A Serj of Controversy

Having almost entirely written, performed and produced Elect the Dead, has the experience of going solo improved or changed you much as a musician?

"Absolutely, as a songwriter it presented a lot of interesting challenges and as a musician I got to exercise my chops on guitar, piano, string arrangements, bass, programming drums, producing and putting it out on my own label. It was like an all round arts project that came together for me, like a composer’s way of making a rock record."

Your touring band’s called the Flying Cunts of Chaos, what’s that about?

"Well, I was originally thinking of naming the record that, but I thought it might not make it into any retail stores. So when it was time to come up with a name for the band I thought ‘Serj and the Flying Cunts of Chaos’ just for fun, to be honest. We had two or three different names, I ran them by the guys in the band and, overwhelmingly, everyone liked the ‘Cunts’, so..."

You make it sound like such a reasonable suggestion. You’re well renowned for your activism. can you tell me about your Elect the Dead campaign?

"We set up a website (electthedead.com) to get signatures on electoral reform points that I came up with. I’m working with Axis of Justice and building coalitions between different democratic organisations like RegisterToVote.org, MoveOn.org, DeclareYourself.com and Progressive.org to get signatures. It’s building by the thousands all the time. Once we have a decent number of signatories we want to take it to certain members of congress and see if we can make it into a resolution or a number of resolutions."

Video - Serj Tankian - Sky Is Over

What did you make of Bjork’s recent controversy where she was condemned by the Chinese government and knocked off the Serbian Exit music festival’s bill for associating her song Declare Independence with Tibet and Kosovo during her concerts in China and Japan?

"Awesome. To be condemned by any government is awesome."

What do you say to her claim that she wasn’t making a political statement so much as expressing the need for freedom as a human emotion?

"Most artists make their points from an intuitive emotional point of view rather than a political logical point of view, and that’s what we should be doing. I have much respect for that."

I only bring it up because politics have played such a key part in your music. Have you found yourself in any similar controversies?

"I had an article called ‘Understanding Oil’ appear on our website on September 12th, 2001. I got death threats; radio station program directors were dropping our single, Chop Suey, at the time; all over the airwaves in the US people were telling me to get the fuck out of the country if I don’t like America. All sorts of fun stuff. A lot of reactionism prevailed in the US at the time, and people weren’t ready to listen to logical explanations of the after-effects of our oil policy in the last 100 years in the Middle East. So yeah, I’ve had my share. But hers is nicer, I like that better. I’d rather be condemned by a whole government for having emotions. I want to join her!"