System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian currently is in New Zealand, and over the weekend on March 29, the Grammy Award winning musician performed in a one-off show at Christchurch's CBS Canterbury Arena, one of New Zealand's largest entertainment venues.
Tankian gave an interview with David Farrier of New Zealand's 3News prior to the concert, discussing a variety of topics.
(Full interview here: http://bit.ly/1gcmZN1)
Tankian said he is working with composer John Psathos on "100 Years," which will be ready in 2015.
"It will be about genocide and holocaust. It's a heavy topic.The piece is a beautiful piece, that goes from ethnic to orchestral to many different things, and we're having friends from all over the world participate by playing on it. And we're going to be showing them on videos, as well as recording their audio, and basically having their own emotional, spiritual stamp on the piece. And we're going to be displaying it at festivals, as well as probably on YouTube and whatnot."
Tankian continued: "We want to bring awareness to the fact that there are still - even with the genocide convention at the UN, and all these different committees and sub committees designed to tackle genocide - genocide is still a modern human disease that's not fully looked after by the international community. We saw in Darfur for example the Chinese had economic ties they wouldn't back off from. So we need to have some kind framework that makes genocide, or holocaust, a kind of 'no-fly zone': Anytime that is happening, all nations break immediate ties, they get together and discuss humanitarian aid etcetera. We're seeing with Syria as well - I don't necessarily call that a genocide - but we're seeing with the Syrian civil war how confusing it is for the international community. Nations don't know what side to support. You know, you've got a tyrant on one side, and then you've got terrorist groups on the other side, along with a truly rebellious part of the population, you've got sectarian violence, you've got religious factions… it's difficult, you know? But we have to take a stand against this modern disease called 'genocide.'"