System's Serj Discusses Guest Coachella Set With Fair To Midland

Apart from Rage Against the Machines reunion, one of the most talked about sets at Coachella in 2007 was the up-and-coming Texas band Fair To Midland. Performing in the afternoon in The Mojave Tent on Sunday April 29th, Fair to Midland easily demonstrated their intricate song writing ability is a perfect mesh with their masterful use of dynamics and a ferocious stage performance that few bands duplicate. But what better way could the band grab the attention of the masses in the desert than to have Serj Tankian, lead singer for System of a Down, sit in for an improvised version of Fair to Midland's song 'Walls Of Jericho.' Serj caught the band performing a short time ago in Los Angeles and upon seeing Fair to Midland for the first time, Tankian immediately signed the band to his kick start record label, Serjical Strike Records.

Video clip :

We caught up with Serj, who is currently in the mixing process for his own solo album, to discuss being attracted by the band's stage presence.

Serj Impressed With Fair To Midlands Live Performance

"Yeah, when I first saw them at The Roxy a while back and I saw them at The Malibu Inn a couple of days after that and I was very impressed with the performance on stage. I thought if someone, I had heard the music and I really liked the music but it was more about seeing them live and they really impressed me. If you put people in front of this band they are definitely going to like this band because they just go nuts on stage. Thats a part of it. And Andrew, his voice is very dynamic. It's very truthful you know and there's not a lot of that out there as we all know. So that was very impressive. The musics amazing and it has huge elements of progressive rock in my opinion. They go in a lot of different directions stylistically and melodically and you know I enjoy that. Obviously I wouldnt have signed them otherwise."

So what about Serj's performance of 'Walls Of Jericho' with Fair to Midland at Coachella? Who's idea was that?

Watch video: Serj Wanted To Sit In With Fair To Midland At Coachella

"I forgot whose idea it was, whether it was Darrohs idea or mine, but I love their music and listening to it during the demo stage through recording and mixing and it's in my head, you know and I really love their songs. Yeah, I wanted to go up and do a song with them. But we didnt rehearse or anything, we just did it on the fly you know. Yeah, improv, its the best."

Fair to Midlands full length debut release 'Fables From A Mayfly - What I Tell You Three Times Is True', which was produced by Serj Tankian, will be released June 12th on Serjical Strike Records. The band has just released their animated video for Dance of the Manatee and they were also recently in the studio recording acoustic versions of a few songs, which was the first time the band had to opportunity to record their songs acoustically. Fair to Midland are currently on tour in support of their up coming release with dates extending until June 10th at The Download Festival in the UK. Look for the band at The Bamboozle Festival in New Jersey on May 6th Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park on June 2nd and 3rd in Germany.

Comments

[Bloodandfire]

Whoa, he cut his hair again. i love that guy

[thyentityremage]

WOOT!!!SERJICAL STRIKE!!!! idk... fair to midland sounds awesome, i cant wait till i can hear some of there shiznit

[zerodeck]

serj we love you here in Belgium!!!

[Mikke]

wow he changes his haircuts often now

[_sam_]

haha he reminds me of borat with that new hair and stache

[Tallywacker]

its nice ya! haha borat wannabe. still hes cool

Hmm, I'll check them out.

Checked

[Guitar_Poet]

am i the only one who has problems viewing the video clips? some just stop halfway, and some dont even play at all... and i have never been able to watch anything other than the one that loads with the page...

[Nick_04]

maybe cause your computer licks the nuts :S

[Frusconbage]

He looks like borat now! lol

[anthony4326]

OH MY GOD. HE DOES LOOK LIKE BORAT! GREAT SUCCESS!

[Schiggua]

Fair To Midland blew me away when I first saw them in Houston.
Amazing live performance.
If you can get your hands on inter.stella.funda i'd recommend doing so. It's great stuff.

[halffast]

Guitar_Poet wrote:

am i the only one who has problems viewing the video clips? some just stop halfway, and some dont even play at all... and i have never been able to watch anything other than the one that loads with the page...

Yeah, I can usually only get the first one to play, very rarely does the second one play.

[vote-claypool]

serj = THE SHIT

[Ibanez_r0cker]

serj is wut made system well system if it wasnt for him I dont think they ever woulda made it as big as they did
cant wait for it should be a good one, ps Frechy when u read this PM me

[f1sk]

looking forward to their cd, i like those guys
then again, big mars volta fan here also

[dann_blood]

_sam_ :
haha he reminds me of borat with that new hair and stache

+1

Check

[Darkspear]

Serj is awesome ^^

[adcookie]

bloody immense name for a record label, you legend serj

[Dead_End]

indeed, serj is teh awesome, but he doesnt look good with the short hair >.

[littleleo88]

Guitar_Poet wrote:

am i the only one who has problems viewing the video clips? some just stop halfway, and some dont even play at all... and i have never been able to watch anything other than the one that loads with the page...

yep, i have that problem too. and my laptop does anything but lick the nuts, so i dont know why i cant.

[masterskill]

Second video worked in IE, but not in Firefox.

Booo, UG.

[SupImJimmy]

I saw them at Coachella, and though they're not really my style, I was impressed. They were handing out demo CDs afterwords and I took one, but I already gave it to my friend who is more into their kind of music than I am.

Checked.

[evilbeavil]

I just checked this band out and they ****ing rule! Kind of reminds me of Tool and Karnivool(an awesome Australian band that you should check out if you haven't heard them) a bit, which is definately not a bad thing. Thanks for this article which led me to them

[Tedward]

http://profile.imeem.com/koYL_H/playlist/P-ZO778L/

*licks lips*

havent heard of them before, but judging from this song they sound quite promising

[Tedward]

screw that last link chekck teh myspace

http://www.myspace.com/fairtomidland

Checked on the nose

[Snowblindvictim]

YES! He looks like he used to! Back in the good ole Toxicity days