INTERVIEW: JOHN DOLMAYAN OF SCARS ON BROADWAY
411mania.com
Aug 22 2008
TX
411 sits down with John from Scars On Broadway to talk illegal
downloading, touring, earthquakes and the new album…
This was my first interview for 411mania. Ok, to be completely honest
this was my first interview ever. Being my first interview, I was
very nervous seeing as how I had to interview a pretty big name like
John Dolmayan from Scars on Broadway and System of a Down. I wasn’t
sure if I wanted to make this like the Esquire "What I’ve Learned"
, or an Enquirer interview but then I decided, "Fuck it, this is my
interview and I will transcribe it how I feel is understandable."
So here I go.
John and I both live in southern California and I just so happened
to interview him the day of the earthquake you all probably heard
about a few weeks ago.
So I give John a call and he tells me to hold on because his dad
called. Then when he returns I ask him if he felt the earthquake. He
replies as if he forgot about it and says, "Ya, it was no big deal,
earthquakes don’t bother me"
I thought this was funny because the interview was postponed a couple
of hours due to the earthquake "If you’re gonna die, you’re gonna
die" exactly.
When I ask him what the inspiration for the album was he explains
that that question could end up in a three hour conversation. But I
waited to hear the answer.
"Life I guess, life in general is the inspiration for the album. All
the things that you go through kinda mold you into who you are, and
the environment that you live in also has a lot to do with it. And
in the end you have the music that comes out, ya know, I don’t write
the music but I imagine that is what Daron (Malakian) goes through
channeling whatever he channels to create this stuff. Part of it has
to do with his life experiences."
Prior to the interview I talked to some die hard System of a Down
and Scars on Broadway fans because, I knew they would have some good
questions for John that they were just dying to get the answers to. One
of them was about their new self-titled album leaking out on the net
before its release date where John stated, "I don’t care. As long as
they like the album, I think that the true fans are going to go out
and buy it anyway. You know there are people that can’t afford it,
what can I say? It’s tough times. But we put a lot of work into this
and dedicated our lives to it for the last year and a half so it’d be
nice if people extended the courtesy and actually went out and bought
it and if they cant or don’t choose to, that’s ok with me. You gotta
live within your means and however you get through life is up to you."
Scars on Broadway have been touring all over Europe so I was curious
as to how the fans over there were reacting to the new material and
also if they would be touring the rest of the world.
"They’ve been pretty into it. With the advent of you tube they know a
lot of the lyrics already from the previous shows that we’ve played
which is great for them to take that kinda time and go ya know,
its pretty crappy quality recordings on you tube I was impressed by
how many of the lyrics they actually knew. I don’t know half of the
lyrics! I know very little, when I listen to music, I don’t listen
to the lyrics I listen to the music."
As for touring,
"Well we will be touring the United States, then we are going to Europe
in august. When we get back we are going to be doing the united states
, that’s what we have planned so far of course we will be doing more
than that but that takes us all the way into November and that’s as
far ahead as I want to think about right now."
Scars on Broadway has a very distinct and different sound then a
lot of music that is on the radio. Some of their songs can be quite
controversial as well with some raunchy lyrics. For example in the song
"Chemicals":
"MADNESS! I’m feeling scared/Looking around and nobody there/When I
say ‘Fuck the world!’/As we’re ready to rock/Piss on your face while
you suck on my cock."
So I asked John if they try to find a gap in the music scene by
pursuing a certain sound or if they create music that just comes
natural at a certain point of his life.
"I think that the less you think about music scene the better
off you are as a musician and an artist, we don’t really take into
consideration what might be happening in the music scene today I guess
in a lot of ways we want to be a part of the trend that is about to
come not the one that is about to go out, so its more a matter of
just playing where you are in life, playing the type of music you’re
listening to or that has inspired you or was uninspiring sometimes,
sometimes it’s the stuff that kinda irritates you that inspires you
to write something else because maybe you want something different out
there. so I don’t really know too many new bands out there to be honest
with you. I generally listen to a lot of older music occasionally if
someone suggests something I’ll listen to it but I generally find a lot
more time spent on specific music that is 25 to 30 years old. Lately
I have been listening to a lot of Mozart. I go through phases a lot,
I’m a phase type of person, I remember I listened to Pink Floyd’s
The Wall for a year straight every day when I was 18 years old I can
definitely lose myself in music. To me music is like a warm bath,
you just immerse yourself in it and forget about what’s going on."
I was curious as to what they were going to do with all the extra
songs that didn’t make the cut of their new album. I hate looking for
all the lost recordings on the internet so I was hoping there would
be a B-side compilation album in the near future.
"Some will be on B-sides for singles some will be used for soundtracks
or some will never be used at all! One or to might make the next album
but I doubt it, they usually don’t. For example, Systems (of a down)
first album we had "X" recorded so we weren’t happy with it and "X"
ended up on Toxicity and it was completely rerecorded, a new structure
for it and everything. So sometimes songs can reemerge but hopefully
they are better and better suited for the album that your gonna put
them on. But its no necessarily guaranteed. I kind of like not having
songs that aren’t anywhere."
I agreed and told him it keeps things personal. Then he agreed and
lifted the hopes of fans by hinting towards that B-side compilation
album,
"Keep it personal or maybe later on one day you’ll do like a
compilation or something and put them all together."
"They Say" is the first single off of the new Scars on Broadway album
but it was an unexpected move.
"We released ‘They Say’ not expecting it to become a single we just
wanted people to have a taste of the album and it ended up becoming a
single completely out of our mindset of what it was going to be. We
intended it to be just for the fans, something to have just to feed
them something so they wouldn’t be hungry for it..and be sorry. Then
we put ‘Chemicals’ just to give them another taste ya know I don’t
expect ‘Chemicals’ to be a radio song but we wanted them to have a
completely different example of what is on the album."
Yeah, I don’t think "Chemicals" would be able to be on the radio
either.
Then I started to go simple and ask easy questions that aren’t boring
for the readers, like what he likes to do in his free time,
"What most people do, spend time with our friends and family. I know
Daron goes to Disneyland a lot and when hockey seasons are out he goes
to hockey games and baseball season he goes to baseball games. I like
to play poker I like to read an collect and sell comic books and go
have a drink occasionally."
I got really excited when he said he was into comic books so I had
to ask what his favorite one was, and he said Fantastic Four which
I thought was pretty interesting because most people say Batman
or Superman.
I asked him if there was any place in the world that he would want
to tour that he hasn’t yet, and again to my surprise he said South
America and expects to tour there in the future. Being of Armenian
descent, John also explained that he would like to and has thought
about playing a show in Armenia.
I thank him for his time and tell him to be safe in case of an
earthquake, he tells me he will and asks if I will come save him if
he is going to get killed. I tell him I will do what I can.
Go check out the new Scars on Broadway self-titled debut album and
do not miss them on tour!
OCTOBER 19 Masquerade, Atlanta, GA 20 House of Blues, Myrtle Beach,
SC 22 TLA, Philadelphia, PA 23 Ram’s Head Live, Baltimore, MD 25 The
Fillmore, New York, NY 26 Paradise, Boston, MA 28 Le Medley, Montreal,
QC CANADA 29 Phoenix, Toronto, ONT CANADA 31 St. Andrews, Detroit, MI
NOVEMBER 1 Metro, Chicago, IL 2 The Eagles Club, Milwaukee, WI 4
First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 5 Beaumont, Kansas City, MO 7 Ogden,
Denver, CO 8 Murray Theatre, Salt Lake City, UT 11 Edmonton Events
Center, Edmonton, AB CANADA 12 MacEwan Ballroom, Calgary, AB CANADA
14 Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC CANADA 15 Showbox SODO, Seattle,
WA 16 Roseland, Portland, OR 22 Marquee, Phoenix, AZ 24 White Rabbit,
San Antonio, TX 25 Emo’s, Austin, TX 26 House of Blues, Houston, TX