John Dolmayan

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John Dolmayan Ջոն Տոլմայան
Dolmayan playing live with System (Malakian pictured in back) at Ozzfest 2006 before the hiatus.
Background information
Birth name	John Ohannes Dolmayan
Born	July 15, 1973 (1973-07-15) (age 36)
Origin	Armenian
Genres	Alternative metal, experimental rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, drummer
Instruments	Drums
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 Ohannes Dolmayan (born July 15, 1973 in Beirut, Lebanon) is an Armenian-American songwriter and drummer. He is best known as the drummer of Grammy Award-winning rock band, System of a Down. The band has been on hiatus since 2006. He is currently the drummer for the band Scars on Broadway.

Early life

John was born in Beirut, Lebanon and first became interested in drums at the age of 2. 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. When he was four he asked his parents for a drum kit. He asked for one every year for his birthday or Christmas until he finally got one at age 15.

System of a Down

So far, he has 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). His style of drumming has influenced an emerging generation of drummers, and this has attracted a significant portion of SOAD's audience.

John's facial expressions are famous for being constantly foreboding and angry-looking. Lead singer Serj Tankian was quoted in Kerrang magazine as always trying to make John crack a smile on stage, to which John replied that he had to make an extreme effort to keep a straight face and not get put off beat. Although, on very rare occasions he would try to entertain the fans in unique ways during performances.

Dolmayan won "DRUM!" Magazine's 2006 Drummer of the year. In addition to winning this award, Dolmayan was the feature story in the September edition of "DRUM!" magazine.

Personal projects

In Summer 2006, right before Ozzfest tour, John told the press in several interviews his intention to make an online comic company, "I've got over 5 and a half million comics right now, and I'll probably have about 20 million comics in a year's time. But it's not really a collection. The reason I'm accumulating all these books is I'm starting an Internet-based comic-book company called 'Torpedocomics'. That'll be up in November 2007, probably." Dolmayan said.^{[citation needed]} In an online auction in March 2009 he purchased one of the few remaining issues of Action Comics #1, the very first comic featuring Superman for $317,200^[1]. John recently sent Howard Stern and Robin Quivers rare Spider Man comics.^{[citation needed]} Recently John has been playing live shows with a newly designed drum kit, featuring drawings from many famous comic book artists.^[2]

Dolmayan also said he may at some point write a movie script and might be involved in drum work regardless of SOAD's status.^{[citation needed]} Dolmayan recorded drums for Killing Joke's 2003 self-titled album^{[citation needed]}, (although the band ended up going with Dave Grohl's tracks^[3]) 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^{[citation needed]}, and joined Tool on stage for a few shows.^{[citation needed]}

In April 2009, smashingpumpkins.com revealed that Dolmayan had auditioned for the reformed Smashing Pumpkins' vacant drummer job along with thousands of other applicants.^[4] Dolmayan later stated that the audition was more of just looking for something to do for fun.

In June 2009, it was announced on systemofadown.com, that Dolmayan is forming a new rock^{[citation needed]} band with three friends from Southern California who were formerly in a punk rock band.^{[citation needed]} There has been no announcement of the other members' names or the name of the band, but they have written 10-12 songs with Dolmayan playing a huge creative role in writing and structuring (writing bridges and breakdown) and, as far as drumming, is really killing these songs.^{[citation needed]} His drumming is said to be melodic hard rock with hints of punk rock (in a Bad Religion vein) and hints of metal. The group plans to start playing shows in Las Vegas and Los Angeles once they are happy with the 10-12.^{[citation needed]} One of the songs is called "Something Underneath".^{[citation needed]} 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.

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 well as a few Scars songs.

Discography

Equipment

Dolmayan drumset

Tama drums and hardware, Paiste cymbals, and Evans drumheads:

• Drums - Tama Starclassic Bubinga ^[5]
  • 10"×8" Tom
  • 12"×9" Tom
  • 14"×11" Tom
  • 18"×16" Floor Tom
  • 22"×18" Bass Drum
  • 14"×6" Warlord Masai Snare

• Cymbals - Paiste ^[6]
  • 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 ^[7]
  • 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 Grammy Award in Best Hard Rock Performance for "Aerials"
• In 2005, System of a Down won for Best Alternative Act in the Europe Music Awards
• In 2006, System of a Down won their first Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance for "B.Y.O.B."
• 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

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Dolmayan

• Stereokill Interview: May 2009
• John Dolmayan page at SOADFans
• Torpedo Comics Website
• John Dolmayan page at drummerworld.com