Serj Tankian, the front-man of the world famous System of A Down, announced that while growing up he was educated on Armenian music and never heard metal or hard rock.

“The first type of music I was exposed to was cultural Armenian music. My parents were both in this cultural institution where my mom would dance and my dad would sing.

I was also exposed to Arabic music as a child and French music because we lived in Lebanon and that used to be an old French colony,” Tankian told American website Noisecreep.

To note, Tankian’s third solo album Harakiri is to be released on July 10.