Shavo Odadjian
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"Shavarsh "Shavo" Odadjian" is an Armenian American songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, music video director/editor, music producer, and artist/painter. He is best known as the bassist, backing vocalist and occasional songwriter of the Grammy Award-winning rock band System of a Down. During the band's hiatus from 2006 to 2010, Odadjian collaborated with Wu Tang Clan founder RZA on a project called AcHoZeN, which contributed a number of songs to the motion picture Babylon A.D. A compilation album was released in 2015. Odadjian is also credited with the musical scoring of the film, alongside with The Rza and Hans Zimmer. He regularly uses a Gibson Thunderbird bass, a Fender Jazz Bass, and an Ibanez BTB bass guitar. He used a Music Man StingRay when he started to play with the band.

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It just happened where Arnold Schwarzenegger came next to me. ... It was bad lighting, because they had more light on me than they did Arnold. And I'm watching it going, 'Whoa, dude — I'm on TV!' It was really strange.

That's just a really catchy song, and I don't know if we want to release such a catchy song. I'd rather kinda push people's brains. I'd hate being known as the band that is recognized for that song. So I don't know. ... It's weird with our songs because it's like the weirdest song that you would never think could be a single becomes a single.

This time around was different. Daron brought a song in and we had to record it the next day. I just wasn't about it and I didn't do it perfectly. It took some time, or I wanted to play it a different way and the song had not been developed yet. I had to get it. It was more work-oriented and less about a vibe and art.

We've all grown up not the same, but with very similar morals and values. We know how it is. We know not to talk about anyone's mother and sister.

It's a song, but it's a jam because it's without vocals, that's why I say that.

And then we end up in this hospital somewhere really awkward and this woman gives birth to a newborn child and the child is carried out with this blanket that's red, ... So it's like life. So it starts with death and it ends with life. And the soul travels through three different beings: a bird, a girl and a newborn baby. So it's kind of my interpretation of reincarnation.

I've always questioned death and birth and life, ... Where do we go? Are we here now? Or is this just one of the lives that we live? ... It just happened, it wasn't really planned, I swear. Everything fell into place.

We wanted to start off really heavy.

Because of the genocide, Armenians scattered.