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In a current interview with NPR, System of a Down‘s frontman Serj Tankian opened up concerning the private prices of his activism. Tankian, whose 2021 documentary “Fact To Energy” chronicles his journey as a politically engaged musician, mentioned the potential fallout of his outspoken nature on his fan base.
“I am okay with that as a result of an artist is not presupposed to please everybody,” he said. “An artist is meant to principally attempt to obtain by means of the collective consciousness no matter truths that we’re attempting to stay by, the truths of our occasions. If we will not do this as artists, then we’re entertainers.”
Tankian elaborated on the inherent selection between being an entertainer and an artist, emphasizing the challenges of the latter path.
“From day one, you need to make that selection: Are you an entertainer solely or are you going to be an artist? In the event you’re an entertainer, that is cool; there are a lot of entertainers I comply with and love. But when you are going to be an artist, then the street will not be going to be simple. You are going to need to be trustworthy with your self and everybody else always, and persons are going to love you and persons are going to hate you, and that is okay.”
Reflecting on his position inside System of a Down, Tankian acknowledged his distinctive place because the band’s major activist voice. This twin focus typically created pressure between his need to ship a message and the band’s musical targets. “I used to be extra of the activist within the band than anybody else. There was at all times this push and pull between the message and the music,” he famous.
Whereas he revered his bandmates’ choice to prioritize music, Tankian felt that sure messages had been too essential to suppress.
“The opposite guys, rightfully so, did not need the music to be victimized by the message always. I understood that as a result of I liked the music as nicely, however when there was a message that wanted to be dispersed, I felt like that was simply as essential, if no more essential, than the music.”
In one other dialog with Books On Pod, Tankian shared how his grandparents’ Armenian heritage spurred his activism. Studying about his household’s previous in his teenagers, he grew to become aware of the geopolitical forces that formed their historical past.
“Whenever you’re in a democracy and you might be afraid to talk the reality due to backlash, that is whenever you really feel like that one thing’s actually improper,” he mirrored.
Tankian’s activism is deeply rooted in his identification as an Armenian-American and the continuing wrestle for recognition of the Armenian Genocide: “And thoughts you, that, coupled with rising up as an Armenian-American in Los Angeles, paying taxes to a rustic that isn’t correctly recognizing the genocide of our ancestors, a democracy not recognizing correct historical past due to political expediency, due to Turkey being a NATO ally, and so they did not need to acknowledge it, simply soiled political fucking geopolitics, that makes you an activist. That made me an activist.”
His ardour extends past Armenian points to broader human rights, animal rights, and local weather justice: “That made me somebody who fights for fact and justice, not simply having to do with Armenians or Armenian points, however many points — within the U.S., human rights points all over the world and even animal rights, local weather points. You see the world of injustice and justice, you see that imbalance, and also you wanna type of tip the scales up as a result of you recognize that that is gonna make the world a greater place in each means.”
“I’ve at all times spoken fact to energy, however solely as a result of I cared. If I did not care, I would not communicate my thoughts,” he concluded.
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