Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
" I've worked with some great orchestras and amazing classical musicians, but I don't like the conceptualization of classical music as an elitist form of art. "
Serj Tankian
Art
Music
Great
Related Quotes:
" Pretending that we live doesn't make us alive. "
Serj Tankian
Alive
Pretending
Make
" I've always tried to listen to a lot of different music from around the world. "
Serj Tankian
World
Music
Always
" I am more interested in how people interpret the phrase 'Elect The Dead' than what I may or may not have intended. I named the album after the track, which is a spiritual song about love, life and death and is the heaviest song on the album without having any heavy instruments. "
Serj Tankian
Spiritual
Song
Love
" I hate injustice, and I can't help but speak against it. But I don't want to get involved in politics. "
Serj Tankian
Speak
Help
Hate
" The most important thing about music that I've learned after all this time is that to me, it's a way of reaching the truth. "
Serj Tankian
Truth
Music
Way
" 'Elect the Dead' is a rock record that takes you on a journey with different types of genres integrated, different lyrical themes digested, and many fun and colorful moments to enjoy. "
Serj Tankian
Moments
You
Enjoy
" The best way to do that is to pick up a new instrument or an instrument that you don't typically write on and see where it takes you. Whether it's using an acoustic guitar, or piano, or electronics as tools, all of these lead to creating different types of songs and I used all of these methods for this record. "
Serj Tankian
See
Guitar
Creating
" In the last few years I've been listening to jazz more than anything else. I listen to a lot of world music and experimental here and there. "
Serj Tankian
World
Jazz
Listen
" With 'Elect the Dead,' I learned how to make a rock record without a rock band and make the rock record I've always wanted to make. "
Serj Tankian
Always
Band
Dead
" You listen to Bob Dylan and you can't help but think of the 60s, it's very relational and if artists are true artists and not just mere musicians they need to be truthful because the music doesn't come from them it comes from the universe and it's to be shared. At best, we're skilled presenters, and I say that at best. "
Serj Tankian
Music
Musicians
Help
" Life is that perfect fine line between ironies. "
Serj Tankian
Fine
Line
Perfect
" Capitalism unchecked is not a democratic system. "
Serj Tankian
System
Democratic
Capitalism
" I think I might write a book. I like writing. People have asked me if I would get into politics, but I think I feel a lot more effective being a representative of truth through the arts. "
Serj Tankian
Truth
Politics
People
" A lot of pop music is based on trying to make people remember it so that they'll buy it. To me, it was not about that. "
Serj Tankian
People
Music
Trying
" I've always worked on all different types of music, some with specific project goals and deadlines and some not. Sometimes I would write a piece of music that is almost like a film score or weird electro pieces, wherever the muse took me, and I still do that. "
Serj Tankian
Film
Goals
Me
" Awareness in our society has flipped all types of injustice on its head. "
Serj Tankian
Injustice
Society
Our
" I think that the memory of Armenia's genocide opened my eyes at an early age to the existence of political cynicism. "
Serj Tankian
Age
Political
Memory
" People think our music's very aggressive or angry or whatever, and it's just the opposite, really... I like laughing. And I like being really calm before a show, and smiley. "
Serj Tankian
People
Show
Calm
" My two interests are spirituality and politics. I would mesh them in some way; maybe try to figure out the politics of spirituality, or the spirituality of politics. Or maybe come up with this really crazy naive solution for the end of civilization. "
Serj Tankian
Solution
Politics
Crazy
" I believe very firmly that indigenous populations had a really good, intuitive understanding of why we're here. And we're trying to gain that same understanding through psychology and intellect in modern civilization. "
Serj Tankian
Good
Trying
Understanding
" It's probably a combination of personal and non-personal matters that have led us to where we are musically. "
Serj Tankian
Personal
Matters
Musically
" We first fought... in the name of religion, then Communism, and now in the name of drugs and terrorism. Our excuses for global domination always change. "
Serj Tankian
Communism
Change
Religion
" Harout Pamboukjian is one of the biggest Armenian folk singers in the world. In the '70s, he was making these records that were really Zeppelin-influenced. "
Serj Tankian
Folk
Were
World
" People always ask me 'do you think there should be more bands doing political music?' and I say 'absolutely not.' "
Serj Tankian
Think
You
Political
" I think every artist should follow their vision; their hearts is what they need to reveal, not something that society is looking out for. That said though, I think also artists have, continuously good artists, have been good for their times. "
Serj Tankian
Vision
Think
Good
" In America, there's more of the question, should music be political or should it just be for entertainment purposes, whereas around the world that's not even an issue. I think people just assume that music should be everything. "
Serj Tankian
World
Think
People
" If you're using live bass versus orchestral bass, you've got to make sure that you're not stepping on the toes of the other elements, so you've got to balance it out. "
Serj Tankian
Balance
You
Out
" I like African music, and I'm a huge Ravi Shankar fan. "
Serj Tankian
Fan
African
Like
" I think music is a powerful medium because it co-inspires. It inspires the artist who then inspires the listener, and it's a back-and-forth process. "
Serj Tankian
Artist
Process
Think
" I'm a huge Beatles fan, but I've only really gotten into them as an adult. "
Serj Tankian
Really
Them
Only