HyeBrand with Sona Oganesyan - Serj Tankian of System of a Down

Objective: HyeBrand with Sona Oganesyan aims to intensify the dialogue about the development and branding of Armenia through talking to prominent figures who have had influence and interesting ideas on the subject. Intro: Just before the Velvet Revolution in Armenia, I created a show where my guests and I could hang out and have a casual conversation about the development and branding of Armenia. I felt there are so many great aspects we simply aren’t taking enough advantage of in order to increase tourism and investments so I wanted to start a dialogue. The idea was to speak to different prominent figures that have put Armenia in the headlines internationally and/or have contributed to the branding of the country through their own accomplishments. By having politicians, athletes, musicians, artists, scientists, etc.. all give their own take on the subject, we will be exposed to different and interesting perspectives. If only my 14 year old self knew one day I’d be sitting with Serj Tankian of System of a Down, in his home studio, shooting an episode for my own show! Finally publishing the FULL INTERVIEW from last year. It took longer than we hoped because 2020 has been kinda crazy in case you hadn’t noticed ;) Serj was my ideal guest for HyeBrand because the concept of the show is to speak to prominent figures who have put Armenia in the headlines internationally and have had influence on branding the country – Serj Tankian and System of a Down were the first to put Armenia on the map for a lot of young people of our generation. Before they became a Grammy Award winning group, no one in my high school had ever heard of Armenia. When students would ask me where I’m from, the reaction to my response was always, “Romanian? Albanian? Armeniaaan…what’s that?!” System of a Down changed stereotypes, influenced our culture, revolutionized Rock music all over the world, and educated the world about the Armenian Genocide. In this interview we discuss how they became so successful, what made Armenia’s revolution so unique from his perspective, his take on Venezuela, what we can do to enhance the cultural revolution in Armenia, what assets could Armenia be taking more advantage of, will System of a Down record another album, to my HUUUUUGE surprise how Serj didn’t start playing music until he was in college and is entirely self-taught, and so much more.... I find Serj to be so honest, interesting, and engaging that we decided not to edit anything out, and publish this in its entirety for you guys, including some behind the scenes clips! Executive Producer: Sona Oganesyan Guest: Serj Tankian Post-Production: Karen Kocharyan Post-production sound: Levon Navasardyan Music: Serj Simonyan (Serjo) Logo: Vahan Stepanyan Special thanks: Lusine Grigoryan, Angela Salib, Blake Helling, Sarkis Berberyan