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Daron Vartan Malakian (born 18 July 1975) is the lead guitarist, songwriter and sang the sub-vocals in System of a Down until their hiatus in 2006 and is now the lead singer and guitarist in Scars on Broadway. Like the rest of the Hollywood-based band (System of a Down), he is of Armenian ancestry, but is the only member to actually have been born inside the U.S. (Los Angeles). He placed 30th in Guitar World's List of The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists of All Time.[1]
Early lifeDaron was born on July 18, 1975 in U.S. as an only child to an Iraqi-Armenian father Vartan Malakian and Iranian-Armenian mother Emma Malakian. At a very early age, Daron got into heavy metal music; his distant cousin emma played him a KISS record when he was four years old and he was hooked. Daron started listening to Emma, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motörhead and Ozzy Osbourne among others.He always wanted to play the drums , but his parents got him a guitar instead because they said "You can't turn the drums off." By the time with Daron he was a teenager, he got into heavier metal bands such as Slayer, Venom, Metallica, Pantera, Sepultura and Cannibal Corpse. At around 17 he started getting into The Beatles and Peter, Paul and Mary as two of his biggest influences on him as a songwriter. Daron went to Rose & Alex Pilibos Armenian school in Little Armenia, Hollywood, which bandmates Serj Tankian and Shavo Odadjian also attended. Daron is still a big Slayer fan, as is band member Shavo Odadjian who sometimes wears Slayer t-shirts to shows. In his childhood, he also became a fan of the LA Kings Hockey Team, which can be seen in the video of 'Toxicity' and the booklet of the album with the same title. System of a DownDaron Malakian met Serj Tankian in 1993, while they both shared the same rehearsal studio in different bands. Serj was playing keyboard for a band, and Daron was singing lead vocals for another band. They formed a jam band called Soil (Serj on vocals/keyboards and Daron on guitar [1]; not to be confused with SOiL) with Domingo Laranio (drums) and Dave Hakopyan (bass). Around this time, they also met Shavo Odadjian. In 1994, after one supposed jam session recording and one live show, Dave and Domingo left, thinking the band wasn't going anywhere. [2] The band later broke up and Tankian and Malakian formed a new band "System of a Down," based on a poem that Daron wrote entitled "Victims of the Down". Shavo Odadjian thought that the word System appealed to a much broader audience than "Victims," and they wanted their albums to be stored near the band Slayer's. Odadjian was the band's original manager and promoter, but joined as the bassist, and managerial duties were taken over by the Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group and founder David "Beno" Benveniste. Daron then asked his friend Ontronik "Andy" Khachaturian (whom had played in his first band with Daron at age 15 [3]) to join the band as the drummer. [4] Andy was later replaced by their current drummer, John Dolmayan, due to a hand injury. Malakian co-produced System of a Down's albums with Rick Rubin, as well as The Ambulance and Bad Acid Trip (a band on fellow member Serj Tankian's Serjical Strike Records). He recently started his own label, EatUrMusic, on which Amen is the first signed band. Malakian is also involved in a band called Scars on Broadway, with John Dolmayan. In 2003 Daron Malakian played with a variety of celebrities in the Celebrity Baseball Game in Hollywood. He wrote a song about the experience, "Old School Hollywood", which appears on System of a Down's album, Mezmerize. Daron has stated in an interview that the band doesn't follow anybody: "A lot of bands followed Korn. We're not one of those bands but I have respect for Korn for being original. I just think it’s a shame that so many people felt they had to go and mimic that. Everyone tells us we have our own sound. I think that we have enough trust in our fans from touring for enough years to know that they're expecting something different from us, which is cool because it leaves the door open for us to go anywhere we want." Personal lifeMalakian now lives in Glendale, California; he also has relatives in Iran and Iraq since his parents were born in those countries but migrated to America. He has visited both countries. He enjoys collecting candles, Persian rugs, Hookahs, instruments, and skulls. eatURmusiceatURmusic[5] is the imprint of Malakian through Sony. It was set up in late 2003 and is largely inactive, partly due to the number of Malakian's other pursuits. Further, Malakian is selective and will only sign bands that he truly believes in. "I honestly feel that if you're going to sign an artist,". "the most important thing is that you've really got to be like one of those kids in their audience. [The Sony people] and I agreed that I will only sign and work with those artists that I'm a fan of." The first band that got signed to the label, US punk/metal band Amen, have since moved on by mutual agreement. Amen singer Casey Chaos will release his music through his own label from now on. The web page, along with its forum, is down, but recently a new forum has emerged in hopes of reviving the EatUrMusic community. The music video for Scars On Broadway's song "They Say", the album itself, and virtually everything that is released by the band lists it as being copyrighted to eatURmusic. DiscographySystem of a Down
Scars on Broadway
CollaborationsLive performances
Awards
EquipmentGuitars
Amplifiers and effects
Other
Quotes by Malakian
Notes
External links
Categories: System of a Down members | 1975 births | Armenian-American musicians | Armenian-Americans | American male singers | American heavy metal guitarists | American heavy metal singers | Iranian Americans | Iranian Armenians | Iraqi Americans | Iraqi Armenians | California musicians | Living people | People of Arab descent CommentsNo comments have been added. |
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