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MTV: System of a Down: Doubleheader

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  • MTV: System of a Down: Doubleheader

    MTV
    May 25 2005

    MTV: System of a Down: Doubleheader

    - by Corey Moss


    It was the 45th annual Hollywood Stars game at Dodger Stadium, and
    System of a Down guitarist Daron Malakian felt as out of place as he
    looked in his oversized uniform.

    Tony Danza, David Arquette and Norm MacDonald were among those
    gathered on the field, schmoozing with the media, signing autographs
    for the Dodgers players and, for the most part, ignoring the only
    legitimate rock star there (sorry, Frankie Avalon).




    Daron at The Hollywood Stars baseball game


    "That whole day was very strange for me because I went there just
    being a guy not taking it so seriously," Malakian recalls on a recent
    Friday night in the studio, where he's back in the metal band uniform
    of black T-shirt, black leather jacket and black jeans. "I just
    wanted to get a shot at hitting the ball, to just be at Dodger
    Stadium on the field because I'm a sports fan, but everyone else
    there were wearing cups and they were all in uniform and there was a
    coach on the team. I was really uncomfortable that day, to be honest
    with you."

    That night, after doing an interview with the one reporter who
    recognized him, Malakian went home and wrote "Old School Hollywood,"
    one of the most irate yet oddly comical tracks on System of a Down's
    new double album, Mezmerize/Hypnotize.

    "That's just what happens to me when I go through some kind of
    traumatic experience," he says, laughing as he shoots a look at his
    longtime publicist, who arranged the game. "In her defense, I wanted
    to do it, but I didn't know what I was getting into. I would never do
    it again."

    Since System of a Down were last in the studio, sessions that
    produced both the landmark Toxicity and Steal This Album!, Malakian's
    life has been marked by traumatic experiences, mainly America's
    invasion of Iraq, where several of his relatives live, and the
    government's ongoing refusal to recognize the Armenian genocide. Both
    were fuel for Mezmerize/Hypnotize.




    "I was going through a tougher time ... But having some turmoil
    usually brings out the best in you, artistically."
    - Daron Malakian



    "There is a lot of emotion that I spilled out, and I am very lucky to
    have that outlet in music," says Malakian, who wrote the music and
    most of the lyrics for the new material. "Maybe that's why I wrote
    more lyrics, 'cause I was going through a tougher time and I think
    that everybody in the band understood that and understood that I
    wanted to express that. We're not one kind of band. I can't say we're
    just political. Lyrics run into so many different things. But having
    some turmoil usually brings out the best in you, artistically."

    The war and the Armenian genocide (in which the Ottoman Turks killed
    as many as 1.5 million Armenians between 1895 and 1915) as well as
    homelessness and the other passions of singer Serj Tankian's Axis of
    Justice political-action network (which he formed with Audioslave's
    Tom Morello), have been the focus of several emotional, sometimes
    tearful System interviews with MTV News over the past few years. This
    is the first time since the "Aerials" video shoot that they've sat
    down to discuss solely music, and while there's a definite excitement
    in the air as they play back a few tracks, the traumatic experiences
    are not exactly history.


    "We have a very personal approach to politics, or political
    approach to personal things, whichever one you want to say."
    - Serj Tankian


    "I feel like this record is really balanced in a lot of ways with
    thoughts, with ideas, with music, and in terms of social or political
    [topics] or anything like that," reflects Tankian, still in the
    pinstripe sport coat he donned for a photo shoot earlier. "I think
    one thing we were realizing doing a bunch of interviews together is
    that we have a very personal approach to politics, or political
    approach to personal things, whichever one you want to say. And there
    is something that we do with that that somehow it grabs people. I
    think it has to do with that we take things on a very personal level.
    [For example,] like 'Hypnotize,' one of the verses will talk about,
    let's say Tiananmen Square [where Chinese students held pro-democracy
    demonstrations in 1989], and then you get into 'I'm just sitting in
    my car.' It's very personal."

    "Hypnotize," like some of System's most memorable songs, finds Serj
    and Daron singing the same simple line ("I'm just sitting in my car/
    Waiting for my girl") over and over, but the music and the way it's
    sung keep it from sounding repetitive. The song's two verses,
    although only four lines each, inspired the titles of the double
    album (Mezmerize is due May 17th, followed six months later by
    Hypnotize, because "people don't have the attention span to listen to
    two albums at one time," Malakian says, "and the songs need space for
    digesting").

    "They disguise it, hypnotize it/ Television made you buy it,"
    Malakian sings in the opening verse. "Mesmerize the simple-minded/
    Propaganda leaves us blinded," he sings later.

    "It's a reflection of what I see in a crazy snowballing world of
    people walking around like zombies," Malakian explains. "We are
    condemned for things, and then we're sold the same things that we're
    condemned for. Like, they say, 'Child molestation is bad,' but Calvin
    Klein goes and signs a 13-year-old model and spreads her legs [in an
    advertisement]."

    Of course, the title "Hypnotize" and the track itself - and in fact
    all of System's music - is open to and meant for interpretation.
    Malakian and Tankian are adamant that no System song is about one
    thing.

    "Cigaro"
    Malakian on "Cigaro"


    Take, for instance, "Cigaro," an untamed tiger of a track that was
    leaked on the Internet last month and became an instant hit on
    KROQ-FM in Los Angeles. The song begins and ends with the line "My
    c--- is much bigger than yours" and has Tankian blurting out the
    chorus "Cool, in denial/ We're the cruel regulators smoking cigaro."

    "We've talked about it being a political song, we've talked about it
    being a song about ego, we just recently spoke about it as [being
    about] not having balls enough to have a sex change," Malakian says.
    "It's all over the board. And System of a Down will always be all
    over the board in my opinion. ... When you're shooting out art and
    you aren't blocking yourself and you aren't censoring yourself,
    you're going to shoot out a lot of different sides of yourself that
    you usually block. I believe in just doing natural mutations of
    something, like giving birth to something, not thinking about it
    before or after, just doing it."

    System apply the same approach to their music, only amended to suit
    their perfectionism.

    "The motto of this band from day one is that no idea is a bad idea
    until it doesn't work," Malakian says as Tankian, bassist Shavo
    Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayan nod in accord. "Some things end up
    working our way and some things don't, but if you don't try it, then
    you never know. Just keep the flow going. Let's try to come across
    new things. Let's try to impress ourselves before we can impress
    anyone else."

    As System of a Down have matured as musicians, one of music's most
    experimental bands has only gotten more willing to try new things,
    especially Malakian. One night while working on the new album and
    struggling to get the exact guitar sound swimming in his head, he
    brought in every guitar in producer (or "song doctor," as the band
    calls him) Rick Rubin's home studio and mounted them on the wall.
    Daron pointed his amplifiers at the guitars and started playing, with
    the vibrations off the guitar strings creating a one-of-a-kind sound.


    Oftentimes during the writing and recording sessions, Malakian would
    call one of his bandmates, play him a song from another band over the
    phone and say, "That's how I want [insert instrument] to sound on
    [insert song]." But don't think that sort of behavior makes it OK to
    call System a technical band.

    "We're very misunderstood about being technical, and we're not,"
    Malakian explains. "We're trying to get the right vibe from that
    snare. We aren't trying to say, 'Add this frequency to that
    frequency.' It's not a math project, it's more the feeling that you
    get when you hear the snare or any other instrument that we've thrown
    onto the record. It's just walking in and knowing what you want."




    "No idea is a bad idea until it doesn't work"
    - Daron Malakian



    It's clear after talking about Mezmerize/Hypnotize for a while that
    it's Malakian's baby. The guitarist produced the album with Rubin and
    sings lead vocals on several tracks. While this might cause friction
    with a less secure band, it's a non-issue for System.

    "If the song doesn't call for my voice then I'll shut up," Malakian
    says. "If it calls for my voice, then I'll sing it. Me and Serj both
    believe that it's always what's best for the song as vocalists, and
    that's the mentality as a whole band. John doesn't try to overplay
    something, even though he can. He really plays solid for the song. We
    all play it for the song."

    "And we're getting better at articulating what the other person is
    gonna do," Dolmayan adds. "All the years of touring have definitely
    helped with that. We are more in contact with each other's souls when
    it comes to playing."

    Malakian, ever the sports fan, likens the band to a basketball team.

    "You might have four or five or six star players on your team, but if
    they don't pass the ball to each other, then they aren't going to
    win," he says. "I've seen great teams who have big rosters, payrolls
    and stuff, but they can't get along with each other, they have egos,
    attitudes, whatever, and no one passes and they don't win. You know
    what team wins? That team of rookies that are hungry."

    Guess that means the celebrity team loses.
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