The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and Daron Malakian: Difference between pages

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Daron Malakian

Daron Vartan Malakian is a Guitarist/Vocalist in the American/Armenian band System of a Down. Malakian has written most of the band's music, and, more recently, has taken on a large share of the vocal and lyrical work for the band as well. Like the other band members, Malakian is of Armenian heritage.

"WEEEEEEED MAN! I LOVE WEEEEEED MAN!" "WEED MAN, I LOVE WEED MAN! Just look at my eyes in this picture man! WEEED MAN, I LOVE WEED MEN?"

Childhood

Daron was born on July 18, 1975 in Hollywood, California, USA. At a very early age, Daron got into heavy metal music; his cousin played him a KISS record when he was 4 years old and he was hooked. Daron started listening to Van Halen, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Mötley Crüe and Ozzy Osbourne among others. By the time he was a teenager, he got into extreme metal bands such as Slayer, Venom, and Cannibal Corpse. At around 17 he started getting into The Beatles and cites John Lennon as one of his biggest influences on him as a songwriter. Daron went to Rose & Alex Pilibos' Armenian school in Hollywood, which bandmates Serj Tankian and Shavo Odadjian also attended. He then attended Roosevelt Middle School and Glendale High School, where he frequently cut class, and got into a lot of fights.

Forming System of a Down

Daron met Serj Tankian in 1995, while they both shared the same rehearsal studio in different bands. Serj was playing keyboard for a band, and Daron was singing lead for another band. They decided to form their own band together, in which Serj would sing lead. Shavo Odadjian soon joined to play bass. They called themselves Soil, then later renamed the band System of a Down, recruiting John Dolmayan for drums. They got the name of the band after a poem Daron wrote about the Armenian Genocide called "Victims of a Down"

Present Day

Malakian now lives in Glendale, California in a home by himself and likes to collect candles, Persian rugs, instruments, and skulls. Daron has been voted 4th best guitarist of the year by Metal Edge Magazine. Daron has stated in an interview that he hates the Nu Metal label more than anything, saying "A lot of bands followed Korn. We’re not one of those bands but I have respect for Korn for being original. I just think it’s a shame that so many people felt they had to go and mimic that. Everyone tells us we have our own sound. I think that we have enough trust in our fans from touring for enough years to know that they’re expecting something different from us, which is cool because it leaves the door open for us to go anywhere we want.".

Malakian co-produced System of a Down's albums with Rick Rubin, as well as The Ambulance and Bad Acid Trip (a band on fellow member Serj Tankian's Serjical Strike Records). He recently started his own label, EatUrMusic, on which Amen is the first signed band. Malakian is also involved in a project called Scars on Broadway, with Amen-singer Casey Chaos and Zach Hill from Hella and Team Sleep. In 2003 Daron Malakian played in the Celebrity Baseball Game in Hollywood, where a variety of celebrities played a baseball game. He wrote a song about the experience, "Old School Hollywood", which appears on Disc 1 of System of a Down's recent double album, Mezmerize/Hypnotize.

Equipment

Daron first picked up a guitar at age 12, saying in an interview, "For the first year and a half, I learned how to play by ear, and did alright. After a few years I gained a reputation as being a guitar player in high school. And by 16 or 17 I actually realised it was a good songwriting instrument, and, over anything, that's what I feel like. I don't pretend to be Mr Guitar Virtuoso". Daron is well known for playing his Ibanez baritone (between a guitar and a bass) Iceman IC400, with custom graphics done by his father, Vartan Malakian. His father also did custom graphics on the 1978 Iceman, as well as making the horned bridge replacing the stopbar. The guitar was popular in the 1970s and 1980s, and he is fronting its comeback. All of the guitars that he plays on stage have a one-of-a-kind finish and cannot be found in retail, although there was a limited edition Iceman with graphics by Vartan Malakian sold on eBay. He plays through a Marshall Mode Four, uses Jim Dunlop Delrin 2.0mm plectrums and Ernie Ball "Skinny Top Heavy Bottom" guitar strings. Daron now uses a Gibson SG onstage in most of System of a Down's recent live shows. He can be seen with his 1961 reissue Gibson SG in the music videos for System of a Down's B.Y.O.B and Question! and he is seen playing his cream-colored SG in the video for "Hypnotize". From System of a Down's formation, up until their third album, Steal This Album!, Daron used Drop C tuning (CGCFAD) on his guitars. On the band's double album "Mezmerize/Hypnotize", Daron changed to Drop D flat tuning (Db,Ab,Db,Gb,Bb,Eb) with the exception of a couple songs, "Question!" and "Dreaming." This tuning is a half-step up from C. He gave the reason for the change in tuning as to give the new songs "more kick". He says he finds himself sometimes playing in standard tuning (EADGBE, or 440). When at home, Daron records riffs on an old portable cassette tape recorder his mother bought him when he was eight years old. "Seriously, that recorder is my most prized possession. I have much fancier equipment around the house, but that recorder has heard it all. It has been with me since the beginning."

Controversial Performances

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During System of a Down's May 7, 2005 performance of "B.Y.O.B." on Saturday Night Live, Daron screamed the words "Fuck Yeah!", which was not censored, yet the main piece of the song was. Also, during System of a Down's performance of "B.Y.O.B." at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2005, instead of screaming "Blast off! It's party time! And we don't live in a fascist nation!", Daron screamed "Blast off! It's party time! And this ain't no bullshit political punk rock!", the main piece of the song was not censored. The phrase Daron screamed could possibly be a reference to Green Day, which is considered a political punk rock band.

Solo Career

In December of 2005, Daron said in an interview that he "could release ten solo records tomorrow.'". He also said, "'I have tons of material laying around. After these albums," (Mezmerize and Hypnotize) "I'm gonna go off and do something on my own, just like Serj. And no, System of a Down are not breaking up. We're just gonna do like KISS and put out our own solo records or something like that." On what direction his album will take, Malakian states: "It will probably be something electronic. Not dance music, but something more experimental. When, or even if, the music comes out it will still be structured, just like System of a Down's music is." This solo album, possibly named Scars on Broadway, should be launched just after Hypnotize's tour. This electronic idea was demonstrated in all 2005 concerts in which Malakian, instead of merely singing the chorus to the song Sugar or War!, distorted his voice electronically with a Vocoder. [1]

External links

• System of a Down Official Site
• Daron Malakian's Music Label
• Daron Malakian Rocks
• SOADFans
• SOAD's performance of B.Y.O.B. on SNL