John Dolmayan (born July 15, 1973 in Lebanon) is a musician, best known as the drummer for the Armenian-American alternative metal band System of a Down. His bandmates are vocalist/guitar/keyboards Serj Tankian, guitarist/vocalist Daron Malakian, and bassist Shavo Odadjian. John currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. When he was 3 years old, he asked his parents for a drumkit every birthday and Christmas until he was 7 and he got his first drumkit. He stayed up till 5 am playing and his dad just threw it away. He kept asking for another drumkit until he was 15 and he finally got another one. So far, he has recorded five albums with System of a Down: System of a Down (1998), Toxicity (2001), Steal This Album! (2002), and, most recently, Mezmerize (2005), and Hypnotize (2005). His style of drumming has influenced an emerging generation of drummers, and this has attracted a significant portion of SOAD's audience. It is generally agreed that his talent is a large part of SOAD's appeal.[citation needed] John's facial expressions are famous for being constantly foreboding and angry-looking. Lead singer Serj Tankian was quoted in Kerrang magazine as always trying to make John crack a smile on stage, to which John replied that he had to make an extreme effort to keep a straight face and not get put off beat, which is sometimes not believed due to the fact that John is very rhythmically sound when it comes to his drum beats. He is known throughout the metal scene for his hi-hat to snare combo, which can be heard in such songs as "Deer Dance" on Toxicity, "I-E-A-I-A-I-O" on Steal This Album! and "B.Y.O.B." and "Question!" on Mezmerize. During System of a Down's hiatus after Ozzfest, Dolmayan has said that he will start a comic book business. This is because he is an avid fan of collecting Marvel comic books. He says that music and comic books were his two favorite things as a kid. Dolmayan won "DRUM!" Magazines 2006 Drummer of the year. John Dolmayan's drumkit is a modified Tama Starclassic with a White Silk finish. Even though John is left-handed, he sets his kit up right-handed. The eleven cymbals are Paiste Signatures. His setup uses 2 bass drums. Now he has 3 rack toms, which can be heard vibrantly throughout "Hypnotize", and one floor tom. Most of his cymbals have moved, and so have his timbales which are mounted to align with the toms. John positions the left side of his double pedal on the left side of his hi hat stand. As unusual as it may seem, he finds this placement very natural for his playing style. When he first started his career with System of a Down he used a few Paiste Dimension cymbals as well as signatures. He currently uses 24" as his largest cymbal. In Summer 2006, right before Ozzfest tour, John told the press in several interviews his intention to make an online comic company, "I've got over 5 and a half million comics right now, and I'll probably have about 20 million comics in a year's time. But it's not really a collection. The reason I'm accumulating all these books is I'm starting an Internet-based comic-book company called "Torpedocomics," which is very strange, because his views used to be negative towards the internet. That'll be up in November 2007, probably." John said. [1]Recently John has been playing live shows with a newly designed drum kit, featuring drawings from many famous comic book artists. [2] John also said he may at some point write a movie script and might be involved in drum work regardless of SOAD's status. [3] John has played alongside Flea[4] of Red Hot Chili Peppers in the group Bombs Over Paris.[5]