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SOADFans: Reactionary System of a Down: Modern rock's 'agent provocateurs' |
Posted by miamicanes04 on Monday, August 22, 2005 - 03:46 AM
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With its politically charged lyrics and genre-bending mix of metal, prog rock and jazz, System of a Down is a band that craves a reaction.
"People either hate us or love us," says bassist Shavo Odadjian, on the phone from his home in Los Angeles on a short break from the tour that brings the band to Orlando's TD Waterhouse Centre on Tuesday.
Odadjian, who conceives the band's videos and stage designs when he's not performing, embraces the haters as much as the fans.
"There is no middle ground, and I'm very happy that way," he says. "The people who hate us, I don't think they are wrong. That's what they think, and I promote thought."
The band's new album, Mezmerize, is the first half of a two-part project to be completed with Hypnotize, to be released in the fall. The lead single, "B.Y.O.B.," short for "Bring Your Own Bombs," is a rant against the war. The sentiment, as it is in so many System songs, is blunt: "Why don't presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor."
Yet Odadjian and the other band members -- singer-keyboardist Serj Tankian, singer-guitarist Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan -- don't like being labeled a political band.
"It's being pigeonholed," Odadjian says. "Were the Beatles a political band? Well, they sang 'Revolution,' didn't they?
"We're a life band, a social band," he continues. "In today's world, politics play a huge role. It's on everyone's lips, on everyone's computers and TV screens. We don't preach, but we just tell you what we think, and it provokes thought."
The band has been doing that since its self-titled 1998 debut, selling more than 10 million albums worldwide and rising to the status of arena headliners on the strength of radio hits such as the frenetic "Chop Suey!" "Aerials" and "Toxicity." The Boston Globe has called the group "the most wonderfully bombastic band in modern rock."
Success didn't change the band's intention to inspire thought as well as moshing.
Mezmerize touches on reincarnation with "Question!" and that theme also surfaced in the song's video, which Odadjian directed with Howard Greenhalgh (Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun"). The idea for the abstract spiritual images of a bird, a girl and a little boy came to Odadjian in a dream.
"Things just happen sometimes," he says. "I had the idea in a dream and everyone made it come true."
He likes the idea of forcing fans to use their minds.
"I like it when someone has to think, 'What could this mean?' Then I like to confuse them even more. If you asked me, 'What does this song mean?' I'd never tell you. It would kill it."
Nor is he a big fan of anything that reveals too much about rock bands.
"That's why you'll never see us on Cribs. It's pompous and it kills the mystery. I never knew what kind of car Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden used to drive. That made them larger than life, and I want to bring that back. Music is art."
There's an artistic element to Odadjian's approach to the band's stage show, which revolves around mirrors. He eschews pyrotechnics.
"Pyro is just a way of overdoing something. We're a band, and we don't want anything to overshadow the music or the performance."
Instead, the mirrors are interactive, giving the audience a chance to experience the show from the band's perspective.
"I like the underground raves in L.A., and I was influenced by that a lot. We don't see ourselves, and the crowd has our vision of a show."
When Odadjian thinks about the concert experience, he recalls a Kiss show he attended as a teenager, a memory that has little to do with the band's outrageous fireworks and special effects.
"At some point, I thought that Gene Simmons looked at me," he says. "Well, I'm 31 now, and I'm in a big rock band, but I'm still talking about it. So why don't I give kids that experience."
Someday, Odadjian wants to turn his talent for visual arts into a career as a film director.
"I consider myself a director because I love it so much," he says. "When I was 9 years old, I made skateboarding videos in our little one-bedroom apartment in Hollywood, and I didn't realize that was directing and producing a video. When I was doing 'Toxicity,' it was like, 'I've done this before.'
Odadjian never took any music lessons either. His message: Anything is possible.
"If you have a passion for something and work hard at it, you will accomplish it. I'm living proof of that."
Source:The Orlando Sentinal www.orlandosentinel.com
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Comments
pants_on_my_head
22.08.05, 06:25
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nice article. Shavo said very meaningful things
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serjripsass
22.08.05, 11:19
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"the most wonderfully bombastic band in modern rock." That's true!
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*tamara*
22.08.05, 11:50
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"At some point, I thought that Gene Simmons looked at me," he says. "Well, I'm 31 now, and I'm in a big rock band, but I'm still talking about it. So why don't I give kids that experience." - lol reminds me of something...
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McBanjo
22.08.05, 14:42
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nice one
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daronfan81505
22.08.05, 16:46
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awesome article, wish they could be on cribs tho lol it would be kinda cool
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Theinfectedangel
22.08.05, 17:01
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i would freak out if they were on cribs....."o m g its darons toilet"....
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NINGirl
22.08.05, 17:25
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"I like it when someone has to think, 'What could this mean?' Then I like to confuse them even more. If you asked me, 'What does this song mean?' I'd never tell you. It would kill it." I LOVE that.
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SoldierSider
22.08.05, 19:40
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I wish I was as good as Shavo without any lessons
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RestlessWhisper7
23.08.05, 15:42
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That was a really good interview. I never knew very much about Shavo so it's cool to read more about him. Haha, System on Cribs...
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