Daron Vartan Malakian (born 18 July 1975) was 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."
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-Armenian 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 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 Down
Daron 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 ; not to be confused with SOiL) with Domingo Laranio (drums) and Dave Hakopyan (bass). Around this time, they also met Shavo Odadjian. Years later, in 1994, after one supposed jam session recording and one live show, Dave and Domingo left, thinking the band wasn't going anywhere.
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) to join the band as the drummer. 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 life
Malakian now lives in Glendale, California in a home by himself; 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, Hookas, instruments, and skulls.
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