Daron Malakian's Biography

Daron Arto Malakian was born July 18, 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA and plays guitar in the American band System of a Down, as well as writing most of the music and lyrics for the band. Like the other band members, Malakian is of Armenian heritage.

As a child Malakian went to Rose & Alex Pilibos' Armenian school in Hollywood, where bandmates Serj Tankian and Shavo Odadjian also attended. He went to Roosevelt Middle School and Glendale High School, where he frequently cut class.

Malakian now lives in Glendale, California in a home by himself and likes to collect candles, Persian rugs, instruments, and skulls. Daron has been voted 4th best guitarist of the year by Metal Edge Magazine.

Malakian co-produced System of a Down's albums with Rick Rubin, as well as The Ambulance and Bad Acid Trip (a band on fellow member Serj Tankian's Serjical Strike Records). He recently started his own label, EatUrMusic, on which Amen is the first signed band. Malakian is also involved in a project called Scars on Broadway, with Amen-singer Casey Chaos and Zach Hill from Hella and Team Sleep.

Malakian is well known for playing his Ibanez Iceman, with custom graphics done by his father, Vartan Malakian. All of his guitars that he plays on stage have a one-of-a-kind finish and cannot be found in retail, although there was a limited edition Iceman with graphics by Vartan Malakian sold on eBay. He plays through Marshall Amplifiers and uses Ernie Ball guitar strings. Daron now uses a Gibson SG onstage in most of System of a Down's recent live shows. He can be seen with his Gibson SG in the music videos for System of a Down's B.Y.O.B and Question!.

In 2003 Daron Malakian played in the Celebrity Baseball Game in Hollywood, where a variety of celebrities played a baseball game. He wrote a song about the experience, "Old School Hollywood", which appears on System of a Down's latest album, Mezmerize.

During System of a Down's May 7, 2005 performance of "B.Y.O.B." on Saturday Night Live, Daron screamed the words "Fuck Yeah!", which was not censored, yet the main piece of the song was.

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