Serart Options

[OzRage]

I was just wondering if anyone has heard it and is it any good?

I know it came out a while ago i was just interested in what people thought of it

[ChucK Taylor]

what is that a band

[OzRage]

Serj and Arto Tuncboyaciyan, a percussionist who played on System of a Down's Toxicity album. They made an album together

[OzRage]

Heres a interview with serj from theprp.com

PRP: How would you describe Serart to someone who was unfamiliar even to the work of System Of A Down?
Serj: I guess its cross-genre, cross-cultural and so its many things but mostly it's a live spontaneous moment with two artists in the studio and some friends who contributed. Shavo (System Of A Down) actually DJ's for 2 or 3 tracks on the record.

PRP: With Serart being a substantially different outing from System Of A Down, do you worry that some people may not get it?
Serj: I generally don't spend my time worrying about anything, so no. This is not a commercial release for a System audience to behold. Its a completely different record so if someone is expecting System stuff, hang on and wait for another System record, but if on the other hand you're interested in very interesting music that goes to different places, then Serart is all over the place in a good way. It's important for me to define what it is. Serart is not a solo record because I have a lot of songs I could write for a solo record but that is not what this is. It's not even a side project, it's one moment in time with a very creative artist (Arto) that I wanted to work with. We just went into the studio, everything in the stream of conciseness was just done right there and then

PRP: By capturing the moment as you described and not entering the studio with any pre-conceived plan did you surprise yourself at all with the end result?
Serj: No because it's just trusting in the moment and whatever comes up saying o.k. that was what was meant to come out and not judging it and not thinking what someone else is going to think. It's not about perception but the reality of that moment and that is the only moment that exists and enjoying that and letting it go.

PRP: Arto is known for his eclecticism and open mindedness to all aspects of instrumentation, has writing and playing music in such an unhindered way left a lasting impression upon you?
Serj: Yeah. I'm having fun doing spontaneous artistic stuff. Actually this weekend I was at the Royce Hall, UCLA and I got on stage with Tabla Beat Science and a bunch of amazing artists and just creating on the spot and having some fun on a Saturday night, so yeah, I'm enjoying it.

PRP: What can we expect from the film you've compiled to the music of Serart.
Serj: The short film is a 12 and a half minute DVD component which will be packaged with the record and it's a really cool visual collage of the record mixed into 12 and a half minutes, of course not the whole record. There's parts of every song in there and sonically its a mix down of the whole record. It has some really cool visual images and we worked with a director guy named Madda Mato (sic) and he's done some great stuff and I'm enjoying watching it.

PRP: So With this Audio/Visual pairing that Serart is obviously suited for, do you have any plans to take this on the road?
Serj: For the minute we don't have any touring plans. We just want to put the album/DVD out and also play a short version of the DVD at film festivals and music festivals to promote Serart. We will probably one day get together and do a tour but that's not the plan right now and it will likely be one of those things where different artists that might be into Serart might want to call and say hey, if you guys ever do a tour I want to play drums on this one, or guitar or whatever. It will be an organic way of assembling rather than picking people to do the job of playing different instruments.

PRP: You've said before that the bands on Serjical Strike will be those that are original and don't sound like anyone else. Given the current climate of the music industry, do you worry this will still be a feasible idea considering you now have major label backing?
Serj: Um, at first I just wanted to make sure that I was able to have Serjical Strike Records independently of System Of A Down running at Columbia and I got that so I feel comfortable yeah. Serjical Strike is an indie running under the distribution of a major label. We have 4 albums coming out this year, none of which sounds like anything else or each other and Columbia has been very supportive in that effort.

PRP: Rumors have been circulating that you will be producing Slow Motion Reign's upcoming debut release. Is producing a role you would like to immerse yourself in more in the future?
Serj: Yes, Slow Motion Reign is a band I'm producing who will be going through Columbia and Serjical Strike. I've co-produced "Toxicity", I've co-produced Serart and I've learned a lot of hands on stuff and is really fun and I enjoy it. I like doing different things but I don't know if i'd ever do one thing exclusively. I'll produce a project here and there that I want to do. There's nothing in life I want to do full-time specifically. I want to do a bit of everything and learn and grow.

PRP: With Serart now seeing a release, what is the status on your side project with Petra Jolly?
Serj: The project that I did with Petra Jolly is something that we just did it in the studio, I wrote all the music and she did most of the vocals and lyrics and we never put it out and its something I'm not sure where I want to take it. It's not a fully completed project in any way for me to say I want to release it. I've written a lot of songs. Some with different people, most by myself. Hundreds and hundreds of songs. It depends what comes where. I'll always be doing projects and things will fit in to certain things.

PRP: You recently worked on a video for "Boom" with Michael Moore, a man outspoken for his political views. Being known for your views on politics as well, did you two run into any conflicting opinions and arguments?
Serj: It's hard to say you have the same ideological set-up as anyone but we didn't disagree with anything really. He's an amazing director, writer and person. The video comprises of a lot of footage taken on February 15th at the peace marches that took place around the world along with the band interviewing people with little DV cameras and asking them questions and such.

PRP: With System now having experienced a wealth of success, do you fear that the slight lull of downtime and other excursions will affect the momentum of the band?
Serj: No I don't feel that at all. Just the opposite. Sometimes if you work all day and don't have lunch you get burnt out at the end of the day. You got to take some lunch or take a walk and look at other things and kind of take your mind off it otherwise you'll have a long day and you'll be tired and not as productive as maybe you want to be.

[OzRage]

And another from www.undercover.com.au

Serj Tankian doesn't want to call Serart his side project. In fact, he prefers to refer to it as a 'Compelling artistic collaboration'.

Serart is Serj Tankian from System of a Down with Arto Tuncboyaciyan, a percussionist who played on System of a Down's Toxicity album. Collectively, their music is described as The music on SERART is both "cross genre and cross cultural," an exotic and eclectic blend of electronica, poetry, Middle Eastern melodies, Pan-African rhythms, classical motifs melded with volleys of percussion, indeed a far cry from what we know from System of a Down.

We cross to Serj Tankian for the full story. He spoke to Undercover's Tim Cashmere.

Tim Cashmere: Let's start talking about this new album of yours, Serart. Most people would not have heard it yet. Describe it?

Serj Tankian: Serart to me is like a compelling collaboration between two artists and it represents a moment in time. It was a spontaneous work in the studio. It took six days to do. It is not a solo project, it's not a side project. Well I guess it could be a side project but it's not a side band or anything like that. Arto was so compelling as an artist and I was so intrigued by his work and what he did that I just wanted to go into the studio and jam with him you know? It was as simple as that! Those six days of working together in the studio is what Serart is.

TC: How did you and Arto cross paths?

ST: I first met Arto in the year 2000 watching him at the Armenian music awards and I was watching him play a little bottle of water. It was a Coke bottle that he had just filled with water and he was playing it like an old world flute and he had a tambourine that he was doing some jungle beats with. I was like, I can't believe that guy is making that sound from those two instruments if you can even call them instruments and I was just intrigued by his presence in artistry and how it worked. Thereafter I invited him to come and work with System of a Down on Toxicity. He rendered his little interpretation of the album on the outro after 'Aerials' and he did some other percussion work and some other stuff on the record and we became friends. When the appropriate time arose that we both had a week free we got into the studio and just went mad.

TC: As I listen to the album some of the compositions on it really sound worthy of being studied in universities. Have you ever studied music yourself?

ST: Thank you very much for the compliment. No I haven't, not even close.

TC: So how do you go about piecing these songs together?

ST: I don't really know how to explain that. It's just whatever sounds right. As far as arrangement it's whatever sounds right. I do the same with words, I try to put pieces next to each other or with lyrics words next to each other that don't originate with a relationship to start with and try to create a relationship between them. That's always a fun venture that doesn't always work right, but when it does it is special.

TC: When you go about making music like this is there a lot of improvisation?

ST: It's mostly improvisation. When we went to the studio… I did take a lot of songs that I had pre-constructed with beats and guitars and some other stuff that I brought in that did make the transition a little smoother and we added different instruments and vocals onto but for the tracks nine out of sixteen right on the spot we just improvised. Right on the spot each of us did things and we didn't know what we were going to do next. I didn't know what he was going to do next let alone what I was going to do next. It was fun. It was really challenging just to trust in the moment and let it go without judgment and see what comes out and we actually used everything that we worked on, we didn't throw anything away, we didn't leave anything on the side so it was interesting.

TC: Are you ever going to play this live?

ST: We've thought about it but right now both of us are really, really busy with other stuff so we're not going to be able to do it right now. If the time and the situation arises. More important than ever the project was put together in such an organic matter that we require people that are really passionate about it and so if we get calls from people that are into the music and want to play with us then it would be really good to one day bring all those people together and have a little collaboration on stage and maybe interpret the songs a little differently to the record and have fun like that.

TC: Have you heard a reaction to any System of a Down fans yet?

ST: I've had some reports from website digital teams and whatnot and it's been pretty favourable.

TC: Is this perhaps an indication of a new direction for System of a Down?

ST: Not really. Every day is a new direction for me. I don't think one thing should necessarily be a pointing arrow for anything.

TC: I'll change the subject to a website that you and Tom Morello [of Audioslave] have put together called www.axisofjustice.com. Tell us about this.

ST: Axis of Justice was started about a year and a half ago by Tom and myself and it's a non-profit organization that has two or three different purposes. I guess the main purpose is to bring forth fans of progressive music and progressive artists and non-profit organizations that have all these people doing good things for the planet. On Ozzfest 2002 Axis was present with five different organizations among them, including Amnesty International and Greenpeace and so on. A wide spectrum of organizations that have worked with Axis of Justice have been environmental, racial justice, political, social justice, rape abuse, incest network and all sorts of organizations. We have a radio network in Los Angeles 90.7KPFK, we have three shows that we've pre-recorded. Once a month we have a radio show where Tom and I interview somebody. We've interviewed Michael Moore, we've interviewed a couple of other activists from these organizations, we play politically or socially viable music of many different genres on air and we just have a lot of fun doing it. The organization is actually just an action mouthpiece for whatever we want to partake in and the website as you mentioned is a good face for it.

TC: Is there an article up there that you're exceptionally passionate about?

ST: On the Axis site? It's always ever changing it's always updated stuff. I just really liked it when we were having the anti-war protests in February before the war started we were getting stuff from unitedforpeace.org and we were posting that and we're always posting it. Anything I come across as interesting article-wise I put on System of a Down in our global initiative section and I always copy Axis of Justice. If it's interesting we can put it up there. Tom always brings in stuff and we have a guy that works with us that is always researching stuff so there is always new stuff and new topics.

TC: Can you recommend anymore places where people are interested in this sort of information?

ST: There are so many organizations it really depends what they're into. If they're into environmental justice they should probably just do a search for environmental justice and you'll probably see thousands of organizations and the same thing with racial justice and labor movements. There are so many organizations worldwide it really depends what you're into.

TC: Just skipping back and turning this into a completely erratic interview, going back to Serart, thinking of the world music influence, do you listen to much of the Eastern music?

ST: I listen to all sorts of music. I do like world music to a certain degree. It depends if I like the song or not. It's the same with rock or hip hop. If I like the song and the artist is compelling and original then I like it, but yeah I listen to jazz as well I listen to all sorts of music.

TC: Do you find that younger people today are becoming very open to other sorts of music?

ST: I guess there are two arguments. There are arguments on both sides of that. I think commercial culture is as strong as it's ever been and today's society kind of guarantees a narrow scope of finalists for the type of widespread popularity that music gets in certain arenas, but there is also a large underground community of artists that have done amazing work and have unparalleled success. It's interesting to watch.

TC: How many instruments appear on the album?

ST: Plenty! Plenty! Plenty! [laughs]

TC: How do you find them all, or more importantly where do you learn how to play them all?

ST: You don't have to look far to find instruments, whether you have traditional music instruments or not. The sound of life is existent in every living and non-living thing. It's just how to bring that is the skill I guess.

[ChucK Taylor]

o ok thats pretty cool

[TheShootingStar]

[OzRage]

cool thanks i might check it out

[TheShootingStar]

^ No problem.. If you got the time.. Go here and listen to some samples first to see if you like it...

http://www.mediaplay.com/Music/Album.aspx?...odid=SNY87184.2

[OzRage]

thanks for that i will check that out

[voice]

I got it for like two bucks and i can say that it was worth it. The music can be soothing at times and its not just one type of music either its all sorts of different sounds.

[OzRage]

well i have heard some tracks and they are really cool so i will pick it up when i get some cash

[TheShootingStar]

^ Coo.. Glad you enjoyed it..

[TheShootingStar]

[Root Pepper]

Fantastic album, definately pick it up! One of the best I've heard that's been made in the last 5 years.