System Of A Down‘s Daron Malakian has opened up about testing the waters with a possible alternative for Serj Tankian – see what he needed to say under.
In Might final 12 months, Tankian revealed in his memoir Down With the System: A Memoir (Of Kinds) that his disdain for touring as soon as led to his determination in 2017 to inform his bandmates in System Of A Down to hold on with out him so they might proceed residing their dream.
On the time, the band pushed again in opposition to the thought, however Tankian was knowledgeable that the band had begun new singers whereas attending a charity occasion a while later. Nothing got here of these periods, and Tankian has remained with System Of A Down since.
Now, guitarist-vocalist Daron Malakian has weighed in on the matter, revealing how far the method bought earlier than they determined to drop the search. Chatting with Final Guitar’s podcast On The Document, Malakian shared: “It was one thing that I by no means actually needed to do.”
He continued: “For me, System Of A Down is us 4. If considered one of us 4 isn’t doing System Of A Down, I don’t actually wanna do System Of A Down. Did we take into consideration that? Certain. However did we actually pursue it deeply? No. We tried. I don’t wanna get into names. We tried, and whoever we tried, he sounded good.”
“Folks would assume, ‘Oh, Daron is the one that might need that.’ I used to be the one which was most in opposition to it. I used to be, like, ‘I don’t wanna look to my left and see different folks.’ System is System, and if that’s not gonna be System, then I don’t know if that’s the System I wanna be part of.”
Malakian cotinued: “So yeah, I’m not or actually sort of by no means was . I believe Serj might need mentioned one thing in his ebook in regards to the man couldn’t do the growls or one thing, and that’s why we didn’t [pick him to replace Serj], and that’s not true.”
“[Serj] and I’ve by no means had this dialog of why it didn’t occur. However actually the rationale why it didn’t occur is I sort of was the one which was, like, ‘I don’t assume I wanna pursue this. I don’t wanna do that with out him.’ Trying on the surface of the band. I’m a fan of that. I’m not making an attempt to alter that. By no means was.”
This isn’t the primary time Daron Malakian has made his affinity for Serj and the remainder of his bandmates in System Of A Down obvious. Chatting with NME in July for the launch of his band Scars On Broadway‘s new album, Malakian mirrored on the present relationship inside SOAD.
He informed us: “For the primary time in a very long time, it looks like we went on tour and all of us had dinner and laughs collectively. All of us bought alongside and rediscovered our friendship on this final tour and we actually loved it. I missed my buddies. I’m actually completely happy that we’re all placing issues up to now and shifting ahead, having fun with one another’s firm.”
As for what it’d take to place collectively a brand new System Of A Down album, Malakian shared: “It’s the album shit that drives wedges between us. I’m just a little afraid to go there, to be sincere with you. I quite simply have my buddies and have fun this band that we fashioned over 30 years in the past… I by no means say no, however on the similar time, that’s not the place we’re at proper now.”
In late July, drummer John Dolmayan weighed in on the potential of a brand new report saying that whereas it could be a stretch to make it work, the “secret sauce” to creating an album can be for Malakian to herald his concepts final as a result of they’re sometimes practically full and go away little-to-no room for collaboration.
Final September, bassist Shavo Odadjian mentioned that his “door is all the time open” to creating new music with the band and that he had “100 riffs ready”. In an interview in December, nonetheless, he informed NME that the hopes of something coming to fruition have been nonetheless slim.
Tankian has taken a hot-and-cold strategy to a brand new SOAD report as properly. Again in October 2024 he mentioned {that a} new System report can be a “recent begin in a model new method”, however then later revealed that he had been delay recording after changing into “very passive” whereas engaged on ‘Mezmerize’ and ‘Hypnotize’.
