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Daron Malakian

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Daron Malakian

Daron Vartan Malakian is the guitarist in the American-Armenian band System of a Down, comprising vocalist Serj Tankian, bassist Shavo Odadjian, and drummer John Dolmayan. Malakian has written most of the band's music, and, more recently, has taken on a large share of the vocal and lyrical work for the band as well. Malakian sometimes has makeup around his eyes that looks like Egyptian eyeliner.



Childhood

Daron was born on July 18, 1975 in Hollywood, California, USA. At a very early age, Daron got into heavy metal music; his distant cousin played him a KISS record when he was four years old and he was hooked. Daron started listening to Van Halen, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Mötley Crüe and Ozzy Osbourne among others. He always wanted to play the drums, but his parents got him a guitar instead because "You can't turn the drums off." By the time he was a teenager, he got into extreme metal bands such as Slayer, Venom, Napalm Death, and Cannibal Corpse. At around 17 he started getting into The Beatles and cites John Lennon as one of his biggest influences on him as a songwriter. Daron went to Rose & Alex Pilibos' Armenian school in the Los Feliz side of Hollywood, which bandmates Serj Tankian and Shavo Odadjian also attended. He then attended Roosevelt Middle School and Glendale High School, where he frequently cut class and got into a lot of fights. Daron was a terrible student and barely passed his classes. Daron knew since he was six he wanted to perform music.After the experience he had taken at the high schoool he noticed one thing,"Hey I'm a sexy man so... I may as well be a sexy rockstar!"

Forming System of a Down

Daron met Serj Tankian in 1995, while they both shared the same rehearsal studio in different bands. Serj was playing keyboard for a band, and Daron was singing lead for another band. They formed a jam band called Soil. Shavo Odadjian then became their bassist. They later changed their name to Victims of a Down (after a poem that Daron wrote about the Armenian Genocide with the same name), but quickly changed it to System of a Down because Serj felt that "system" was a more powerful word. They then recruited Andy Khachaturian for the drums, who was later replaced by their current drummer, John Dolmayan.

Present day

Malakian now lives in Glendale, California in a home by himself; he also has family in Iraq. He also likes to collect candles, Persian rugs, Middle Eastern smoking devices, instruments, and skulls. Daron has been voted fourth best guitarist of the year by Metal Edge Magazine. Daron has stated in an interview that he hates the Nu Metal label more than anything, saying "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."

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 project called Scars on Broadway, with Amen-singer Casey Chaos and Zach Hill from Hella and Team Sleep. 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 Disc 1 of System of a Down's double album, Mezmerize/Hypnotize.

Malakian is currently in the early stages of forming a new group "Scars on Broadway." He has stated that he's still getting the band together but some music should be surfacing by Summer 2007. [[1]]. In a live performance of Hypnotize at KROQ Acoustic Christmas, Daron said "not all the money in Israel can buy this band". This reveals a bit of System of a Down's distaste for Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Daron's comment caused various human rights groups to threaten to boycott System of a Down and Maria Velez.

Solo Career

In December of 2005, Daron said in an interview that he "could release ten solo records tomorrow.'". He also said, "'I have tons of material laying around. After these albums," (Mezmerize and Hypnotize) "I'm gonna go off and do something on my own, just like Serj. And no, System of a Down are not breaking up. We're just gonna do like KISS and put out our own solo records or something like that." On what direction his album will take, Malakian states: "It will probably be something electronic. Not dance music, but something more experimental. When, or even if, the music comes out it will still be structured, just like System of a Down's music is." This solo album, possibly named Scars on Broadway, should be launched just after Hypnotize's tour. This electronic idea was demonstrated in all 2005 concerts in which Malakian, instead of merely singing the chorus to the song Sugar or War?, as well as "Old School Hollywood" from Mezmerize, distorted his voice electronically with a Vocoder. He is currently forming a band called Scars on Broadway. They are expected to have an album in the summer of 2007.Daron also quoted, "I only had a one night stand with Shavo...(laughs) at least I tell the truth!"

Gear

Daron is well-known for playing his Ibanez Iceman IC300, with custom graphics done by his father, Vartan Malakian. His father also did custom graphics on the 1978 Iceman, as well as making the horned bridge replacing the stopbar. The guitar was popular in the 1970s and 1980s, and he is fronting its comeback. All of the guitars that he plays on stage have a one-of-a-kind finish and can not be found in retail, although there was a limited edition Iceman with graphics by 'Vartan Malakian' sold on eBay. He plays through Marshall Amplifiers, uses Jim Dunlop Delrin 2.0mm plectrums and Ernie Ball "Skinny Top Heavy Bottom" guitar strings. Daron now uses a Gibson SG onstage in most of System of a Down's recent live shows. He can be seen with his Gibson SG 61' Reissue in the music videos for System of a Down's "B.Y.O.B," with tailpiece in Question!, and he is seen playing his cream-colored SG in the video for "Hypnotize." When they started out, he played a black hardtail Stratocaster which can be seen in the video War?. From System of a Down's formation, up until their third album, Steal This Album!, Daron used Drop C (from sixth string to first, C, G, C, F, A, D) tuning on his guitars. On the band's double album "Mezmerize/Hypnotize", Daron changed to Drop Db (from sixth string to first, Db, Ab, Db, Gb, Bb, Eb) tuning (except for the tracks "Dreaming" and "Question!"), a half step up from the previous tuning. He gave the reason for the change in tuning as to give the new songs "more kick". While in the studio Daron relies on a baritone guitar, a Jackson Randy Rhoads flying V, and a slew of other guitars. His amps have mostly been a Marshall super lead but has been seen with Mesa/Boogie's before.He also owns a Fulltone CLYDE Wah pedal(Seen in various live videos) and a Planet Waves pedal tuner(seen in a behind the scenes video)


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