System of a Down Singer Teams With Deadmau5 on New Release
System of a Down vocalist Serj Tankian has announced a new project, and he’s joining forces with a bevy of names for it. – Author: Cat Badra, Photo from Travis Shinn
Serj Tankian hasn’t released music with System of a Down in years, but he stays active with his solo music, and that’s a beautiful thing. Tankian has announced a new project, Covers, Collaborations & Collages, which is described as a “genre-spanning collection that celebrates artistic unity, reinvention and storytelling.”
“Similar to ‘Foundations,’ these are pre-existing archival recordings, some of them from way back,” Tankian said in a statement. “I wanted to put out a record of collaborations I haven’t released before, along with covers, which I haven’t done. The rest, the collages, are parts that fit the puzzle in the same tone, the same vibe.”
Serj Tankian of System of a Down Details New Album
Tankian has released the first single from the set, called “Electric Dreams,” on Friday, August 22, on his own Serjical Strike Records/Create Music Group. He’s also kicked off a 10-week release schedule where a new song will drop each week and culminate in the compilation album, which will drop on October 24, 2025.”
“This deeply personal and eclectic body of work features Tankian’s powerful reinterpretations and remarkable collaborations,” a release states of the set. “Among the highlights is a beautifully haunting cover of Chris de Burgh’s “I’m Counting On You,” reimagined with Tankian’s unmistakable emotional intensity.”
What’s really cool is that Tankian teams up with electronic music producer Deadmau5 on the song “A Seed.” So, this album is filled with plenty of collaborations, also including New Zealand singer and songwriter Bic Runga on the duet “Things Unspoken” composer Lucas Vidal. “Adding a visual dimension to the music, each single’s artwork, and the album’s evocative main cover, has been created by artist D.S. Bradford, who also contributes lead guitar work on the soaring track ‘Kneeling Away From The Sun,'” a release adds.
The release continues, “With each weekly release, Tankian will share the inspirations and stories, inspirations, and artistic intentions behind the songs, inviting listeners into the creative process like never before.”
In 2024, Tankian spoke with Stereogum about why he was excited to release a memoir. “The ability to dive deep into my own past and my family, and make certain connections and learn certain lessons, learn new things,” he said in the feature. “It was a way of stopping. You get to think about your life, or your family’s life or where you come from, so it was a nice way of doing that in a very long format.”
He also talked about playing Ozzfest in the late-1990s and early-2000s.
“If you look at Ozzfest between 1998 to the early 2000s, it shows the growth of System Of A Down because we started on the second stage at probably the worst starting time, like we probably were rotating between noon and 3 or something like that, between different baby bands like ourselves,” he explained. “I remember it well because that was our first festival tour, and that was different. We had opened for Slayer before that.”
He added, “I think that the only tour we had done before that was opening for Slayer in the US and in Europe. Playing Ozzfest was exciting because now you’re in the middle of a field somewhere and there’s like 3,040 bands there and you meet all these different artists and watch their shows and hang out, make friends, and play basketball backstage. It became much more socially viable than just touring by yourself.”
- System of a Down Singer Teams With Deadmau5 on New Release - August 22, 2025
- Metallica Drummer Lars Ulrich Gushes Over a Must-Hear Album - August 20, 2025
- 3 Underrated U2 Songs That Could Have Been Hits - August 18, 2025
