Soad: Two New Albums

[Siamanto]

New Zealand Herald

Jan 15 2005

 

System of A Down all fired up

 

System of A Down

 

by Rebecca Barry

 

 

It's common to hear American rock stars bagging the war in Iraq.

 

But few have System of A Down's personal connections. Daron Malakian,

guitarist and songwriter for the American metal band, has family

living in Iraq.

 

"It's brought out a lot of good songs," he says, chatting from his LA

living room. "The last few years of my life have been a crazy

rollercoaster ride. There's these people who go, 'Yeah, go ahead and

bomb them' and my grandmother lives there."

 

A handful of those songs are about to be road-tested when the band

play the Big Day Out but fans will have to wait for the album if they

want to hear the rest. Then they'll have to wait again.

 

SOAD plan to release two albums, Hypnotize and Mesmerize, six months

apart. It was a decision born out of sheer necessity - Malakian had

spent so long writing that by the time the band had reached the

studio, there were too many good songs to ignore.

 

"We don't believe in double albums," he says. "I think the attention

spans of people these days can't cope with them.

 

"In the 60s and 70s kids were frying their brains on acid and a bunch

of them would sit down and commit themselves to listen to Tommy or

something. I dunno, maybe there's not enough kids on acid anymore."

 

Aside from 2002's odds-and-sods collection, Steal This Album!, it's

been a long time since fans have had any new music from the band.

 

"It takes me such a long time to write songs," he says. "They have to

be great, I have to wait until I'm a huge fan of them. I would rather

write four, five, six great songs than 10 shitty ones."

 

Malakian is coy about revealing too much but he says there will be

more vocal interaction between himself and frontman Serj Tankian, and

that emotion will remain at the core of their sound. And if it's

possible, he promises Hypnotize/Mesmerize will outdo the

schizophrenic nature of their breakthrough Toxicity, an album that

incorporated Slayer's breakneck riffs, Faith No More's complex sense

of melody and the Armenian folk music the band members - also

including bassist Shavo Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayan - were

brought up listening to.

 

Their uniquely abrasive style quickly soaked up a huge following and

Toxicity sold more than four million copies worldwide. Malakian

laughs when he recalls someone urging them to tour in Iceland because

they were apparently as big as Michael Jackson there.

 

But before that, it was a different story.

 

"People would say to us, 'You guys will never get signed'. We

accidentally became rockstars I guess. It's strange to think that

four Armenian guys who make the kind of music we do would be in this

position."

 

Now that they are, SOAD use their profile to throw a spotlight on the

issues they are passionate about, and that's not just the war. (One

of the band's most memorable projects was a collaboration with

anti-Bush campaigner Michael Moore for their music video, Boom!.) The

band are also committed to raising awareness about the genocide of

the Armenian people early in the century. However Malakian, who was

born in Hollywood, is the only member of the band not to have visited

his country.

 

"We have plans to play there. But it's an emotional thing. I'm

worried that if I go there - with the troubles with Turkey and

everything - that I'll leave feeling more depressed."

 

It's not the only thing on his mind. Malakian admits to feeling

"freaked out" by the tragic events that saw ex-Pantera guitarist

Dimebag Darrell gunned down at a concert last month. The incident

reminded him that fame is a part of the job he will never get used

to. Just from chatting for a few minutes, it's easy to tell Malakian

is a genuine, down-to-earth, nice guy.

 

"None of us think, 'Hey, I'm a rockstar. I'm Daron and I'm no

different to who I was before. But it's weird when you're signing

autographs and these kids come up to you and their eyes turn

different. We saw this girl break a CD once and she was slicing her

body and going 'Shavo! Shavo!' And you can tell it freaks him out

because Shavo's face turns white.

 

"I get so [expletive] nervous because I just feel like, wow, nobody's

special. Some guys know all there is to know about plumbing. I know

just a little bit about music."

 

THE PROTEST GROUP

 

WHO: System of A Down

 

MEMBERS: Singer Serj Tankian, guitarist Daron Malakian, bassist Shavo

Odadjian and Drummer John Dolmayan.

 

ALBUMS: System of A Down (1998), Toxicity (2001), Hynotize/Mesmerize

(due this year).

 

FORMED: Southern California in the mid-90s.

 

TRIVIA: Serj Tankian has looked at buying property in New Zealand.

 

 

http://groong.usc.edu/news/msg100956.html

[Siamanto]

Blabbermouth.net, NY

Jan 13 2005

 

"The Silent Force"

 

SYSTEM OF A DOWN guitarist and chief songwriter Daron Malakian has

told The Sydney Morning Herald that he is putting the finishing

touches on two new studio albums - "Mesmerize", due this spring, and

"Hypnotize", due this fall. He said he's not a perfectionist: "I just

want it to be right, I don't nitpick at shit. I get the production

credit on the record, and I get to be the [AC/DC guitarist] Malcolm

Young of SYSTEM OF A DOWN.

 

"I respect those people. You look at SLAYER and you see Kerry King. I

look at SLAYER and I see [songwriter-guitarist] Jeff Hanneman."

 

By his own reckoning, Malakian writes about 95 per cent of SYSTEM's

music, including the lyrics. He bristles slightly at the suggestion

that his band is a dictatorship.

 

"It's a democracy, everyone respects the way the band works, I don't

step over anybody," he said. "I really don't want to sound like I'm

discrediting my band members here because I'm not. It's really how

SYSTEM works. Serj [Tankian] writes songs but not in bulk the way I

write songs ... It works as a team."

 

Although frontman Tankian co-founded the activist group Axis of

Justice with AUDIOSLAVE's Tom Morello, Malakian is uncomfortable with

SYSTEM being tagged a "political" band.

 

"We just sing about what the world, about what's around us," he said.

"We have political songs and we have songs about, y'know,

psycho-groupie-cocaine crazy.

 

"Somebody asked me, 'Are you guys about sex, drugs, rock'n'roll,

politics, having a good time?' I said, 'Yes!' We're not about a

history lesson, like, 'You gotta learn all about the Armenian

genocide' or all about politics. We're not only about that and we're

not only about sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, we're like a f---ed-up

mutation of all that shit."

 

 

http://groong.usc.edu/news/msg100875.html