System Of A Down frontman Serj Tankian had a chat with Artistdirect.com on his various projects. Speaking of his new musical painting venture, he offered:
“For the last few months, I’ve focused on doing this music-embedded painting. I had never painted in my whole life, but I came up with this whole idea. Music has become so temporal and almost devalued due to the piracy. I have all of these painter friends who create these incredible paintings. I was thinking, “How do I make my music an exclusive experience?” I said, “Well, why don’t I create a musical painting?” In other words, I’ll have the speakers in there and an mp3 player and create a piece of music.
Then, I’ll paint a painting based on that piece of music, even with some of the notes and clefs. I’m using ideas of timelessness. I’ve come up with 19 pieces. Seventeen are paintings, and two are installations. One is a lamp I made from this old Yamaha Keyboard. It’s crazy, cool stuff. They all have speakers and mp3 players embedded. We’re looking at doing a few exhibitions this year and starting to put that out. It’s a very unique experience. In some cases, the music will be reproduced. In a lot of cases, the music will be exclusive. It’ll only reside within the painting at someone’s house or office. It’s quite a concept that we’re running with it. It’s fun.”
Meanwhile, he also commented on the current status of System Of A Down. You may recall that band bassist Shavo Odadjian publically accused Tankian as being the hold out in regards to making a new studio album.
When asked what System Of A Down meant to him in 2013 by the aforementioned site, Tankian replied:
“First and foremost, they’re my partners and friends I’ve created this music and career with over these years. I’m still very thankful. To me, it’s what I’ve done. It’s where I’ve come in. It’s something I enjoy doing. We started touring again three years ago for good purpose. I think we missed being a part of that together. Of course, we have a lot of fans and people interested in getting a record sooner rather than later. Things take time though.
Everyone has a life and has to have the right frame of mind to make a record at the same time. Jazz-iz Christ and Orca will be my fifth and sixth solo records in seven years. I’ve been touring with System, The FCC, and orchestras around the world. I haven’t stopped. There hasn’t been much time-off. I want to make sure I have time for myself and my family. Only the four of us can decide what System means. I know the fans agree that’s what System is, and that’s amazing.”
He continued:
“I can’t write a forced record. It’s like romancing someone at a time you don’t want to be romantic. It’s not even a choice. We’ve enjoyed touring a lot. All of the tours have been well-received. We play really tightly—probably better than we ever have. It’s been cool. A new record requires three years. It’s not something I can do right now. When I can commit to a three-year album cycle, I’ll be down to do it.”
Current musical concerns from Tankian include the June 25th release of his symphony project Orca and the July 15th release of his Jazz-Iz Christ side project. Both albums will be released on his own Serjical Strike Records.
