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SOADFans: System of a Down Fires Double Shot |
Posted by Treevil on Monday, August 22, 2005 - 07:01 PM
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System of a Down's bassist, Shavo Odadjian, is the foundation that holds together all the seemingly disjointed parts in the Los Angeles band's eclectic music.
"I'm the groove. I'm the rhythm," he said. "It's very rare when a bass player accepts that and doesn't want to be the lead guy. I do what I have to do, what the song needs."
Knowing his role in the band's music is particularly important given the band's unusual juxtapositions of heavy rock and campy pop. Part heavy metal, part prog-rock, part humorous kitsch, part rock parody and part cynical political pop, the band's music has defied the odds and transformed these four Armenian-American bohemians into multi-platinum rock stars.
System of a Down is currently on the first leg of its first North American tour in three years. The quartet, which includes main songwriter and lead guitarist Daron Malakian, lead singer Serj Tankian and drummer John Dolmayan, will headline a show with The Mars Volta at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford Tuesday.
Double duty
For the past 11 years, Odadjian has served double duty. He has played bass and been responsible for the band's stage and lighting design for its arena rock concerts throughout the world. He has created a fun-house of mirrors and stainless-steel walls like a metal asylum for its current stage show, he said, to reflect the rhythms and moods of the band's new songs from its current hit CD, "Mezmerize," and its forthcoming companion CD, "Hypnotize."
"It was all done at the same time. We sort of arranged the whole thing and cut it in half,"Odadjian said of the two CDs. "A good example is an artist who does two canvases. He paints an abstract painting and then splits them. He shows the public the first piece and has them get used to that first piece. Then he gets the second piece and lets them get used to it, and then he puts them together and lets them see how they make sense together. So they make sense separately, but they also make sense together."
Odadjian, 32, is the only band member who was born in Armenia. His grandfather was placed in an American orphanage in Greece until he matured and moved back to Armenia. From his grandfather and his parents, he learned about the Armenian genocide at the hand of the Turks in the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
Two of the band's songs deal with the ongoing political issues concerning the Turkish government's failure to recognize officially the Armenian genocide. One song is "Pluck" from the band's 1998 self-titled debut CD. The other is a new song called "Holy Mountain" from the forthcoming "Hypnotize" CD.
"It talks about the fact that we have this mountain range that is an historical landmark for Armenians. It was taken over by the Turks. The reason why they are holy is because in the Bible, Noah's ark landed on those mountains," he said of Mount Ararat and Mount Masis on the border of Turkey and Armenia.
At age 5, Shavo moved with his parents from Yerevan, Armenia to America to pursue a better life. After six months in New York, his family moved to Los Angeles.
He first took up guitar in his teens and later shifted to bass at age 19. He played guitar and bass in local bands in Hollywood.
Meat-and-potatoes
"I couldn't find a bass player who could actually play meat-and-potatoes bass without being all crazy and Les Claypool (Primus' bassist) foolish. I decided to find another guitar player, so I could become a bass player," he said, citing the influence of bassists from bands such as Led Zeppelin, Unida, Clutch, Soul Schoolers and Deep Purple.
He tries to be a versatile bassist, and the band's music demands it.
"If the song needs a groovy bass line, then I give it one. If it needs a fast-picking one, then that's something where my guitar playing (experience) comes in. I can pick really fast because I used to play Slayer songs, so I can do that with the bass. I like a lot of funk, so I can put that into it, if I want to. I'm pretty versatile," he said.
The two-disc set, "Mezmerize/Hypnotize," posed special problems for Odadjian who was accustomed to rehearsing songs and road-testing them live before recording them on the band's previous recordings. First, there were 30 to 40 new songs to learn in a limited amount of time. Therefore, Malakian played bass parts on some of the new songs.
"This time around was different," Odadjian said. "Daron brought a song in and we had to record it the next day. I just wasn't about it and I didn't do it perfectly. It took some time, or I wanted to play it a different way and the song had not been developed yet. I had to get it. It was more work-oriented and less about a vibe and art."
Daily Record
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Comments
ZAk
22.08.05, 21:07
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lol, such enjoyable article!
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[EgoBrain]
22.08.05, 21:10
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great article with shavo. one of my favorite yets because he talks about his bass playing and growing up
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Theinfectedangel
22.08.05, 21:39
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.....wow....this is like the most i have ever heard about shavo in a loooonnnggg time.....
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ArmenianPrincess
23.08.05, 00:01
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tell me bout it we usually get some article about daron or serj...a nice change to hear about someones else for once
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inebriator
26.08.05, 12:34
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it's kind of sad how different the new CDs are this time around. you can hear in their live performances that this project was just not quite as comfortable and smooth as their previous projects.
and now knowing the fact that Daron played bass on some of the tracks makes me understand why you can sometimes barely hear the bass
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_SOAD_Rocks_
27.08.05, 12:53
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Shavo is an awesome bassist! I love the bass line for 'Question!' and 'Sugar'. You rock Shavo! Don't ever stop!
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imyourbeauty89
27.08.05, 19:16
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Nice...article....
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jesse86
29.08.05, 09:07
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hey awesome article about Shavo...ROCK on!!
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mrs.serjtankian_05
29.08.05, 21:31
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Your an awesome bassist shavo!!! keep on makin that groove!
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