Ever busy and always inspired, Serj Tankian discusses his current and future projects.

Serj Tankian FAQ’s for Harakiri Album

1. What does “Harakiri” mean, and how does it play into the themes of the album?

“Harakiri” is a Japanese term signifying ritualistic suicide, the cutting of the abdomen and is similar to the term “seppuku,” a ritual suicide by self-disembowelment on a sword.

The year 2011 started with a fire. Some kids in Piha, NZ were setting off fireworks that landed on my neighbor’s property and lit the whole hill on fire. I knew it was going to be a hell of a year and it certainly was. Within five days of that, reports came out about birds and fish dying in massive numbers globally without any reasonable explanation. The omen was not lost on me. Varied creatures on earth were committing massive hara-kiri. Do they know something we don’t about the coming times or the sustainability of the environment? That is the day I started writing this record and ‘harakiri’ was the first song that materialized. More