System of a Down’s Serj Tankian on Turning Passion Into Purpose
Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais
Dr. Michael Gervais
4.7 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 5 March 2025
⏱️ 76 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How do the best in the world channel the intensity of their emotions—like frustration, anxiety, and love—into creative power that impacts the world?
Serj Tankian is a Grammy-winning artist, activist, and frontman of the iconic rock band System of a Down. Known for his dynamic vocals and thought-provoking lyrics, Serj blends creativity, activism, and mindfulness into his music, poetry and art – all with the goal to inspire change, advocate for justice, and explore the depths of human emotion.
In this conversation, we explore how Serj transforms emotional tension into creativity and clarity. We dive into his early days growing up as a first-generation Armenian American, the profound influence of his family’s history, and his journey to finding equilibrium between justice and forgiveness.
For anyone looking to better manage emotions, lean into creativity, or make sense of life’s contradictions, this conversation is packed with wisdom. We can’t wait to share it with you.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | How can we channel the intensity of our emotions, like frustration, anxiety, love, into creative |
| 0:07.5 | power that impacts the world? Welcome back, or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast, where we |
| 0:13.7 | dive into the minds of the world's greatest thinkers and doers. I am your host, Dr. Michael |
| 0:19.1 | Jervais, by trade and training a high-performance psychologist. |
| 0:23.6 | Serge Tunkin is a Grammy-winning artist, activist, and frontman of the iconic genre-defying rock band |
| 0:30.8 | System of a Down. Surge is known for his dynamic vocals and thought-provoking lyrics. |
| 0:36.6 | He blends creativity, activism, and mindfulness into his music, poetry, and art in order to |
| 0:42.8 | inspire change, advocate for justice, and explore the depths of human emotion. |
| 0:48.8 | In this conversation, we dive deep into Surge's mindset, his journey, And we explore how he transforms emotional tension into creativity and art. |
| 0:59.2 | So with that, let's dive into this week's conversation with Serge Tunkian. |
| 1:08.0 | Serge, this is awesome. |
| 1:10.2 | Thanks for having me, Mike. |
| 1:12.1 | Two things. |
| 1:13.4 | One is, I kind of can't believe I'm sitting with you. |
| 1:17.1 | Oh, come on. |
| 1:17.9 | Yeah. |
| 1:18.3 | No, like I grew up surfing, skating. |
| 1:23.0 | I love the edge of just about everything. |
| 1:26.8 | And there was just an energy to three, four, five bands that I loved. |
| 1:33.1 | And this is when I was, I don't know, 16, 17, 18, in that range there. |
| 1:38.7 | And what you stood for and the energy that you brought, I was like, I didn't even know what you were saying, |
| 1:45.3 | but I was like, there's something here. And so I just love that I'm here and I'm loved that |
... |
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