Serj Tankian Finally Eats a Banana Banana Banana Terracotta Terracotta Pie
To say we might have reached critical mass with System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian ever since he began making the rounds promoting his new book Down with the System: A Memoir (of Sorts) might be an understatement. For months now, we’ve heard about how he wanted to leave System of a Down, how honesty is integral to being an artist, and how he really doesn’t like Imagine Dragons. It’s been… a lot.
However, what might be one of the more endearing methods of promotion recently hit the YouTubes, as he sat down with Mythical Kitchen‘s Josh Scherer for the ongoing Last Meals series. For those that don’t know, that’s really just an interview series where they simultaneously eat whatever the famous person thinks would be their last meal if they got to choose.
As you can expect, the Armenian-American musician/activist chose ethnically appropriate meals, along with the fuel of entire populations — coffee. And while that’s all fine and dandy, what really stood out was the final food item: a banana cream pie served in a terracotta dish with Nilla wafers. You know, like that lyric in “Vicinity of Obscenity” that’s somehow gained some viral traction on TikTok and the like.
Looking back on that song, Tankian said the phrase “banana terracotta pie” came up out of nowhere.
“I like creating relationships between things that don’t have a pre-existing one. I was thinking of a banana… I don’t know how it even came up in my head — banana terracotta pie.”
At one point, Tankian recalled how producer Rick Rubin hated that lyric, which let’s be real, any regular person would probably be like “what the fuck is that?” But after hearing the band rehearse the song and then going to record it, Tankian said some of the absurdity found in System of a Down’s music wore the iconic producer down.
“When we were playing it in rehearsals, the song — he didn’t like it at all. We’d play it and he’d be like ‘what is that?’ By the time we went to actually record it and he’d heard it enough times, he said ‘it’s one of my favorite songs on the record, I can’t imagine putting out this record without this song.’ It’s one of those [songs] that hassle you into loving it.”
It’s a silly goof that leads to some real interesting conversation. Say what you will about the man, but Tankian is a very mindful and intellectual individual, so getting to see him have a good time and share personal stories is great.
You can check out the full video below.
