"Kultur Shock are a great band, I know them pretty well," said the smiling musician for Tangra Mega Rock.

In roasting temperatures, System of a Down's frontman rushed back to his air-conditioned hotel right after soundcheck at Spirit of Burgas 2010 where he had a quick informal meeting with the city mayor and then a nice little chat woth your favourite rock radio, during which he told us that despite having acquired a New Zealand passport five years ago, he still feels pretty much a citizen of the world and listens to music from all over the place.
Tankian expressed an admiration for Bulgarian female folklore singers and said he was well aware of the Bulgarian element in Kultur Shock.

"I heard about the Burgas festival from my good friend Billy Gould, who I ran into a few months ago. He told me Faith No More played there and were very impressed with the crowd."

As we talked the Levski Sofia football team were gathering in the hotel lobby ahead of their evening match at Chernomorets.

You can hear the full interview with Serj on the radio next week. We talked about his new album, life in New Zealand and whether Turkey should be admitted to the EU..

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