John Dolmayan
John Dolmayan (born July 15, 1973) is the drummer for System of a Down.
John Dolmayan was born in Lebanon but is of Armenian ethnicity. The Lebanese Civil War had begun and reached its peak during Dolmayan's residence there, and Dolmayan's family decided to flee Lebanon after an intriguing survival story. One night, when John was five years old, he woke up in the middle of the night and went to his parent's room out of fright. His parents allowed him to sleep in their bed, and soon after a bullet came through the window of John's room and hit his bed, where he would have been sleeping. His father decided they had to move. He moved to Toronto then to Los Angeles. He has a condominium in Las Vegas where he also bought his parents a house.
He has thus far recorded five albums with System of a Down: System of a Down (1998), Toxicity (2001), Steal This Album! (2002), and, most recently, Mezmerize (2005), and Hypnotize (2005).
His unique and original style of drumming has influenced an emerging generation of drummers. More than a few critics have called his style "schizophrenic", and this has attracted a significant portion of SOAD's audience, and it's generally agreed that his talent is a large part of SOAD's appeal.
John's facial expressions are famous for being constantly foreboding and angry-looking, which together with his usual smart dress sense, make him look like a Russian Mafia member. Lead singer Serj Tankian was quoted in Kerrang magazine as always trying to make John crack a smile on stage, to which John replied that he had to make an extreme effort to keep a straight face and not get put off beat, which is sometimes not believed due to the fact that John is very rhythmically sound when it comes to his drum beats. He is known throughout the metal scene for his hi-hat to snare combo, which can be heard in such songs as Deer Dance on Toxicity, I-E-A-I-A-I-O on Steal This Album! and Question! on Mezmerize.
Along with Joey Jordison he is one of the only drummers in mainstream metal to use blast beats (as with Jordison, only occasionally), a death metal drumming technique which can be heard for example on the System of a Down single "B.Y.O.B." The use of this technique and other aspects of Dolmayan's style, which like much of System of a Down's music is generally more complex and technical than that of most popular metal bands' drummers, has given him and his band a modicum of respect in the generally mainstream-critical underground metal community.
Equipment
John Dolmayan's drumkit is a modified Tama Starclassic (generally with a White Silk or Brown Fade finish). The eleven cymbals are Paiste Signatures. His old setup contains 2 tom toms in front of the snare, a mounted tom and floor tom on the right, and another floor tom on the left of the snare, where a second snare would usually be. He uses a double-bass pedal with the left pedal unusually on the left of the hi-hat pedal. He has 2 splash cymbals (10" and 8") as well as a 6" bell chime mounted over the hi-hat, and an 8" bell chime to the right of his 2nd tom. He has two 18" china cymbals (thin and heavy), one on the left, one on the right. He also uses 2 timbales around the left floor tom.
His new setup uses 2 basses instead of a double-bass pedal. Now he has 3 toms in front of the snare, and only one tom to the right. Most of his cymbals have moved, and so have his timbales which are mounted to align with the toms.
When he first started his career with System of a Down he used a few Paiste Dimension cymbals as well as signatures. Back then some of his cymbals were 22" and 24". Now he just uses 20" as his biggest (ride and Power Crash)
In 2004 he played for Scum of the Earth, featuring Riggs-Zombie, John Tempesta-Zombie, Mike Tempesta-Powermann 5000(powerman 5000 features Rob Zombie's brother known as Spyder), and John Dolmayan-System of a Down.
External links
John Dolmayan page at drummerworld.com