Profile of Shavo Odadjian on Famous Like Me

Shavo Odadjian (born April 22, 1974 in Armenia as Shavarsh Odadjian), is the bassist for the Los Angeles-based alternative metal band, System of a Down.

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 Punk Angle, Dead Kennedys, KISS and Black Sabbath as his favourite 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 High School in Los Angeles, an Armenian parochial school, including his future bandmates Daron Malakian and Serj Tankian, although they were not acquainted at the time due to age difference.

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 becomes the permanent bassist of the band, which from then on called itself System of a Down.

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 Tuncboyaciyan. 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 and Question!), and Taproot, creating surreal atmospheres and using innovative methods in filming.

Shavo made a short cameo appearance in the 2001 movie Zoolander as one of Hansel's friends. His favourite actor is Christopher Walken, and he declares to be fascinated with occultism, mainly in the form of movies.

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. He usually plays bass with a pick, but he can be seen using his fingers from time to time.

Equipment

Basses

• Gibson Thunderbird
• Ibanez BTB1000 or BTB500
• Meatball Iron 8088 Pro Super Bass

• note: these models are not basses, they are commercial electric and F-Hole guitars customized into basses.

Amplifiers

• 4 Ashdown ABM900 Evo II heads
• 4 Ashdown 8x10" Cabinets

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