Daron Malakian
Daron Malakian
Daron Vartan Malakianis an Armenian–American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He is best known as the guitarist, songwriter and second vocalist of the rock band System of a Down and as the lead vocalist, lead guitarist and songwriter of the band Scars on Broadway. Like the rest of the Hollywood-based band System of a Down, he is of Armenian ancestry, but he is the only member to actually have been born in the United States. Daron Malakian is known for...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionGuitarist
Date of Birth18 July 1975
CityLos Angeles, CA
CountryUnited States of America
When we first started the band here in LA, Janes Addiction was the band we looked up to. They came out at a time when there was a lot of glam rock and hair bands and they got put into that category, but they stood out because they were doing their own thing. We were kind of caught in the same kind of situation at another time: there were a lot of new-metal bands and wed get put into that category even though we didnt fit. Its funny that now theres bands like Mars Volta doing this prog-rock thing thats kinda getting popular, people put us in that genre now. That may be closer to the truth, but I think Hypnotized is going to go further in terms of getting people to understand what were doing.
When we were a club band, we always used to say, 'Man, if we ever see success, we'd like to open doors for other people, to push the boundaries and fully contribute something to art, to music, that is going to help it evolve instead of doing stuff for the sake of money or doing stuff for the sake of being popular.
I don't think when I'm doing music. Things just happen. I've even taken my clothes off while performing. But then I'm so shy that I can't even take my clothes off in the dressing room, even though it's just the other guys in the band in here with me. It's really weird.
I don't understand some of the music I hear on MTV or the radio, because they don't mention the times we live in. They have nothing to do with nothing.
He's gone so far to find no hope/ He's never coming back.
Whatever I write has to evolve around my taste in music at that moment, because that always changes.
Basically I write songs, and I need for there to be a home for these songs.
I'll always be a member of System of a Down. That will never change.
I don't get it when people complain that baseball games are too long.
If I was money-motivated, I wouldn't have joined a rock band with three other Armenian guys.
I am depressed sometimes, but it's not what keeps me at home or focused on work.
I always want to grow and top myself.
Every song I've written is luck, I think; it's luck - 'How did that just happen?'
My dad is my biggest influence on me as a musician, even though he's not a musician.