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
I guess you'd say I'm a gearhead. It's not just guitars; I have five or six drum sets, a bunch of keyboards... It's like Guitar Center exploded, and all the cool stuff dropped in my backyard. I'm a really lucky guy, I have to admit.
I'm not very happy. I'm frustrated with human beings. I'm the guy who just wants to smack people in the face and say, 'Wake up!'
I'll be honest with you: politically, I have no issue with people, but my beef sometimes is with religion at the end of the day.
I played for about two seconds in the game. No one knew who I was. They were looking at me like, 'Who is this guy?' But I don't think that Frankie Avalon is the biggest System of a Down fan.
In the Middle East in the summertime, to keep cool, a lot of people sleep on the rooftops.
How does a band like System of a Down get big?
I just wrote the song sitting in my car waiting for my girlfriend. That's about it, man. You will know what I mean when you hear the song.
In Glendale, where I live, there's a street called Broadway. The bottoms of the light posts have swastikas on them.
I feel like people have only heard half a record so far. But we like releasing shorter records. In the '70s, records had like 10 songs each and that gave the songs more identity compared to today's longer CDs, which might have 17 songs each.
I feel like people have only heard half a record so far,
Everybody's going to the party ... dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine.
System of a Down is the music that I wanted to buy but couldn't find at the store. It's the band I wanted to be a fan of.
A lot of times, I don't feel responsible for the songs myself. But that's my job or my place in life: to keep my search and catch the ideas before they pass me by.
A lot of MTV's programming is hip-hop based, and the messages are usually all about bling bling. A lot of hip-hop artists sing about stuff that's more important, but they seldom get heard. The ones who get heard are the ones saying, 'Think about yourself. Make your money. It's all you. Everybody have a good time and party.'