussions

from Turkey.

A sour note for the Armenian community.

- Hey, wow. - How are you?

- Such a long time, how are you? - I know, good seeing you...

In other words, we're dealing with a country that has

committed genocide that is not admitting that they've committed

genocide.

And we're treating them like a close ally.

And that is wrong in anybody's book.

You guys are the generation to come up with new ways and new

interesting, uh, empathetic ways of,

uh, having people understand not just the Armenian genocide but,

because of our history and what we've experienced,

having people understand the scourge of genocide in general.

We have a surprise for you.

- Okay. - And we really hope you like it.

Okay.

Oh, wow.

A musical number.

For me, the recognition of the Armenian genocide has

always been a personal quest.

Amazing, wow.

Before my grandfather passed away,

I made a promise that I would do my best to take this issue to

the forefront of whatever I do in my life.

Wow.

You guys are awesome.

That was beautiful.

That's awesome, thank you.

A lot of the labels were scared of them.

They didn't get it.

How do you market four Armenian guys that are not scared to

speak their mind, that can polarize people by speaking

about the lack of recognition of Armenian genocide,

about... about politics, about corruption.

Free-thinkers are dangerous!

And that's one of the things that people really

latched onto as fans.

And so through time, that uniqueness became their biggest

power.

♪ Need the ones you love and ♪

♪ Love the ones you bleed... ♪

By the time that we actually played the Viper Room,

our manager mentioned that he'd love to have Rick Rubin hear our

band.

And we were like, "What?

Rick Rubin might come to see us play?

Wow."

Like, we were blown away.

From Def Jam to, you know, Slayer to everything he had

done, the Chili Peppers and, you know,

it's... we just thought it would be perfect.

So we started playing, and we see Rick Rubin walking in

and sitting right there.

♪ It'll be all right ♪

Hey!

The Viper Room was packed.

I can remember where I was sitting in the booth.

Sitting up on the top of the booth because it was... you

couldn't s... everybody was so wild that you had to be up high

to be able to see anything.

And I remember watching the show and just laughing.

And I... it was so...

extreme and different than anything that I saw before that

the... the only reaction was to laugh.

What it sounded like to me was a combination of ancient folk

music mixed with heavy metal, and I'd never heard that

combination.

And it was thrilling.

This is Rick's house's studio.

Look, we've got machinery, we've got animals...

Molly!

Molly!

So when the record was ready, we went on tour with Slayer.

We are in System of a Down's dressing room.

Serj, the resident terrorist.

And that was like bootcamp, to learn how to deal with a Slayer

audience.

There was this one show where we played the first song and no one

reacted to it.

And I think it was Daron's idea to just play the song again.

We're System of a Down.

And whether you like us or you hate us...

They're gonna kill us!

I'm like, "I'm so glad you loved that song.

We're gonna play it for you again."

We played it again and we got their respect.

That experience basically prepared me

for a touring career.

See, you can play a lampshade and consider yourself an artist.

If you do it right, it there's lights going on and off and on

and off and on...

I'm so lucky to be playing music with three of

my best friends in the world.

That's my life, you know?

I don't have to play... 'cause if I had a 9-to-5 job at a bank

like I used to or delivering flowers,

I'd still go home at night and play my guitar.

Those first two and a half years of touring is what

solidified System permanently.

Created that one-on-one interaction with people that

became the early System fans.

System of a Down, man!

Wooh!

They're the ones that spread the gospel.

We are having our say and we are having our voice on... on

political issues, but they're putting it into music,

which is getting out to loads of people across... across the

world.

♪ Why'd you leave the keys upon the table? ♪

♪ (You wanted to) ♪

♪ I don't think you trust... ♪

We were writing our second record,

in the studio recording the song "Chop Suey."

So we were writing, you know, the... the lyrics but that

middle, the breakdown part, I was stuck.

We went to the library of my house and I said,

"Just pick a book randomly" and you picked a book randomly,

and I said, "Open it up randomly and just point to a phrase."

I couldn't believe it when I put my finger and I read it.

The universe is conspiring on our behalf all the

time if you're... if you're open.

And that ended up being the first line of the bridge.

"Father, have you forsaken me?

Father, have you forsaken me?"

♪ Father! (Father!) ♪

♪ Father! (Father!) ♪

♪ Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit ♪

♪ Father, into your hands, why have you forsaken me? ♪

♪ In your eyes forsaken me ♪

♪ In your thoughts forsaken me ♪

♪ I cry ♪

♪ When angels deserve to die... ♪

'Toxicity' was released September of 2001.

And the day before, we were gonna have a show in Hollywood

to obviously set up the record.

It was a free show.

And I don't think anyone knew how big the band was.

As were about to play the show...

we're told that there are too many people.

This was supposed to be a free concert by the group System of a

Down, and it did go downhill fast.

Police on horseback...

The fire marshal won't let us on the stage to play.

Breaking down barricades,

fans tipped over speakers onstage,

took off running with expensive equipment,

and vandalized anything...

They didn't know who the riot was about,

what was happening.

Like, what?

This is all about a band?

Like wildfire, through the crowd and then the

streets of Hollywood...

The newswire circulated nationwide on the eve of our

record release.

Are System of a Down fans taking the message of

political rebellion too far?

I mean, who the hell thought System of a Down,

four Armenian kids, misfits that came together and made music

that never should have been popular,

now we're on CNN and there's a riot because of us?

And that was it, man.

That was the spark.

♪ When angels deserve to die ♪

And then, it was like two weeks later and.

It is beautiful outside,

perfect September day with lots of sunshine.

Oh, would you look at...

This just in.

You are looking at, obviously, a very disturbing live shot there.

That is the World Trade Center and we have...

Oh, my God.

Another plane has just hit.

Oh, another one just hit!

Oh, my God.

It was fucked up.

Like, everything felt out-of-control.

Everything felt like there was no one in charge.

I saw smoke coming out and everybody started running out

and we saw the plane on the other s... side of the building

and there was smoke everywhere and people were jumping out the

windows... over there!

They're jumping out the windows...

I was so depressed by what was going on that it made

me really look into the causes.

What can cause something like this?

"Understanding oil, September 13, 2001."

So I wrote an essay...

"Why did these people do this horrific act of violence

and destruction?

To be able to understand the answer to this,

we must first look at our US Mid-East policy..."

I kind of analyzed what type of dictators and despots have the

US supported over the last 50 years.

"What everyone fails to realize is that the bombings

are a reaction to existing injustices around the world,

generally unseen to most Americans...

The wars waged by our government have landed smack in the middle

of our living room..."

So I posted it to the band's website.

And I didn't think anything of it.

And then all hell broke loose.

Serj, without discussing it with anybody in the band,

put up something that was really...

It wasn't... it wasn't untrue.

But you don't go to somebody that just had a death in the

family and talk about how shitty that person was to them.

And it certainly didn't represent the way the rest of us

felt.

I was really pissed.

The way it came off is "Fuck you,

America.

It's your fault that this happened to your people."

And that was uncool.

We got banned everywhere, you know?

For the first month of our record release.

Clear Channel sent out a bunch of titles of songs that they

wanted removed from the playlists.

One of them was "Chop Suey."

"Trust in my self-righteous suicide," the... the main lyric

in the chorus.

The lead singer of System of a Down

is gonna call in, Serj, because...

Oh, wonderful.

He wants to explain himself.

That he's just a man of peace and love and he's getting...

I remember being in a hotel room,

having to wake up at 4AM to get on the Howard Stern Show and

defend my words and... and... and explain that,

"Look, I'm just trying to understand what's going on.

Everything I've said is factual.

And... and I'd be happy to talk about it."

But I also felt scared.

We were getting personal death threats.

The band pulled me into a room, sat me down,

and goes, "What the fuck are you trying to do to us,

get us killed?!"

And I'm like, "Guys, I'm so sorry,

I'm just... it's... honestly, it's the truth!"

Like, I was so naive that I thought that because it was the

truth, that it was okay to say it.

Did we deserve to be bombed...?

Oh, absolutely not.

I think people think that maybe that's what you're

saying, that we deserved to be bombed.

Oh, no, man, absolutely...

That we brought it on ourselves.

- Right. - No, absolutely not...

When I hung up that phone, I remember feeling like shit.

I was playing a line where I was defending myself,

but I couldn't really get into the main issues and kind of

really fight for my words.

And that made me feel really bad.

I f... I felt constrained.

I felt...

I felt like I couldn't say what I wanted in a well-known

democracy.

I don't know what Serj said.

Believe me...

He wasn't gonna say what he said.

Yeah, I don't know... I don't know what kind of

guy Serj is so, you know, I gave Serj the opportunity to speak

and... and what the hell, you make your own conclusions.

That's the true artist's role in society.

That's why we're here.

The things you're talking about are reflecting what's really

going on.

A lot of people just don't want to talk about it.

Not talking about it doesn't make it go away.

So it is... it is our responsibility to push back.

Despite controversy,

'Toxicity' has hit number one on the Billboard 200.

System of a Down has arrived.

System of a Down officially announced that they're going to

release 'Steal This Album, ' a collection of

previously-recorded...

So at the time there was the whole build up to the Iraq War

movement.

Simply stated, there is no doubt...

that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.

Alliances with terrorists could allow the Iraqi regime to attack

America...

without leaving any fingerprints.

I remember having a meeting with the band and

management.

And they were like, "Okay, well, we're gonna release this other

record.

You know, we should pick a single."

And I'm just holding... holding my breath going,

"I know everyone's gonna hate what I say now,"

you know?

Kind of thing.

And I said, "I think we should make a video for the song

'Boom' which talks about bombing people and the adverse

effects of war, uh, and I think Michael Moore should direct it.

Let's just make a statement."

As a Vietnam vet, I do not believe that war should be

fought in America's name.

It's the most ridiculous thing...

I'm here because my brother is in the Navy and we want him to

come home alive.

I don't understand why dropping bombs on children is the best

way to achieve peace.

♪ Why must we ♪

♪ Kill our own kind? ♪

♪ Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! ♪

I went to...

I... I think it was an Ozzfest.

I was outraged that there were a l... it was in San Bernardino and

there were a lot of, like, Nazi and white power tattoos in the

audience.

And onstage, almost every band had at least one non-white

member in it.

And I just thought, "That's like a... that's just... that's not

right.

And somebody needs to do something about that."

And I had the idea to form an organization called Axis of

Justice.

They preach out to a community and to an audience...

Tom said, "Look, would you be interested in... in... in

talking about this?"

And I said, "Fuck yeah."

I think the very first time we met was at an action.

Santa Monica had outlawed people feeding homeless people,

and we were... in defiance of this ordinance,

we were going to feed all the homeless people in sight.

Stewart Copeland goes over to Travis Barker,

taps him on the shoulder and goes...

Oh, no way!

No way!

That's awesome!

I had only known Serj as like sort of the painted sort of

hysterical shaman of... of Armenian,

you know, death metal.

Uh, and he was the gentlest soul...

maybe in the history of rock and roll music.

This is the Axis of Justice...

Radio Network.

I'm Tom Morello.

I'm Serj Tankian.

And for the next hour, we are going to be spinning rebel jams

of various genres and revealing dangerous truths.

Very dangerous.

And that's how we very much saw ourselves,

as... as being social justice warriors and really moving the

goalposts for what ideas could be discussed in popular music.

Press gravitated toward us earlier on because of our

political message, and that's fine and that's totally cool.

But one of the reactions that I always got,

especially from the other guys is,

"They're only talking about, you know,

our two, three songs out of the 12."

It takes people like System of a Down to get the word out.

And I think they do a good job of it.

Without them, there would be nobody out there that does that.

We didn't want to, uh, pigeonhole ourselves as purely a

political band.

And we also didn't want the politics to be more important

than the music.

Yeah, we had to have some talks about that and just say,

"Look, let's not alienate half our audience every night.

We've got Axis of Justice,

we've got Amnesty International, Darfur Action Committee,

uh, each with their own booths to pass out,

uh, information about causes that people wouldn't necessarily

see at a rock event.

But if you know Serj, he's a... a little bit of a

stubborn guy.

If he thinks he's right, if the entire world thinks the

opposite, he's still right in his head and that's that.

One thing our band always did agree upon is,

you know, pursuing recognition for the Armenian genocide

because all our grandparents are survivors of the genocide.

Tonight is not just the 90th anniversary of the Armenian

genocide.

It's also time to break down all the walls of

hypocrisy around the world with all genocides known and

unknown...

accepted or not accepted...

It's time to make the Turkish government...

pay for their fucking crime!

♪ Ignition ♪

♪ Ignition ♪

I was making a documentary, um, for British television,

and I had a colleague at the time who said,

"Hey, do you know about this Armenian band,

System of a Down?"

And I said, "Well, sure, but, you know,

I'm working on human rights, political documentaries.

Why would I be interested in that?"

♪ A whole race, genocide ♪

♪ Taking away all of our pride ♪

♪ A whole race, genocide ♪

♪ Taken away (Watch it all fall down) ♪

In 2004, you had a movement in Congress to get the

genocide recognized.

- All in favor, say "Aye." - Aye.

- Opposed, "nay." - Nay.

The ayes have it.

We're over a very difficult,

important hurdle.

We haven't had a, uh, victory in this committee for half a

decade.

But now we're up, uh, against just as difficult,

uh, opposition in getting it scheduled for the House floor.

Uh, this committee received, last night,

a letter from the State Department opposing these

resolutions.

So we're gonna have to fight to get this done.

Hello?

At one point, I remember being in Chicago for a show and,

uh, we realized that it's the hometown of Dennis Hastert,

who at the time was Speaker of the House.

We found out that it's back to Dennis Hastert's hands,

the Speaker of the House, to... you know,

it's... it's under his power to... whether he's gonna allow it to

go to a full house vote or not.

And there's all these claims about him taking hush money from

different Turkish sources.

Yeah, we just decided to ramp up the process.

Hey, way to keep it medium-level,

Serj.

You can't deny the truth!

You can't deny the truth!

Recognize it now!

Recognize it now!

It just so happens that people gravitate more towards the

political aspect of the band.

And when it concerns this, this is,

for us, a personal issue.

- How are you? - I'm fine, nice to see you.

- I'm Serj, how are you? - Good.

I'm... I'm from the band System of a Down.

- From where? - From the band System of a Down.

- Oh, yeah, right. - Yeah.

Yeah, great, very good.

We came to your office to give you to a letter.

Oh, excellent.

Yeah.

Did you happen to get it?

Not... I haven't looked at it yet,

'cause I've been...

- I'm sure you're very busy. - One of those days, yeah, right.

I'll look at it... I do that usually in the evening.

Well, we've been here meeting members of Congress and some

senators, talking about the Armenian genocide resolution...

Okay.

And the importance to pass it, you know,

regarding our history and the Armenian community and,

you know, how important it is to all of us to face a historical

reality and help get over this with with Turkey.

And everyone's been very receptive and...

That's good.

It's been going great and, you know,

we know that it's in your hands and.

I'll take a look at your letter.

Okay.

- Thank you very much. - Thank you.

Before System of a Down came onto the scene,

we had artists who happened to be Armenian but who did not wear

their Armenian identity on their sleeves,

like Cher, for example.

And suddenly, you see these guys,

who are heavy metal rockers, who are having a huge impact.

I think Armenians in the diaspora craved somebody to have

the power of celebrity to get real political change.

- Brains! - Brains!

Brains!

Touring was always fun.

Going from city to city and meeting different people...

System of a Down is filling stadiums,

sweeping awards...

System of a Down!

System of a Down!

System of a Down!

And changing the world.

Talk to me a little bit about your grandfather.

Your grandfather miraculously somehow survived this holocaust

in...

Just this year, Canada,

Russia, Argentina, and a dozen other countries have recognized

the Armenian genocide.

The Armenian genocide is recognized by a number of

nations in the world already, and eventually,

the US will have to do it as well.

Whe... when you do it for a long period of time,

it... it wears on you, you know?

"Claustrophobia.

Losing sight of the eternal garden could be devastating at

best.

What drives me insane are the catastrophic perplexities of

those close souls with whom I have drunk from the pure

fountain of harmony.

As long as there is a way..."

The whole concept behind bands staying together and,

uh, continuing a long tradition of something is,

uh, I think it's commercially motivated.

And I don't think anything, uh, in life and especially art

should be, uh, put in that much of a format,

you know?

So I personally don't think bands should exist forever,

to be honest with you.

I'm gonna quit the band after this interview.

The way I think Daron always saw this band and... and

maybe even the other guys, I gotta say,

is that we each had a role, like a sports team,

is... is how it's been described before.

And that we should each kind of excel at that role and then

bring the unit together as a team to score.

Like, if you want to use sporting,

uh, terminology.

And that's fine if you think of it that way.

And there's some truth to that.

But I've always thought as an artist as more than

just... playing a guitar or, you know,

I'm only supposed to write lyrics or... you know,

as you grow as an artist, you have more to give.

And for me, that's what it was.

I felt artistically stifled.

"The enigmatic loss of vision and its accompanying diverse

avenues of existence caused this lockdown hysteria."

I told the guys that, "Look, after the next record,"

which turned out to be two records, 'Mesmerize'/

'Hypnotize, ' "I want to do my own thing, take a hiatus."

The announcement has sent shockwaves

around the rock world.

With two number one albums and a Grammy just this year,

System of a Down is stepping off the stage.

From the rainmaker sound to, uh,

a baby Chinese accordion...

Working on my first solo record, 'Elect the Dead, ' was a lot of

fun, 'cause it was a whole different process.

Okay, uh, kalimba.

I'm making a rock record without a rock band.

So it... it doesn't sound great without really being

hooked up.

You throw a little delay pedal on there and... and some phaser

and stuff and it sounds phenomenal.

It's great for composing, really...

Now, I'm writing every aspect of it.

I'm writing, you know, the rhythmical patterns for the

drums, the bass lines...

That's the pianos.

So I started with that, with just the pianos.

And... and most of the songs are written either on

acoustic guitar or piano with vocals,

uh, to start with.

And then just building up.

And then brought in the vocals.

♪ Pretentious attention ♪

♪ Dismissive apprehension ♪

♪ Don't waste your time on coffins today... ♪

And just, you know, tracking the whole thing and

then bringing live musicians to replace some of the stuff that

I've performed on.

♪ Don't waste your time on coffins today... ♪

It's... it's... it's invigorating.

It's emancipating.

♪ Desolate and full of yearning ♪

♪ Dying of anticipation ♪

♪ Choking from intoxication ♪

♪ Don't you see their bodies burning?... ♪

I remember that there was this one point in the recording

studio by myself, listening back to some of the tracks.

I was, like, running around and, like,

really amped into it by myself, which probably would look

ridiculous if you saw someone doing that.

Insane.

But that's when I really knew that the music would connect.

And rock is a unique delivery mechanism for rebellion.

♪ Don't you see their bodies burning? ♪

♪ Desolate and full of yearning ♪

♪ Dying of anticipation ♪

♪ Choking from intoxication ♪

♪ Don't you see their bodies burning? ♪

♪ Desolate and full of yearning... ♪

"Empty Walls" actually, you know,

had a lot of radio play and we made this incredible video.

There was a reenactment of 9/11 with kids and the Abu Ghraib

situation.

♪ Taunt you to see from behind those empty walls ♪

♪ I want you to be left behind... ♪

And then, I got an offer to do something with an

orchestra and I... I was bewildered by that.

I was like, "Wow, that could be really interesting."

So, uh, I was able to rearrange my music from 'Elect the Dead'

and create a symphonic version of it.

And it turned into 'Elect the Dead' symphony.

♪ I want you to be left behind those empty walls ♪

♪ Taunt you to see ♪

♪ Left behind those empty walls ♪

♪ Taunt you to see ♪

♪ From behind those empty walls ♪

♪ From behind those fucking walls ♪

♪ From behind those... ♪

System of a Down's frontman Serj Tankian and

his Serjical Strike Records have hit a little smooth sailing.

So next year, Serj and his label will release several projects,

including Kittens for Christian and avant-garde goth art punk

band...

We had signed this amazing band called Fair to

Midland out of Texas.

Serj says he'll put out five albums a year and continue to

sign bands that inspire him.

And there were a number of record companies interested,

and through Atlantic, uh, the head of Atlantic Records at the

time, I got a, you know, unexpected visit with,

uh, the old, uh, co-chair, you know,

the old CEO, Ahmet Ertegun, who was Turkish.

So we sat down and had a great conversation about music and...

and how much I appreciated the bands that he had signed like

Zeppelin and... and Ray and, like,

all this stuff.

And then, on my way home, I just... something... there was an

inkling feeling inside of me that I needed to kind of ex...

uh, figure out what it was and I typed his name,

Ahmet Ertegun, and I put the world "genocide" behind it and

Googled it, and I realized that he had paid for a lot of foreign

policy think tanks and trusts that were encouraging Congress

not to recognize the Armenian genocide.

He had also paid for chairs at universities that had encouraged

scholars, uh, so-called scholars,

uh, that would deny the Armenian genocide.

Now, this became a big problem, uh,

for me personally, uh, and for the band ultimately.

And then, you know, at that time,

I got news from a very reliable source that there possibly could

be Turkish intelligence sources looking at me to assassinate me,

uh, because of my activism against Dennis Hastert.

Art can be very dangerous, um, which is why tyrants and

tyrannical states love to clamp down on artists.

Um, in February...

There are many situations in life where you don't expect,

you know, something that... that is political or that is social

to interact with the business that you do or with the other

work that you do.

And somehow, it pops up and it challenges your kind of... the...

the narrative of your moral compass.

In the end, we ended up not working with Ahmet Ertegun.

I wanted to talk to you about the latest in terms of genocide

recognition in the US.

Both the Senate and the House introduced new legislation.

It's not just US recognition of the genocide,

it's also a matter of prevention of...

- Right. - Of just genocides in general.

I want us all to put up our right arms in protest,

and I want us all to say...

As President, I will recognize the Armenian genocide!

As President, I will recognize...

Barack Obama has joined a long line of

Presidents who broke their campaign promise to recognize

the Armenian genocide.

Social media has given unadulterated access for

artists, uh, directly to their fanbase,

which didn't exist before.

That's one of the positive aspects for me about it.

But it also allowed me, as an activist,

to express myself.

"We have a lot to learn from the Chilean students

protesting here in Santiago..."

"I hope the Occupy Wall Street movement truly turns into a

political force..."

"I support the Global Zero movement to eliminate all

nuclear weapons by 2030..."

I was thrilled to see the impact I was making on so many issues

across the world.

"I'm appalled by Obama's closeness to this

hypocrite named Erdogan, Turkey's Prime Minister..."

Of course, there was the other side of this,

too.

As time went by and System of a Down didn't make a

record, there was a, uh, growing disgruntlement,

uh, among fans to get a new System record.

I love the fact the he represents the entire metal

community, or she.

I don't want to come across that I know everything

and... and... and whatnot, but, you know,

whatever statement I make is based on an injustice occurring

somewhere that I want to rectify.

And whether I'm right or wrong to do it is... is... is another

factor.

But I need to do it.

It's... it's... it's the truth.

Like, it's gotta come out.

And same with justice.

I feel like the environmental balance that is,

you know, that we're seeing in... in... in climate change is,

uh, also indicative of the human imbalance that is existing due

to wars, profits over people, and all of this stuff.

We have to change our ways in every way for us to survive.

Uh, both in the spiritual world and in the

physical world.

They're all mirrors of each other.

We are at war with the most dangerous enemy

that has ever faced mankind in his long climb...

With 'Harakiri, ' I took on a whole new set of

political issues.

There's no place to escape to.

This is the last stand on Earth.

From corporate greed to climate change.

♪ We're the day birds ♪

♪ Deciding to fly against the sky ♪

♪ Within our dreams... ♪

But a voice for justice always needs to evolve.

So, I began to experiment.

I did 'Orca, ' which was my first symphony.

I did 'Jazz is Christ, ' a jazz record,

with a bunch of really amazing musicians.

I did a musical called 'Prometheus Bound.'

And I also started painting for the first time.

All of my paintings are musically scored,

like a film.

For example, the first piece that I ever did,

you can actually read the music of the first measure.

And it's a piano piece.

It's a beautiful, haunting piano piece.

And I've always thought, like films,

how would one score a series of paintings?

So I started inserting speakers and MP3

players within the actual, uh, painting.

So you've got two speakers on the sides,

stereo speakers...

And I got lost in that world and it became another new artistic

expression.

Doing all this stuff and coming into my own and feeling

confident of myself as a songwriter,

uh, as a composer...

That sounds much better.

Uh, it really kind of changed the way that I looked at System

again, to a point where, when there was that opening for us to

discuss touring together again, I was way more open to it and...

and be like "Okay, well, I've done all these things and I'm

gonna continue doing all these things,

but if you guys wanna play some music together,

I think that might be really fun."

Hello.

Just want to say hi.

Hi.

- Serj. - Michael, nice to meet you.

We are!

We're System of a Down!

So I shot everything.

Whoa.

Yo, watch out!

I strapped a camera on my head...

I just blinded you with science.

♪ She blinded me with science ♪

I had spy glasses...

These are skinny mirrors.

If you are skinny, you will be skinnier.

How are you, man?

How are you?

- Everything cool? - Good to see you again.

- Sounds good in the house. - Great, thank you. Thanks for everything.

I... I think the reason that I wanted to shoot all of that...

was because, irrespective of feeling confident coming back to

the System camp, there was still some lingering insecurities

and... and fears.

You fuckin' fuck.

over your head.

So I think by having a camera in the middle to be able

to look through kind of gave me the perspective that I needed to

more comfortably and unemotionally reconnect with my

past and with my band.

That was a such a great show.

That felt like a badass fucking show.

Woo!

My girlfriend Ang was on tour with me.

Hold on, hold on, hold on.

Okay, got it.

And George, my manager.

I tried to come here two hours late.

I only got here an hour late.

I'm so disappointed.

You know, it was just like...

w... we just... we were having so much fun.

Look at that view of Jordan.

And I also filmed my family as we went back to Lebanon.

We visited the orphanage that took in my grandfather after the

genocide.

We went back to the home we lived in before moving to Los

Angeles.

And I even got to have a concert there with my dad and sing the

song he taught me so long ago.

The Armenian homeland was destroyed by the genocide in

1915.

But a small part of Armenia actually did survive.

After two years of independence, it became part of the Soviet

Union, until finally regaining its independence in 1991.

I had been to Armenia in 2005, and at that time,

I was starting to get more interested politically.

The more I visited Armenia,

the more I started to see some of the injustices occurring in

Armenia, mostly having to do with the ruling elite,

a very corrupt ruling elite, post-Soviet oligarchic ruling

elite, that felt that they could do whatever they like,

uh, with impunity.

There was a depopulation occurring,

people were leaving the country, they were voting with their

feet, as it's called.

Because they couldn't find jobs.

They didn't have, uh, justice in the courts.

They weren't able to provide a great comfort and security and...

and... and lifestyle for their children.

Now, this was taboo in the Armenian community in the

diaspora because diasporan Armenians,

they didn't really want to talk about the injustices in Armenia.

When you're going to Congress asking for the recognition of

the genocide, it's not cool for you to mention that there's

corruption in Armenia, there's some bad shit happening in

Armenia that need to be resolved as well.

March 1, 2008 is, uh, kind of indelibly sketched into modern

Armenian history because there were 10 deaths at a protest

protesting the election of Serzh Sargsyan as President.

In Armenia, at least nine people now have died in clashes

between police and opposition protesters.

Outgoing President Robert Kocharyan has imposed a...

People were dying, uh, making their voices heard.

The protesters accuse the government of rigging

last month's presidential election.

And I was really, really heartbroken that... that Armenia

is going through this injustice and that,

you know, this... this hold on, you know,

uh, the populace and their destiny was happening by a

handful of el... elitists, corrupt elitists.

And so I wrote a public letter.

So after writing that public letter to the President,

I... I didn't expect a response, a... actually,

uh, but he did respond, in public,

with his own letter.

2015 was the centennial of the Armenian genocide.

Thursday's vote in the German parliament

recognizing a genocide of 1.5 million Armenians...

Germany officially recognized the genocide,

the... the Vatican officially recognized the genocide.

It was the first time System of a Down ever played

in Armenia, as well.

Here I was, dealing with a government that

was unjust...

that I was really rallying against,

yet I was also...

spent my whole life fighting for recognition of the Armenian

genocide, an external injustice.

You know, I... I stayed up for two nights thinking about how

I'm... how am I gonna deal with this?

At the time, it just came to me in the middle of the night,

and I just said, "You know what?

I'm a fucking musician, I'm an artist.

I'm gonna say everything I need to say from my stage,

from our stage.

And the rest can fall where it may."

Before the show, we got together with the guys from

System in the lobby of the hotel we were at before we got

onstage.

I'm honored to be with you guys.

Me too.

This... this, like, even more this time...

And we hugged each other.

I had this sense of calmness that is rare.

And I just looked at the guys and it almost felt like we

were... created...

to play that night.

Now, let's go wait for 20 more minutes.

Where are they?

From day one, we had songs about being Armenian and

the whole cause, you know?

And it was like one head, two head,

three head, four head.

And a whole nation got... heard us.

They're like, "Fuck, they're... they're... those young boys are...

are... are fucking soldiers."

We were soldiers with a fucking... with a voice to say

something.

It was as poignant moment because all the drama of

the last 20 years, it just went away.

And it was just four guys going onstage and playing for their

people.

We played an amazing show.

It was raining, it was really dramatic.

And the audience was going crazy.

And I started talking.

The truth serum kicked in.

For the last few days...

I haven't been able to sleep well.

All I can think about is my grandparents.

My grandfather...

My grandfather was five years old when he saw his own father

die.

He lost his sight from hunger.

And I spoke about the hypocrisy of Obama talking about

recognition of the genocide as a senator before he became

President and not using the word "genocide" because of Turkish

pressure.

So the fact that the US government...

picks the wrong word to recognize what we know is

genocide is not only appalling to us,

it's appalling to Americans.

And then I talked about the Armenian government.

We've come a long way, Armenia.

But there's still a lot of fucking work to do.

It is the responsibility of the government

of the Republic of Armenia...

to bring in the principles of egalitarian civic society.

Getting rid of the institutional injustice abound...

and stopping the depopulation that is occurring.

I didn't know long it would take for the

reversal of fortunes, but I knew that it was coming.

In 2017, there were parliamentary elections.

I saw that as the last hope for Armenia to be able to come back

into progressive democracy from this oligarchic decline.

Calm down, man.

Calm down.

It's gonna be okay.

It's gonna be okay.

You're gonna be fine.

You're gonna be just fine.

Just... as long as you vote, you're gonna be fine.

As long as you vote, you're gonna be fine.

As long as you vote.

Myself and a number of, uh,

artist friends, we went under the coalition called Justice

Within Armenia.

Young people, please vote.

Don't block these elections, because this is your only chance

to make your voice heard.

Irrespective of corruption, irrespective of all the

limitations...

Some people in... in the government accused us of being

foreign spies, and to be called a foreign spy in my own,

you know, cultural homeland, you know?

And... that really pissed us all off.

♪ I don't give a fuck about the FBI ♪

♪ I don't give a fuck about the CIA ♪

♪ I don't give a fuck about the KGB ♪

♪ I don't give a fuck about the FSB ♪

Okay, so,...

We wrote all these statements encouraging monitors to come to

Armenia and be eyewitnesses to what's going on.

I went to at least 12 polling stations around the

country.

Some guy's writing stuff on a car.

But we realized quickly that the votes were already bought and

paid for ahead of time.

We had a guy who basically was keeping tabs on the voters,

sitting right behind the ballot box.

Right in front of the eyes of the OSC,

right in front of the eyes of the European Council of Nations.

Right in front of the eyes of all us monitors.

I was so disappointed, I couldn't even bring myself to go

speak at the post-election press conference.

President Serzh Sargsyan's ruling party is

well ahead in Armenia's landmark election.

This is the first ballot to usher in a new parliamentary

system of government, yet critics see the change as an

effort to prolong his political life.

And with claims of voting fraud multiplying...

The Republican Party of Armenia won a huge majority,

and so it seemed like Armenia's progressive democratic future

was doomed.

And I was fucking depressed.

Power is always afraid of... of means that can

break out of it: music, dancing, you know,

anything that can move a soul, you know?

And stir the soul.

So... can music change the world?

Music changes our intuitive hearts.

Like, our... our... our... music changes the way we feel about

things.

How we feel about things can overwhelm our logic.

Four Armenian kids.

And now, we're on CNN and there's a riot because of us?

And our logic being a part of the process can change

the world.

We were soldiers with a voice to say

something.

That's the true artist's role in society.

It is our responsibility to push back.

But it requires people realizing that they have the

power.

Open your eyes, open your mouths,

close your hand and make a fist.

Down with the system.

So it's the end of March and Ang goes,

"Hey, did you check out what's going on in Armenia?"

And she was looking at Facebook.

Nikol Pashinyan, who was,

uh, an opposition member of parliament,

started a protest walk.

And this little movement was starting.

What was really unique about this movement were the

ethos.

They said that we want a completely peaceful movement.

The only way to describe it is decentralized civil

disobedience.

Police would come and go, "All right,

you gotta unblock this intersection," and they would

just go on the sidewalk and the police would walk away and

they'd jump, the police would come back...

I mean, it was like Tom and Jerry!

It was almost funny.

This was an ingenious way to show the people that they

owned the country.

I want to congratulate you for, so far,

holding one of the most successful civil disobendience

campaigns in all of Armenian history.

You've realized this cultural awakening and decision to pursue

justice is a basic human right.

I can see the love in your eyes and in your hearts like I did

when we played in 2015 with System of a Down from the stage.

Finally, the government of Armenia realizes that there

is no way around these protests.

Serzh Sargsyan, the President, says,

"Let's talk about what... what your demands are."

And Nikol says, "We only have one demand..."

So at this point, I've got this horrendous flu from

hell.

There's, like, shit running out of my nose,

I've got fever.

But I'm, like, obsessed just watching this 24/7.

And then suddenly...

"Serj Tankian, it's time that you come and join your people."

And I'm like...

"Oh, my God."

Next thing you know, you see priests,

you see soldiers on the street with the people,

walking arm-to-arm.

And the announcement comes that the Prime Minister of Armenia

has resigned.

"Serzh Sargsyan has resigned."

An eruption on the streets of Yerevan as

tens of thousands of citizens flood the capital to celebrate

the miraculous resignation of Serzh Sargsyan.

It was a David versus Goliath battle,

as peaceful protests brought down the most powerful

government in the history of this post-Soviet nation.

There were so many people on the street greeting us

that we couldn't drive.

I saw thousands of people on the street...

with the most joy in their eyes that I've ever seen in my life.

And they were honoring him,

and me, with traditional Armenian gata and cognac and

stuff like that, you know?

It's just so surreal, man.

It's so surreal.

We, uh, went to have some tea and... and some dessert.

He... he's... he's executed the perfect revolution,

and I'm asking, "So, wh... how many of you were there in the beginning?

And how was it?

How did you plan this?

Was that planned? Was that..."

Like, he's just, like, answering them and laughing.

And at one point, he says, "Do you realize something?"

He goes, "You realize that Anna and I, my wife and I,

were in the audience in 2015 watching you in System of a

Down."

Oh, yeah?

He goes, "I figured, if you guys can bring 50,000 people,

we should be able to bring 50... more... more than 50,000 people

and do a revolution."

He goes, "That made me feel like this is all possible."

And I was like...

I'm so proud that I come from a nation...

All right.

I'm so proud that I come from a nation that created a peaceful

revolution that... that was able to hand people their destiny.

And it's a lesson to the world that positive change can occur

in today's era of division.

And, uh, all this right-wing extremism and all this fucking

shit going on in the world, there is hope.

The House voted overwhelmingly to recognize the century-old

- mass killings... - Mass killings of Armenians

by Ottoman Turks as genocide.

As international observers wrote at the time,

"It was a campaign of race extermination."

One that we, as members of Congress and as freedom-loving

people, have a moral obligation to never forget.

A moment when the House of Representatives refused to be

enlisted in the cause of genocide denial.

The non-binding resolution passed 405 to 11.

The resolution is adopted.