Shavo Odadjian
Armenian-American bassist (b. 1974)

Shavarsh "Shavo" Odadjian (Armenian: Շավարշ "Շավո" Օդաջյան; born April 22, 1974) is an Armenian-American musician, best known as the bassist of the alternative metal band System of a Down. He also plays bass in a trap group called North Kingsley and in the metal band Seven Hours After Violet.
During System of a Down's hiatus from 2006 to 2010, Odadjian collaborated with Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA on a project called AcHoZeN, which contributed a number of songs to the motion picture Babylon A.D. A compilation album was released in 2015. Odadjian is also credited with the musical scoring of the film, alongside RZA and Hans Zimmer.
Early life
Odadjian was born in Yerevan, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union. He moved to Los Angeles at the age of five and attended the Alex Pilibos Elementary School, an Armenian parochial school, along with future bandmates Daron Malakian and Serj Tankian.
During his youth, Odadjian has stated that he spent most of his time skateboarding and listening to punk rock and heavy metal music. Among others, he credits Dead Kennedys, Slayer, Black Sabbath and Metallica as his favorite bands, and the most substantial influence on his musical development and career.
Recording career
System of a Down
While attending college (majoring in Psychology and minoring in Art) and working in a bank, Odadjian began managing Soil – the band Daron Malakian and Serj Tankian were a part of in 1993. Odadjian had met them in a recording studio, where he was rehearsing.
“Shavo Odadjian” enters the record as armenian-American bassist (b. 1974). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Shavo, Odadjian and Armenian-American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q379400. VIAF identifies the subject as 263787349. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1974, 2006, 2010 and 2015.
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This entry incorporates text from “Shavo Odadjian” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.