An Artist Isn’t Supposed To Please Everyone

In a current interview with NPR, System of a Down‘s frontman Serj Tankian opened up in regards to the private prices of his activism. Tankian, whose 2021 documentary “Fact To Energy” chronicles his journey as a politically engaged musician, mentioned the potential fallout of his outspoken nature on his fan base.

“I am okay with that as a result of an artist is not presupposed to please everybody,” he acknowledged. “An artist is meant to mainly attempt to obtain via the collective consciousness no matter truths that we’re attempting to dwell by, the truths of our occasions. If we won’t try this as artists, then we’re entertainers.”

Tankian elaborated on the inherent selection between being an entertainer and an artist, emphasizing the challenges of the latter path.

“From day one, you must make that selection: Are you an entertainer solely or are you going to be an artist? For those who’re an entertainer, that is cool; there are various entertainers I observe and love. But when you are going to be an artist, then the highway shouldn’t be going to be straightforward. You are going to need to be sincere with your self and everybody else always, and persons are going to love you and persons are going to hate you, and that is okay.”

Reflecting on his position inside System of a Down, Tankian acknowledged his distinctive place because the band’s major activist voice. This twin focus typically created stress between his need to ship a message and the band’s musical objectives. “I used to be extra of the activist within the band than anybody else. There was at all times this push and pull between the message and the music,” he famous.

Whereas he revered his bandmates’ desire to prioritize music, Tankian felt that sure messages have been too essential to suppress.

“The opposite guys, rightfully so, did not need the music to be victimized by the message always. I understood that as a result of I beloved the music as nicely, however when there was a message that wanted to be dispersed, I felt like that was simply as vital, if no more vital, than the music.”

In one other dialog with Books On Pod, Tankian shared how his grandparents’ Armenian heritage spurred his activism. Studying about his household’s previous in his teenagers, he grew to become conscious about the geopolitical forces that formed their historical past.

“While you’re in a democracy and you might be afraid to talk the reality due to backlash, that is while you really feel like that one thing’s actually fallacious,” he mirrored.

Tankian’s activism is deeply rooted in his id as an Armenian-American and the continued battle for recognition of the Armenian Genocide: “And thoughts you, that, coupled with rising up as an Armenian-American in Los Angeles, paying taxes to a rustic that’s not correctly recognizing the genocide of our ancestors, a democracy not recognizing correct historical past due to political expediency, due to Turkey being a NATO ally, and so they did not wish to acknowledge it, simply soiled political fucking geopolitics, that makes you an activist. That made me an activist.”

His ardour extends past Armenian points to broader human rights, animal rights, and local weather justice: “That made me somebody who fights for fact and justice, not simply having to do with Armenians or Armenian points, however many points — within the U.S., human rights points around the globe and even animal rights, local weather points. You see the world of injustice and justice, you see that imbalance, and also you wanna type of tip the scales up as a result of you already know that that is gonna make the world a greater place in each means.”

“I’ve at all times spoken fact to energy, however solely as a result of I cared. If I did not care, I would not communicate my thoughts,” he concluded.