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- System of a Down fans might not be very encouraged by that answer.

Serj: "That's okay."
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- Not for them, it's not.

Serj: "Well, it's truth. It doesn't have to be happy and it doesn't have to be sad, it's just the truth.
System of A Down belongs to four people. its' not a public corporation or a public body. What we do is a matter for our own personal taste. And when we do it, it is a matter of our personal taste as well."
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- Was it bad blood that caused this hiatus?

Serj: "I know this might not be the answer Kerrang! wants, but there was no bad blood at all. None. This last tour was the best we've ever done. It was the most fun I've had with the band.
We're four brothers; we're just separated at the moment. But, no, there is absolutely no bad blood between the members of System of a Down."
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- MTV claimed that during one Ozzfest performance Daron changed the lyrics of 'lonely Day' hanging
out with the band, these motherfuckers I can't stand." true or false?

Daron: " Absolutely false. That story was bullshit.
what I actually sang was 'this motherfucker I cant stand' , meaning 'day'. That's a long distance from 'These motherfuckers', meaning my bandmates. which I didn't say. The story's garbage. It's untrue. next question."
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- Now that you've hit the pause button, how do you evaluate your contribution to rock music?

Daron: "I'm always a poor judge because I'm looking from the inside, but I would say that I'm proud of our achievements. We made it in Los Angeles. We has no connections with the music business whatsoever. we had no inside track. And from that we accomplished all of this. Our music has heart and passion, it has integrity. If you're asking me why people liked our band, I'd like to think it's because of that."
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- So now you've got all this time on your hands, what are you going to be up to?

Daron: "Well, I've got season tickets for the (Los Angeles) Kings (ice hockey team), so I'll certainly be seeing alot of their games.
I'm also in the early stages of putting a band together. It's too soon to tell what sort of level it'll operate at, but given that I wrote 95% of System's music it's probably safe to say that it will have certain things in common with my other band."

Serj: "I've produced a film called 'Screamer', which is the name given to people who alert the world to genocide, whether it be the Armenian genocide or the genocide that's occurring in Darfur right as we speak. It's very powerful. I've also co-scored the soundtrack to the latest ('Exorcist' director) Willam Friedkin film, which I've wanted to do for years. It'll be rock music but it'll have outside influences. It's not finished yet, but think of rock music with an Eastern European classical bent. I'm very excited about it."
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- It was the midterm Congressional elections a few days ago. Did you vote?

Serj: "I didn't, because due to a clerical mix up I wasn't actually registered."

Daron: "No, I didn't vote. I've never voted in my life. Not once, why? Because I don't think it accomplishes anything. to be honest with you."
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- In March 2003 you spoke out against the invasion of Iraq. Do you take any moral pleasure in the fact that the calamity you predicted has come true?

Serj: " No, none at all. It's too serious a matter for me to feel that way. people are dying there everyday. Its needless and it was totally avoidable."

Daron: "Well, on the hand I've been kind of too preoccupied with the realities of the situation. I don't know if people know but alot of my family live in Iraq.
So I've spent a lot of time trying to get people out. Some people I've got out and some people I haven't. Alot of my family dont wish to leave Iraq. Its their home, why should they surrender it to come to the United States? To them its a foreign country, an alien place."

"So for me the war is more of a reality than it is for most people. But at the same time I cant help feeling, yeah, a certain amount of pride that we stood up there and said what we did. Lots of bands are speaking out against the Iraq situation now, but back then there weren't so many of them.
We kind of felt on our own up there. A lot of people weren't as courageous as we were, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel proud about that."


 

Original title is " Serj & Daron, System of A Down. It's the end of the band as we know it.
Interview published in this month's Kerrang! Magazine issue, words by Ian Winwood

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