Sunday Mail (South Australia)
June 5, 2005 Sunday

Still bucking the System

by GREG KOT

Releasing two albums in one year is no problem for this US band, says
GREG KOT

SYSTEM of a Down has never been one to conform, despite mainstream
success.

So it’s no surprise the LA quartet, which has sold nearly 10 million
albums, is bringing out a double album in two halves – one now, the
other later this year.

So far, the oddball strategy is working. The first album, Mezmerize,
debuted at No. 1 on the Australian charts last week.

It will be followed by Hypnotize.

The hard-rock foursome had such a bounty of material, thanks to the
prolific writing of guitarist Daron Malakian and singer Serj Tankian,
they could not fathom how to fit it all on one disc during recording
sessions with longtime producer and collaborator Rick Rubin.

“The concern was that if we put it all out at once, people would
gravitate toward certain songs and not really experience all of it,”
Rubin said. “So we thought: ‘Let’s put it out in two pieces, even
though we still think of it as one project.’

“The nature of System’s music is pretty overwhelming to begin with –
it’s complicated, difficult music.

“Putting two albums of that out at once just might drive you crazy.”

While he shares songwriting duties, Malakian, in particular, has his
imprint on Mezmerize, not only as a songwriter, arranger and
guitarist, but also as a singer.

For him, music is an obsession.

“I have a house (in an LA suburb) with guitars, keyboards, drums, all
over the place and I rarely ever leave it. If I’m not playing music
there, I’m listening to it,” he said. “I rarely go out. Music is
pretty much all I do.”

Malakian’s obsession has helped make System one of the signature
hard-rock bands of the last decade.

The band’s craziness – dramatic leaps in tempo, texture and style
from thrash-metal stomp to droning East European folk harmonics – is
compressed into tightly scripted pop songs on everything from Iraq to
pop-culture “brainwashing”.

It makes the quartet one of rock’s boldest bands, and one of its
unlikeliest success stories – four Armenian outcasts who were told by
Hollywood talent scouts in the 1990s they didn’t fit in. “We weren’t
white, black or Latino,” Malakian said. “We didn’t belong in any
category they could market to.”

Tankian was born in Beirut, Lebanon, 38 years ago. His parents
emigrated to LA in 1975, the year Malakian was born.

Malakian’s parents had just moved from Iraq the year before, and he
still has relatives there, giving added immediacy to songs such as
Cigaro that address American policy in the Middle East.

“We’ve been cast as a political band, but really, the things we’re
addressing are personal, because they affect us directly,” Tankian
said.

Malakian sighs when politics comes up. “It’s life,” he said. “We have
no choice but to reflect our lives. I can sympathise with a family
that is endangered by this war, whether they are the parents of an
American soldier or Iraqis, because I have all sorts of family living
there.

“I don’t understand some of the music I hear on MTV or the radio,
because they don’t mention the times we live in. Times like this
should bring out a big, strong creative movement.”

System of a Down is doing its share. The seeds for that ceaseless
invention were in place long before Malakian was in rock bands.

His parents were successful sculptors in Iraq, but had to work day
jobs after they moved to America, cultivating their passion for art
in their spare time.

His father’s dark and mysteriouis artwork adorns Mezmerize’s cover.

“My dad is my biggest influence on me as a musician, even though he’s
not a musician,” Malakian said.

“I even learned from his mistakes. I remember him working on
paintings for days and my mother saying, ‘Stop, you’re ruining it’.

“It made me realise that sometimes you have to hold back some of your
ideas to make the art work,” he said. “That what you leave out can be
just as important as what you leave in.” Tankian came to music much
later than Malakian, and projects a more worldly, confident air.

He’s run a software company and worked in jewellery, all the while
writing poems, lyrics and music.

“I didn’t start writing music and playing instruments until I went to
college. When I did, I realised I was famished for them. I’ve been
playing like a madman ever since,” he said.

On first impression, Mezmerize isn’t quite as striking or consistent
as 2001’s Toxicity. Both Rubin and Malakian suggest some of the best
songs were left for Hypnotize, which suggests with more pruning,
System could have made a monster single disc. As it is, Mezmerize is
still a relentless 36-minute thrill ride.

The most compelling development is the way the voices of Malakian and
Tankian blend; their eerie harmonies sound as ancient as their
long-lost homelands.

“Everything comes down to the song with these guys,” Rubin said.

“That emphasis has grown with each album. On these new albums, they
take more chances in more directions than ever before.

“But they know that people don’t remember albums because they sound
great. They remember songs because great songs live forever.”

Mezmerize is out now. It is reviewed on Page 14.