System Of A Down frontman Serj Tankian has opened up on some of the surprising musical choices he's made on his recently released solo album, Covers, Collaborations & Collages. As the record's title suggests, it features Serj covering some of his personal favourite songs, as well as teaming up with some interesting artists.
One of the album's stand-out tracks is a cover of Chris de Burgh's I'm Counting On You, which was a particularly emotionally resonant song for Serj to put his own spin on.
“I’m a huge Chris de Burgh fan from when I was in my teens and so, for me, releasing that song was a huge deal," he tells Kerrang!. "I’ve had it in my back pocket for a long time, and I’ve been wanting to put it out. It’s a beautiful song between a father and a daughter and it’s very powerful in speaking of our times and the man-made destruction that we’ve caused on the planet. It’s like our generation handing the baton and saying, ‘I hope you can do something better than we did’ to younger people.
"Speaking to your own child about that is very personal, vulnerable and emotional because you’re talking about future. I’m at an age where there’s 20 years left – if I’m lucky, maybe more – to be able to enjoy this planet. But the future doesn’t belong to me, it belongs to our children, and we have to be cognisant and responsible for their sake about the planet that we’re leaving for them. Are we leaving this a better place than we found it?”
Elsewhere on Covers, Collaborations & Collages, Serj teams up with EDM legend Dedmau5 for a challenging, out-of-the-box electronic track that features Serj poetically riffing over glitching progressive house.
“It was very challenging to sing that but I like challenges, I like getting stuff where I’ve never done something and I go into it and see what comes out," he explains. "This is one of those where it’s just very, very unique!
"It turned out to be a unique song because there is no particular melody, except for the piano parts," he adds. "There are no real melodies that I’m following – it’s more like very unguided chants with weird sounds and vocal layers coming in and out!”
Following well-received shows in North and South America this year, System Of A Down will return to Europe next summer for a tour that will include their biggest ever UK concerts with two headline shows at London's Tottenham Stadium in July.
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