Armenian-American singer and activist Serj Tankian, of System Of A Down, recently sat down with the media project of the Civilitas Foundation, to talk about what it means to lead a meaningful and mindful life. He takes the viewer on a journey of how his sense of justice and passion for music and the arts enabled him to discover his purpose. He discusses his experiences during and after the 2020 Artsakh War, his thoughts about the need for a strong and independent Armenia, his triggers related to injustice, and the importance of finding the voice within.

“Everyone enjoys praise; everyone enjoys being revered, but you also have to weigh that against the reality of who you actually are and what other people’s perceptions are,” Tankian said. “And at one point you have to, for your own health, discount other people’s perceptions altogether and just say, this is who I am. Sometimes I’m going to be loved and there are times I’m going to be not liked or hated or whatever. As long as I know that I’m following my vision and doing the right thing, that I could sleep at night and deal with the challenges accordingly, then it’s good.”

Tankian went on to say that he applies the same philosophy to the way he deals with online criticism. “Nobody likes to be criticized, is the truth,” he said. “Nobody likes to be hated, and nobody likes to be put under that type of pressure. But I just feel like irrespective of what’s happening outside, as long as you are following the path that you think is the right path… Even pressure has a purpose; it’s got an end goal. So if you’re able to see that, then you see that people are trying to use a certain amount of pressure to make you do a certain thing. And it’s transparent. And if it’s not something that you want to do, then you don’t do it. But you have to know what that is; you have to apply awareness to all of those things, be they personal, political, social, and do what you need to do.”

“It’s an interesting thing, because it’s not selfish, but it’s almost a kind of selfishness where you are trying to be in so tune of what your vision is that you don’t wanna disregard other people’s opinions and perspectives but you can’t necessarily apply yourself to them if you actually know where you’re going,” Tankian concluded.

On Friday, October 21, Tankian released a new five-song EP titled Perplex Cities, via Serjical Strike. Perplex Cities is his second EP in the last couple of years, following his 2021 release of the hard-hitting Elasticity EP. (Blabbermouth)

Photo Credit: Mauricio Alvarado