Elect the Dead is the solo debut album by (System of a Down frontman) Serj Tankian. Tankian played a majority of the instruments himself but did receive assistance from System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan and former Primus and Guns N' Roses drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia, along with Dan Monti on guitar and bass, opera singer Ani Maldjian and some string players, Antonio Pontarelli among them. The album was leaked on October 18, 2007. The official tour for Elect the Dead commenced on October 12, 2007 with a show at Chicago's Vic theater. The first concert had roughly 1,000 people attending, in a medium sized venue. Although Serj had stated he would not be performing any of System of a Down's material, he performed "Charades", a song co-written by Daron Malakian, the guitarist of System of a Down. Although it is originally a song restricted to piano and vocals, Tankian used his backing band, The Flying Cunts of Chaos (F.C.C.), to provide guitars, drums and bass. Serj Tankian has stated that while some of the songs are new, a lot of them have been with him for a while. The song "Blue", which appears on the special edition bonus CD, is a reworking of the System of a Down demo song "Blue" that appeared on the Columbia promo tape which was given away before the release of the band's debut album. “ It's very wide sounding — lots of different sounding instruments. The excitement I had making this record was the same excitement I had making the first System record. „ —Serj Tanki