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SERJ TANKIAN: 'FIGURE IT OUT' LYRIC VIDEO
Ultimate-Guitar.Com
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/upcoming_releases/serj_tankian_figure_it_out_lyric_video.html
May 2 2012
According to Blabbermouth.net "Harakiri", the new studio album from
singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, poet and political activist
Serj Tankian, will be released July 10 on Reprise Records/Serjical
Strike. The official lyric video for the first single, "Figure It Out",
is available below.
"Harakiri", a Japanese word meaning ritual suicide, is the follow-up to
2010's critically acclaimed "Imperfect Harmonies", and the third solo
release from the System Of A Down frontman. As with 2007's "Elect The
Dead" and "Imperfect Harmonies", Serj produced "Harakiri" himself at
his home studio in Los Angeles. He tried to approach writing a little
differently this time around. "I used the Apple iPad as a songwriting
instrument to sketch out three of the songs on the record," explains
Serj. "We must trick ourselves into writing in different ways to
get unexpected results." The album will also feature performances by
Serj's touring band, THE F.C.C. - Dan Monti on guitar, Mario Pagliarulo
on bass, and Troy Zeigler on drums. Dan Monti is also co-mixing and
co-engineering the album with Serj. The album was mastered by Vlado
Meller (Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kanye West, Beastie Boys).
Serj reveals each of the songtitles in a statement describing
"Harakiri" below. The song names are in order and in bold:
"The Cornucopia of love/hate affairs with Gaia have made us scream
"Figure It Out! CEOs are the disease." Where abusive capitalism's only
fate is human/environmental devastation. The Ching Chime, diminutive
drama of a gangsta Butterfly revealed that humanity's tears actually
outweigh yearly rainfall on the planet.
"We have witnessed Harakiri on a grand scale tearing out the Occupied
Tears of victims preyed on by victims turned aggressors creating
a Deafening Silence through which we hear a voice plead, "Forget Me
Knot, my child.'
"Reality TV has become the searing indictment of a society best
described as the Uneducated Democracy. The daughters of the evolution
Weave On with blood dripping down their guilty hands onto the flag
as the word republic is replaced by empire."
Much of the new record was written in 2011, which was an incredibly
busy year for the diversely talented musician and what Serj describes
as "the busiest, most productive year of my life so far." In February,
the rock musical "Prometheus Bound", which he composed all of the
music for, opened at the Oberon Theater at Harvard in Boston to
rave reviews. 2011 also saw Serj release his second poetry book,
"Glaring Through Oblivion". He toured with System Of A Down across
three continents, performed with the Opera Orchestra in Yerevan,
Armenia, where he also had political meetings with heads of state and
hosted non-profit events. He then performed his first ever concert in
Lebanon, the place of his birth, with the Lebanese National Symphony
Orchestra. When he returned to the U.S., he finished writing four
records: a jazz record, an electronic record he wrote with his friend
Jimmy Urine of Mindless Self Indulgence, a full classical symphony
called "Orca", and the new solo rock record that he is currently
mastering.
"The year 2011 started with a fire. Some kids in Piha, New Zealand were
setting off fireworks that landed on my neighbor's property and lit the
whole hill on fire. I knew it was going to be a hell of a year and it
certainly was," says Tankian. "Within five days of that, reports came
out about birds and fish dying in massive numbers globally. The omen
was not lost on me. Varied creatures on earth were committing massive
hara-kiri (the Japanese term signifying ritualistic suicide.) Do they
know something we don't about the coming times or the sustainability
of the environment? That is the day I started writing this record."
The symbolism of entire species eradicating themselves on a large
scale struck Serj emotionally, and is an underlying theme on the entire
record. He took that idea and went to work writing, incorporating all
of the experiences of his chaotic year to make a different kind of
record. "The record is different than any I've made as a solo artist,"
he says. "It is much more driving and punk-oriented, with influences
ranging from goth to electronic to '80s vibes, dynamically heavy rock
to epic melodic songs. Lyrically, it spans the gauntlet of themes from
personal, political and philosophical to spiritual, humor and love."
He also tried to approach writing a little differently this time
around. "I used the Apple iPad as a songwriting instrument to sketch
out three of the songs on the record," he says. "We must trick
ourselves into writing in different ways to get unexpected results."
From: Baghdasarian
Ultimate-Guitar.Com
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/upcoming_releases/serj_tankian_figure_it_out_lyric_video.html
May 2 2012
According to Blabbermouth.net "Harakiri", the new studio album from
singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, poet and political activist
Serj Tankian, will be released July 10 on Reprise Records/Serjical
Strike. The official lyric video for the first single, "Figure It Out",
is available below.
"Harakiri", a Japanese word meaning ritual suicide, is the follow-up to
2010's critically acclaimed "Imperfect Harmonies", and the third solo
release from the System Of A Down frontman. As with 2007's "Elect The
Dead" and "Imperfect Harmonies", Serj produced "Harakiri" himself at
his home studio in Los Angeles. He tried to approach writing a little
differently this time around. "I used the Apple iPad as a songwriting
instrument to sketch out three of the songs on the record," explains
Serj. "We must trick ourselves into writing in different ways to
get unexpected results." The album will also feature performances by
Serj's touring band, THE F.C.C. - Dan Monti on guitar, Mario Pagliarulo
on bass, and Troy Zeigler on drums. Dan Monti is also co-mixing and
co-engineering the album with Serj. The album was mastered by Vlado
Meller (Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kanye West, Beastie Boys).
Serj reveals each of the songtitles in a statement describing
"Harakiri" below. The song names are in order and in bold:
"The Cornucopia of love/hate affairs with Gaia have made us scream
"Figure It Out! CEOs are the disease." Where abusive capitalism's only
fate is human/environmental devastation. The Ching Chime, diminutive
drama of a gangsta Butterfly revealed that humanity's tears actually
outweigh yearly rainfall on the planet.
"We have witnessed Harakiri on a grand scale tearing out the Occupied
Tears of victims preyed on by victims turned aggressors creating
a Deafening Silence through which we hear a voice plead, "Forget Me
Knot, my child.'
"Reality TV has become the searing indictment of a society best
described as the Uneducated Democracy. The daughters of the evolution
Weave On with blood dripping down their guilty hands onto the flag
as the word republic is replaced by empire."
Much of the new record was written in 2011, which was an incredibly
busy year for the diversely talented musician and what Serj describes
as "the busiest, most productive year of my life so far." In February,
the rock musical "Prometheus Bound", which he composed all of the
music for, opened at the Oberon Theater at Harvard in Boston to
rave reviews. 2011 also saw Serj release his second poetry book,
"Glaring Through Oblivion". He toured with System Of A Down across
three continents, performed with the Opera Orchestra in Yerevan,
Armenia, where he also had political meetings with heads of state and
hosted non-profit events. He then performed his first ever concert in
Lebanon, the place of his birth, with the Lebanese National Symphony
Orchestra. When he returned to the U.S., he finished writing four
records: a jazz record, an electronic record he wrote with his friend
Jimmy Urine of Mindless Self Indulgence, a full classical symphony
called "Orca", and the new solo rock record that he is currently
mastering.
"The year 2011 started with a fire. Some kids in Piha, New Zealand were
setting off fireworks that landed on my neighbor's property and lit the
whole hill on fire. I knew it was going to be a hell of a year and it
certainly was," says Tankian. "Within five days of that, reports came
out about birds and fish dying in massive numbers globally. The omen
was not lost on me. Varied creatures on earth were committing massive
hara-kiri (the Japanese term signifying ritualistic suicide.) Do they
know something we don't about the coming times or the sustainability
of the environment? That is the day I started writing this record."
The symbolism of entire species eradicating themselves on a large
scale struck Serj emotionally, and is an underlying theme on the entire
record. He took that idea and went to work writing, incorporating all
of the experiences of his chaotic year to make a different kind of
record. "The record is different than any I've made as a solo artist,"
he says. "It is much more driving and punk-oriented, with influences
ranging from goth to electronic to '80s vibes, dynamically heavy rock
to epic melodic songs. Lyrically, it spans the gauntlet of themes from
personal, political and philosophical to spiritual, humor and love."
He also tried to approach writing a little differently this time
around. "I used the Apple iPad as a songwriting instrument to sketch
out three of the songs on the record," he says. "We must trick
ourselves into writing in different ways to get unexpected results."
From: Baghdasarian