L.A.’s Armenian Idols
By Lorraine Ali
Newsweek
May 2, 2005 U.S. Edition
Meet System of a Down, hard rock’s unlikely poster boys.
The biggest coup in rock since Nirvana crept past Poison on the
charts more than a decade ago is probably the mainstream success of
System of a Down. Their name is weird; their lead vocalist, Serj
Tankian, sings like Freddie Mercury channeling Slayer, and their
music is nearly impossible to classify. (You might call it
prog-rock-metal-politico-pop with an operatic twist.) And it’s
flat-out impossible to imagine MTV’s spring breakers grinding to
songs about the Armenian genocide.
But System’s 2001 CD “Toxicity” turned out to be well timed: it
dropped just as rock fans were growing tired of bands such as Limp
Bizkit doing it “all for the nookie,” and it sold more than 3 million
copies. Suddenly, this unlikely band of Armenian Angelenos had become
the new face of hard rock. Now their pair of new albums, “Mezmerize”
(which will be out in two weeks) and “Hypnotize” (which will appear
sometime in the fall), are two of the most anticipated releases of
2005.
“I have to say that it still kind of freaks me out,” says Daron
Malakian, System of a Down’s main songwriter and guitarist. “We were
never like any of the other bands out there, and we still aren’t, but
here we are. Our new album is already on billboards all over L.A. and
New York. I still have no idea how this happened.”
Neither do we, but here’s how it started. Malakian grew up in
Hollywood, next door to Latino and Armenian immigrants and across the
street from a crack motel. “I used to ride my bike past the pimps and
prostitutes every day,” he says. Malakian’s parents, who’d emigrated
from Iraq, listened to Armenian music at home–his father had been a
choreographer for a traditional dance troupe before coming to the
United States–while their son soaked in the heavy metal and new wave
of ’80s radio. He taught himself how to play, and by high school had
started a band with singer Tankian. They eventually brought in John
Dolmayan on drums and bassist Shavo Odadjian, and signed with Rick
Rubin’s American Recordings label in 1997.
On the new “Mezmerize,” the anti-Iraq-war single “Cigaro” finds
Tankian and Malakian trading vocals like dueling opera divas, while
an instrumental on the follow-up “Hypnotize” sounds like a jam
session by a Mideastern wedding band, cheesy synthesizer and all. If
this all sounds off-putting, it’s not: it makes you wish more rock
bands would take such brave and impressive risks. “Maybe some people
would think it’s a strange blend,” says Malakian. “But it’s just
everything that’s out there in the world, filtered through us.” As
for the meaning of their name? Don’t bother asking–even the band
can’t quite explain. Chalk it up as one more thing about System
you’ll never understand.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Totally down: Tankian, Dolmayan, Malakian, Odadjian;
PHOTO: Playlist: System faves, close relatives.; PHOTO: 1. B.Y.O.B.,
System of a Down; PHOTO: 2. Shimmy, System of a Down; PHOTO: 3.
Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen; PHOTO: 4. Holiday in Cambodia, Dead
Kennedys; PHOTO: 5. Handsome and Gretel, Babes in Toyland; PHOTO: 6.
Fear of a Black Planet, Public Enemy; PHOTO: 7. Helter Skelter,
Beatles; PHOTO: 8. Feel Good Hit of the Summer, Queens of the Stone
Age; PHOTO: 9. Kashmir, Led Zeppelin