 On a Scale of one to 10, how good was your 2006?
Serj: "I'd give it an eight.", Daron: "Yeah, I'd rate my year as about an eight."
-----------
- If I only had time to ask you one question it would be this: is System of A
Down over?
Serj: "Well, we've decided to take a hiatus in order to work on our own
individual projects.
The schedule involved in being a member of System of A Down is insane. I've
wanted to make my
solo record for years, but I just haven't had the time. For the last 11 years
we've all been wedded
to this band, and now we want to take a break. So I honestly don't know how to
answer your
question. I honestly don't know if System of A Down are over or not. I don't know.
Maybe in a few
years we'll want to make another album. Or maybe we'll want to tour Or maybe
we'll want to play a
benefit show. it's impossible to tell right now. It'll be later down the line
that we'll be able to tell
what might happen."
-----------
- System of a Down fans might not be very encouraged by that answer.
Serj: "That's okay."
-----------
- 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."
-----------
- 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."
-----------
- 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."
-----------
- 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."
-----------
- 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."
-----------
- 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."
-----------
- 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
|
