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John Dolmayan
Ջոն Տոլմայան |
|
| Background information |
| Birth name |
John Ohannes Dolmayan |
| Born |
July 15, 1973 (1973-07-15) (age 36) |
| Origin |
Armenian |
| Genres |
Alternative metal, experimental
rock |
| Occupations |
Musician, songwriter, drummer |
| Instruments |
Drums |
| Years active |
1997 - present |
| Labels |
Interscope, Serjical Strike, American, Columbia, Axis of
Justice |
| Associated acts |
System of
a Down, Axis
of Justice, Serj
Tankian, Scars on Broadway |
| Website |
www.systemofadown.com www.scarsonbroadway.com |
John Ohannes Dolmayan (born July 15, 1973 in Beirut, Lebanon) is an Lebanese-American
songwriter and drummer. He is best known as
the drummer of Grammy
Award-winning rock
band, System
of a Down. The band has been on hiatus since 2006. He is
currently the drummer for the band Scars on Broadway.
Early
life
John was born in Beirut, Lebanon and first became interested in
drums at the age of 2. His father was a saxophone player and when
his mother would take him to watch his father play, he would mimic
his father's drummer. When he was four he asked his parents for a
drum kit. He asked for one every year for his birthday or Christmas
until he finally got one at age 15.
System of a
Down
So far, he has recorded five albums with System of a Down:
System of a Down (1998),
Toxicity (2001), Steal This
Album! (2002), and, most recently, Mezmerize
(2005), and Hypnotize (2005). His style of
drumming has influenced an emerging generation of drummers, and
this has attracted a significant portion of SOAD's audience.
John's facial expressions are famous for being constantly
foreboding and angry-looking. Lead singer Serj Tankian was quoted in Kerrang magazine as always
trying to make John crack a smile on stage, to which John replied
that he had to make an extreme effort to keep a straight face and
not get put off beat. Although, on very rare occasions he would try
to entertain the fans in unique ways during performances.
Dolmayan won "DRUM!" Magazine's 2006 Drummer of the year. In
addition to winning this award, Dolmayan was the feature story in
the September edition of "DRUM!" magazine.
Personal
projects
In Summer 2006, right before Ozzfest tour, John told the press
in several interviews his intention to make an online comic
company, "I've got over 5 and a half million comics right now, and
I'll probably have about 20 million comics in a year's time. But
it's not really a collection. The reason I'm accumulating all these
books is I'm starting an Internet-based comic-book company called
'Torpedocomics'. That'll be up in November 2007, probably."
Dolmayan said. In an online auction in March 2009 he purchased one
of the few remaining issues of Action Comics #1, the very first
comic featuring Superman for $317,200[1]. John
recently sent Howard
Stern and Robin
Quivers rare Spider Man comics. Recently John has been
playing live shows with a newly designed drum kit, featuring
drawings from many famous comic book artists.[2]
Dolmayan also said he may at some point write a movie script and
might be involved in drum work regardless of SOAD's status.
Dolmayan recorded drums for Killing Joke's 2003 self-titled album,
(although the band ended up going with Dave Grohl's tracks[3]) as
well as Scum of the Earth's debut
album, Blah...Blah...Blah...Love
Songs for the New Millennium. He also played drums on the
Axis of
Justice concert tour with various artists, on the Serj Tankian solo
debut, Elect
the Dead, and joined Tool on stage for a few shows.
In April 2009,
smashingpumpkins.com revealed that Dolmayan had auditioned for the
reformed Smashing Pumpkins' vacant drummer
job along with thousands of other applicants.[4]
Dolmayan later stated that the audition was more of just looking
for something to do for fun.
In June 2009, it was announced on systemofadown.com, that
Dolmayan is forming a new rock band with three friends from Southern
California who were formerly in a punk rock band. There has been no
announcement of the other members' names or the name of the band,
but they have written 10-12 songs with Dolmayan playing a huge
creative role in writing and structuring (writing bridges and breakdown) and, as
far as drumming, is really killing these songs. His drumming is
said to be melodic hard rock with hints of punk rock
(in a Bad Religion
vein) and hints of metal. The group plans to start
playing shows in Las Vegas and Los Angeles once they are happy with the
10-12. One of the songs is called "Something Underneath". The band
played their first show at The Bitter End on July 22, 2009, with
Dolmayan's fellow Scars on Broadway member, Franky Perez, joining
the band for a few songs.
In August 2009, Dolmayan, Franky Perez, Danny Shamoun, and Dominic
Cifarelli as Scars on Broadway traveled to Iraq for a USO tour across the U.S. army bases.
Their setlist consisted of covers well as a few Scars songs.
Discography
System of a
Down
Axis of
Justice
- Axis of Justice: Concert Series Volume 1 (2004)
|
Scum of the
Earth
Serj
Tankian
Scars on
Broadway
|
Equipment
Tama drums and hardware, Paiste cymbals, and Evans
drumheads:
- Drums - Tama Starclassic Bubinga
[5]
- 10"×8" Tom
- 12"×9" Tom
- 14"×11" Tom
- 18"×16" Floor Tom
- 22"×18" Bass Drum
- 14"×6" Warlord Masai Snare
- Cymbals - Paiste [6]
- 14" RUDE Hi-Hat
- 18" Signature Full Crash
- 20" Signature Full Crash
- 24" 2002 Crash
- 24" RUDE Mega Power Ride
- 10" Signature Splash
- 22" Traditionals Medium Light Swish
- Sticks - Vic Firth [7]
- John Dolmayan Signature 16" length, .585" diameter
Awards
- In 2002, System of a Down was nominated for a
Grammy Award in
Best Metal Performance for their song "Chop Suey!"
- In 2003, System of a Down was nominated for a Grammy Award in
Best Hard Rock Performance for "Aerials"
- In 2005, System of a Down won for Best Alternative Act in the
Europe Music Awards
- In 2006, System of a Down won their first Grammy for Best Hard
Rock Performance for "B.Y.O.B."
- In 2006, System of a Down won the "MTV Good Woodie Award" for
their song "Question!"
- In 2006, John won Drum! Magazine's drummer of the year award.
He also won the alternative rock drummer of the year
award.
- In 2006, System of a Down's song "Toxicity" was #14 on the VH1 Top 40
Metal Songs list
- In 2007, System of a Down was nominated for a Grammy Award in
Best Hard Rock Performance for their song "Lonely Day"
References
External
links
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