Serj Tankian was born on August 21, 1967, in Beirut, Lebanon. He and his family emigrated to Los Angeles in 1975. Although Tankian disliked school, he maintained a 4.0 grade average. Daron Malakian met Serj Tankian in 1992, while they both shared the same rehearsal studio in different bands. Serj was playing keyboard for a band, and Daron was singing lead vocals for another band. They formed a jam band called Soil with Domingo Laranio (drums) and Dave Hakopyan (bass). Around this time, they also met Shavo Odadjian. The next year, in 1994, after one supposed jam session recording and one live show, Dave and Domingo left, thinking the band wasn’t going anywhere. The band later broke up and Tankian and Malakian formed a new band "System of a Down". During System of a Down’s days, Serj Tankian was the vocalist in other bands for certain songs such as Mushroom Cult by Dog Fashion Disco and lent his vocals to the song Mein by Deftones. In 2007, he released his debut album, Elect the Dead. The official tour for Elect the Dead commenced on October 12, 2007 with a show at Chicago’s Vic theater. Tankian is currently co-writing a musical with the American playwright Steven Sater. It is based on the Ancient Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound. He stated that eight songs have been completed and that there will be a record.
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