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As you would expect from someone whose conversation swings easily from harakiri, the Japanese term for ritualistic suicide after which he named his latest solo album, to the Armenian genocide of nearly a century ago, Serj Tankian comes across as intense. Armenpress reports about this calling Nzherald.co.nz website.
And not even his time living by the beach in New Zealand has chilled him out any.
As the frontman of System of a Down, the Lebanese-born Armenian-American has become a high-profile mouthpiece for Armenians wanting official recognition of genocide committed by Turkey during World War I. The historic issue has shaped his world view and his music, whether with SOAD, one of mainstream rock's heaviest outfits, or on his solo forays.
"I think my activism and politicisation came from the hypocrisy of the denial in the US of the Armenian genocide - and then realising how many other causes, be it human rights or environmentally oriented causes, are suppressed for political capital and gain," he says on the phone from Los Angeles.