Serj Tankian, vocalist of multi-platinum Armenian-American nü-metal stars System Of A Down, is back with another collaborative track this year. This time out he’s paired up with electronic musician/composer Brendan Angelides for a cover of David Bowie‘s 1995 track “I’m Afraid Of Americans“. Metalheads might be familiar with that cut, given Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor would later guest on a remixed version of it.
Angelides had the following to say of covering this once again topical song and getting the chance to get to work with Tankian:
“I always loved Trent Reznor‘s remix of Bowie‘s original. I’ve been working on a new album for the past year and as this particular beat came together, I unexpectedly started singing those words on top. The first person I thought to collab with was Serj Tankian. Serj has been an inspiration to me forever and I’m now lucky to call him a friend. The video is built from our childhood photos. We filmed ourselves to drive the motion capture, then face-tracked, composited, and had a mosh party.
It’s the next single for my upcoming album “Can You Feel The End Begin?“. I keep thinking about what happens to creative communities during authoritarian times. It’s half of what this upcoming album is about. Can’t wait to share it with you in a couple of weeks. Out on Aug 14th.”
