John Dolmayan
| John Dolmayan |
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 Dolmayan playing live with System of a Down at Ozzfest 2006. |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | John Dolmayan |
| Born | July 15, 1973 Beirut, Lebanon |
| Origin | Armenian |
| Genres | Rock, experimental, heavy metal |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | Drums, percussion |
| 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 Dolmayan (born July 15, 1973 in Beirut, Lebanon) is an Armenian-American songwriter and drummer. He is best known as the drummer of rock band System of a Down. Dolmayan is now the drummer for the band Scars on Broadway and another band called Indicator.
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Early life
John Dolmayan was born in Beirut, Lebanon.[1][2] During the Lebanese Civil War, the young Dolmayan's (empty) bed was hit by a stray bullet. After the incident his family decided to immigrate, and, after briefly living in Toronto, they moved to California.[3]
Dolmayan first became interested in drums at the age of two. 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. He learned to play the drums by putting on records and practicing, "4-6 hours a day, depending on the particular day. I did that for years and years. I developed my own style from basically taking from so many different styles. I used to play with whatever I could get my hands on, which included my Dad’s collection of jazz albums and the rock albums that my friends and I had." [4]
Dolmayan is a fan of The Who and cites Who drummer Keith Moon as his biggest influence. Other drummers that he cites as major influences include Led Zeppelin's John Bonham, Stewart Copeland from The Police, and Rush's Neil Peart.[5] He has also been influenced by jazz music.[6]
System of a Down
Dolmayan joined System of a Down in 1997 after their original drummer, Ontronik "Andy" Khachaturian, left the band after a hand injury.
Dolmayan 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).
Dolmayan won DRUM! Magazine's 2006 Drummer of the year and was the feature story in their September edition.
Scars on Broadway
After System of a Down's went on hiatus in 2006 Dolmayan teamed up with Daron Malakian (System of a Down's guitarist/vocalist) to form a new band called Scars on Broadway, which recorded their eponymous debut album in 2007 and 2008. The album was released in the summer of 2008 and Dolmayan, Malakian, guitarist Franky Perez, bassist Dominic Cifarelli, and keyboardist Danny Shamoun performed concerts and prepared to embark on a tour in support of the album before Malakian suddenly cancelled the tour in October of 2008.
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 as well as a few Scars on Broadway songs.
Scars on Broadway reunited with Malakian on May 2, 2010 and plans on doing another show in Los Angeles in August of 2010.
Other projects
Dolmayan recorded drums for Killing Joke's 2003 self-titled album, (although the band ended up going with Dave Grohl's tracks[7]) 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 June 2009, Dolmayan began forming a new rock band called Indicator with three friends from Southern California who were formerly in a punk rock band, Tom Capossela, Ryan Huber, and Ryan Murphy.[8] 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. The band plans on releasing an album called, Have We Gone Too Far?[9]
Dolmayan performed with System of a Down bandmates Malakian and bassist Shavo Odadjian and Scars on Broadway guitarist Franky Perez for Odadjian's Holloween show. Dolmayan, Malakian, and Odadjian performed together again in November of 2009 during a charity show for Deftones bassist Chi Cheng.
Equipment
John Dolmayan's drumkit is a modified Tama Starclassic (generally with a White Silk or Brown Fade finish). Even though Dolmayan is left-handed, he sets his kit up right-handed. The eleven cymbals are Paiste Signatures. His old setup contains 2 tom toms in front of the snare, a mounted tom and floor tom on the right, and another floor tom on the left of the snare, where a second snare would usually be. He uses a double-bass pedal with the left pedal unusually on the left of the hi-hat pedal. He has 2 splash cymbals (10" and 8") as well as a 6" bell chime mounted over the hi-hat, and an 8" bell chime to the right of his 2nd tom. He has two 18" china cymbals (thin and heavy), one on the left, one on the right. He also uses 2 timbales around the left floor tom. His new setup uses 2 basses instead of a double-bass pedal. Now he has 3 toms in front of the snare, which can be heard vibrantly throughout Hypnotize, and only one tom to the right. Most of his cymbals have moved, and so have his timbales which are mounted to align with the toms.
When he first started his career with System of a Down he used a few Paiste Dimension cymbals as well as signatures. At that time, some of his cymbals were 22" and 24". He currently uses 20" as his largest cymbal.
In 2007, Dolmayan began performing with a newly designed custom drum kit that features drawings from many famous comic book artists.[10]
Discography
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Equipment
Tama drums and hardware, Paiste cymbals, and Evans drumheads:
- Drums - Tama Starclassic Bubinga [11]
- 10"×8" Tom
- 12"×9" Tom
- 14"×11" Tom
- 18"×16" Floor Tom
- 22"×18" Bass Drum
- 14"×6" Warlord Masai Snare
However, the recent pic shown here and his recent concert videos show a much larger set.
- Cymbals - Paiste [12]
- 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 [13]
- 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
- 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
- ↑ "allmusic (((John Dolmayan> Feedback)))". allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:3cfyxqyjldhe~T6. Retrieved July 26 2010.
- ↑ "John Dolmayan -Biography". IMDb. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1928560/bio. Retrieved July 26 2010.
- ↑ "John Dolmayan-Biography of John Dolmayan". http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/john-dolmayan/. Retrieved July 26 2010.
- ↑ "Interview with John Dolmayan". Tama. September 15 2006. http://www.tamadrum.co.jp/artist/tama_interview.php?interview_id=8. Retrieved July 26 2010.
- ↑ "Interview with John Dolmayan". Tama. September 15 2006. http://www.tamadrum.co.jp/artist/tama_interview.php?interview_id=8. Retrieved July 26 2010.
- ↑ "Interview with John Dolmayan". Tama. September 15 2006. http://www.tamadrum.co.jp/artist/tama_interview.php?interview_id=8. Retrieved July 26 2010.
- ↑ TENSION MAKES THE JOKE WORK Murray Engleheart, Drum Media, 4 November 2003
- ↑ http://www.myspace.com/weareindicator
- ↑ http://www.myspace.com/weareindicator
- ↑ http://www.craveonline.com/music/articles/04646843/john_dolmayans_custom_drum_kit.html
- ↑ John Dolmayan's drum setup on the Tama USA website
- ↑ John Dolmayan's cymbal setup on the Paiste website
- ↑ John Dolmayan's artist page on VicFirth.com
External links
- Stereokill Interview: May 2009
- John Dolmayan page at SOADFans
- Torpedo Comics Website
- John Dolmayan page at drummerworld.com
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Book:System of a Down
Category:System of a Down
Portal:Heavy metal
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