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Daron Vartan Malakian () (born 18 July , 1975 in Hollywood , California , U.S. ) is the Lead Guitarist in the Armenian - American band System Of A Down . Malakian has written most of the band's music, and, more recently, has taken on a large share of the vocal work for the band as well. Like the rest of the Hollywood-based band, he is of Armenia n 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." {Link without Title} EARLY LIFE Daron was born on July 18 , 1975 in Hollywood , California , U.S. as an only child to an Iraqi-Armenian father Vartan Malakian and an Iranian-American mother Zepur Malakian. 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 , Motörhead 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 heavier metal bands such as Slayer , Venom , Metallica , Pantera , Sepultura and Cannibal Corpse . At around 17 he started getting into The Beatles and cites Tiago Bettencourt as one 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. SYSTEM OF A DOWN See Also: System of a Down Daron 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 and met Shavo Odadjian. The band later broke up and Tankian and Malakian formed a new band "System of a Down", based on a poem that Daron wrote. The poem's title was "Victims of a Down", but Serj Tankian 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. Shavo Odadjian also joined as their bassist. They then recruited Andy Khachaturian for the drums, who 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 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 System of a Down's album, Mezmerize . PERSONAL LIFE Malakian now lives in Glendale , California in a home by himself; he also has families in Iran and Iraq since his parents are were born in those countries but emmigrated to America. He has visited both countries. He enjoys collecting Candle s, Persian Rug s, Hooka s, instruments, and Skull s. Daron has been voted fourth best guitarist of the year by '' Metal Edge Magazine ''. Daron has stated in an interview that he 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." SIDE PROJECTS Scars on Broadway 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 to learn how to brain 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.''" Malakian is about to start recording the debut album for a group called Scars on Broadway, led by him. This group originated a few years back when Daron (lead guitar) met Casey Chaos (vocals), and they then decided to form a group with Zach Hill (drums) and Greg Kelso (rhythm guitar), wrote an album worth of songs, a few of which were " B.Y.O.B. " and "The Prettiest Thing", and released a demo. He since parted ways with the former line-up, and the only confirmed members at this point are Malakian on vocals and guitar with SOAD member John Dolmayan on drums. For the recording of their debut album, the two will be "accompanied by some great musicians"http://www.scarsonbroadway.com/. On what direction his album will take, Malakian states: "''It will probably be something electronic mixed in with traditional Armenian and thrash/death/black and doom metal influences. When, or even if, the music comes out it will still be structured, just like System of a Down's music is."''. 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 . EatUrMusic ''EatUrMusic'' EatUrMusic website is the imprint of Malakian through Sony . It was set up late 2003 and is little active, partly due to the many other activities of Malakian. The other reason is that Malakian will only sign bands that he truly believes in. "I honestly feel that if you're going to sign an artist," commented Malakian on the label's (now defunct) site http://eaturmusic.com, "the most important thing is that you've really got to be like one of those kids in their audience. 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, you can check out more at http://www.refusemusicstore.com The web page, along with its forum is down, but recently a new forum has emerged in hopes to bring back the community of EatUrMusic. DISCOGRAPHY System Of A Down See Also: System of a Down discography
Scars on Broadway
AWARDS
COLLABORATIONS
MUSICAL EQUIPMENT USED From System of a Down's formation, up until their third album, ''Steal This Album!'', Daron used Drop C Tuning tuning on his guitars. On the band's double album "Mezmerize/Hypnotize", Daron changed to Drop Db, also known as Drop C#, (from sixth string to first, Db, Ab, Db, Gb, Bb, Eb) tuning. (except for the tracks "Dreaming" and "Question!", which are played by Daron in Drop C, while the acoustic guitar in "Question!" was played in Standard Tuning as well.) He gave the reason for the change in tuning. Daron said that he wanted his guitar to attack a little more. Daron said in an interview that he used the drop tuning and the baritone guitar to give his guitars a more chunky sound, rather than using a 7 string guitar. He also uses the BOSS MT-2 effects pedal BOSS Interview with Daron Malakian . Malakian was known for using various Ibanez IC-400 all painted by his father, Vartan Malakian . He now plays with red or white Gibson SG . QUOTES BY MALAKIAN NOTES EXTERNAL LINKS
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