Shavarsh S. Odadjian
Birth date April 22, 1974
Birth Place Yerevan, Armenia
Lives in Los Angeles, California
Height 6'0 feet [182 cm]
Marital Status Not Married
Nationality American [Armenian Ancestry]
Occupation Bassist (System of a Down), DJ and Music Videos Director
Pre-band Occupation Banking, DJ
In his youth, Shavo used to spend all his time skateboarding and listening to punk rock and heavy metal music. Among others, he names The Pink Angel, Dead Kennedys, KISS and Black Sabbath as his favorite bands with great influence on his future musical development.
Odadjian moved to Los Angeles, California at a very young age, where he was raised to a great part by his grandmother, after whose death he claims to have lost faith and to have stopped praying every night as he did before. He attended Alex Pilibos Elementary School in Los Angeles, an Armenian parochial school, along with his future bandmates Daron Malakian and Serj Tankian, although they were not acquainted at the time due to age difference.
Shavo started side project with The RZA from Wu-Tang, they already entered the studio and have plans for tours and even for a movie [1]. Recently they picked up a name for the band, and name is ACHOZEN and kicked off first live show at the key Club in L.A in December 1st, 2006
Apart from working in a bank doing wire transfers, he also started managing Soil, the band of Malakian and Tankian in 1993 after meeting them in a recording studio, where he was recording with his own band. In 1995, Shavo became the permanent bassist of the band. They then named themselves System of a Down after a poem titled Victims of a Down, which was written by bandmate Daron Malakian.
In addition, Odadjian is a popular DJ in the LA area, taking part in such events as the "Rock/DJ Explosion" on March 2nd 2001 at The Roxy in Hollywood, CA and collaborating with bandmate Tankian on SerArt, the singers side project with multitalented Armenian musician Arto Tunçboyaciyan. He goes by the name DJ Tactic.
Stating himself to be a "very visual person," he has also directed music videos for System of a Down (being Aerials, Toxicity, Question! and Hypnotize), and Taproot, creating surreal atmospheres and using innovative methods in filming. He appeared in the 1993 "Big Gun" video by AC/DC, standing alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the crowd ,sporting a backwards baseball cap.
Shavo was originally a guitarist, and claims to play guitar better than he does bass. In fact, he was the guitarist for Soil for a short period of time. Apart from playing bass, Shavo did a little bit of vocals on the song, "Bounce", with a strange high pitched voice. In one of the live versions of the song, "Sugar", Shavo yells "SAKO!" after the line "I got a gun the other day from Sako, it's cute, it's small, fits right in my pocket". He also yells the line "Who?" in the album version of Sugar (he can be seen doing this line in the video for Sugar). Another appearance is on "Lost In Hollywood", where he performs backing vocals near the end. However, Shavo has directed almost all of System of a Down's videos. He usually plays bass with a pick, but he can be seen using his fingers during certain songs.
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