-
Birth of Daron Malakian
Daron Malakian was born in Hollywood, California on July 18th, 1975. He is of Armenian descent. Both his parents are artists, who raised their only child in a creative, environment.Daron has said that his Dad is his biggest influence on him... -
Getting into Music
At a very early age Daron got into heavy metal music. A cousin played him a Kiss record when he was only 4 years old and he was hooked. Like how the average 6 year old goes to the candy store, Daron had his parents taking him to the record store. He listened to Van Halen, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motley Crue, Ozzy Osbourne, etc. By the age of 12 or 13 he got into hardcore metal, bands like Slayer, Venom, Cannibal Corpse. At around 17 he started getting into The Beatles and sites John Lenno -
Daron Gets his first guitar
For Daron Malakian's 10th birthday, his parents got daron a guitar. although he DID like drums. he decided to play the guitar alot more often on his spare time. as he got better. he went into a band around the age of 12 - 14 lead singing. -
System of a Down gets big
By the end of 1997, legendary producer, Rick Rubin had them signed to American, then distributed by Columbia Records. American/Columbia released the group's debut album in the summer of 1998, securing the band opening spots on the Slayer and Ozzfest tours. The album went gold and now is platinum. In 2001 SOAD broke mainstream with the multi-platinum selling album "Toxicity", which has sold more than 5 million copies. The politically charged album ironically went to #1 during Sept, 11, 2001. -
Daron meets Serj Tankian
Daron met Serj Tankian while both shared the same rehearsal studio in different bands. Serj was playing keyboards for a band and at the time Daron was singing lead for another band. They decided to form their own band together, which Serj would sing lead. Shavo Odadjian joined to play bass. They called themselves Soil. They later renamed the band System of a Down, recruiting John Dolmayan for drums. They got the name of the band after a poem Daron wrote about the Armenian Genecode. -
System of a Down goes public
System Of A Down hit the L.A. club scene in the mid 90's. From the very beginning they were drawing in huge, sold out crowds. They were selling out The Roxy, Troubadour, The Whisky, etc. They had a legion of loyal fans and it was evident from their dynamic live performances and stage presence they would be the next big metal band out of L.A. A three-song demo began circulating through metal collectors, and their fan base soon spread throughout not only America, but Europe and New Zealand. -
Daron gets support from sony
Around this time Daron started his own label called EatUrMusic (Sony-distributed imprint). He also was producing other band's demos and cds. He has worked with Amen, Bad Acid Trip, Satryicon, and The Ambulance. From what I understand he is taking a break from that right now due to his commitments with System Of A Down. -
SOAD's famouse Hit
SOAD's, "Mezmerize" was released on May 17, 2005. This cd is Daron's baby. He wrote all the music except for "Question" which was co-written with Serj Tankian. He also wrote alot of the cd's lyrics himself and co-wrote lyrics with Serj. This cd shows a more acoustic side to SOAD. Clearly you can hear The Beatles influence on him throughout the cd. "Mezmerize" is being hailed by many reviewers as a masterpiece. -
Releasing of Mezmerize
On November 22, 2005 SOAD released "Hypnotize", it has debuted at #1 on the Billboard Charts. This is the third #1 album for System Of A Down. In the Rock/metal History out of all the albums, System Of a Down had more than 950,000 copies sold at The Big day out consert, 2007 -
Daron Malakian Moves on
System of a Down has made chart history, becoming the first band to debut two different studio albums at number one in the Billboard 200 in the same calendar year. Daron has earned his place as a highly respected guitarist/songwriter/artist in the music world. But as Daron goes on with his life, he goes to a different band, with the Drummer of SOAD (John Dolmayan) named "Scars on Broadway" again They make records in the rock history.
