Serj Tankian was at work in his home studio last night, immersed in composing a score for an upcoming Hollywood movie, when he suddenly realised he was not alone. Taking off his headphones, and pausing the action on screen, Serj walked over to join his nine-year-old son on the couch, and asked his boy what he’d been drawing in the sketchbook on his lap. Young Rumi, however, was much more interested in what his father had been watching.
“He was like, ‘There was a gun, some girls, and some sexy stuff happening there, what is that?’” Serj says, laughing. “I said, ‘Um, it’s inappropriate for you, so you can’t watch it. But it’s a Hollywood film, it’s not real, the gun’s not real’ – you know, kinda explaining it. And he’s like, ‘Oh, OK’, and off he goes again, happy. It’s funny, you don’t lay out plans to explain how the world works to a kid, but questions come when you least expect them, so then you have to deal with it.”
