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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."
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."