System Of A Down frontman Serj Tankian has discussed his first steps into discovering heavy metal music, and while he can't recall the exact band that first got him into the genre, he does recall the first metal band he ever saw live - and that he only saw them because his girlfriend at the time wanted to go to the show.
“I’m not sure exactly which band really got me into metal," he explains in the new issue of Metal Hammer. "I grew up with a lot of Armenian and European music, disco in the 70s… My upbringing wasn’t very band-based. Iron Maiden was the first metal band I saw live because my girlfriend was a huge fan and she took me along even though I had no idea who they were. I was like 16 or 17, and it was incredible – a real mind-blowing experience.”
As a matter of face, a lot of Tankian's journey into metal has been a case of happenstance, including his own forays into making music.
“When I started playing, I wasn’t young," he reveals. "I was 19 years old, so was already an adult. It’s a different experience to a lot of musos I’ve met, either in my band or others. Most people seem to find it when they’re eight or nine and commit to making this dream a reality. For me, it just accidentally came into my life.”
Serj Tankian would eventually form the band that would become System Of A Down with guitarist Daron Malakian, releasing their first studio album in 1998. After four more album releases across the following seven years, SOAD would go on hiatus, only reforming for occasional tours and one-off performances. They haven't released a new studio album since 2005's Hypnotize, with no signs of the four members returning to the studio together any time soon.
You can read more from Tankian in the latest issue of Metal Hammer, starring nu metal survivors Papa Roach on the cover, out now.
