For somebody who has written a number of the wildest and weirdest music of the final 30 years, Daron Malakian is a person of remarkably easy pleasures. When Hammer asks the System Of A Down and Scars On Broadway guitarist (and singer within the latter) what he does exterior of music, there’s an extended pause.
“Not a lot! I watch some sports activities with my father-in-law, play a little bit of golf,” he says with fun, conscious of the obvious mundanity of it. However then music has been Daron’s main obsession ever since he started gathering Kiss albums on the age of 4.
Born and raised in Los Angeles to Armenian dad and mom, he reduce his enamel on the mid-90s membership circuit together with his first band, Soil, who would evolve into System Of A Down. A string of profitable albums adopted, together with 1998’s self-titled debut and 2001’s multi-platinum Toxicity, earlier than the band went on hiatus in 2006.
System have periodically resurfaced since then, although they haven’t made an album since 2005’s Mezmerize and Hypnotize one-two (he brushes off speak of latest System music right this moment). As an alternative, Scars On Broadway have grow to be his primary inventive outlet, albeit a sporadic one.
Launched as a solo mission in 2008 throughout SOAD’s preliminary break, they’ve simply launched their third album, Addicted To The Violence. A number of the songs date again years, however the file’s themes stay related, from society’s desensitisation to violence (Killing Spree) to frustration at divisive, dogmatic politics (Your Lives Burn). As he places it: “The world retains evolving and continues to be an increasing number of ridiculous.”
It’s been seven years for the reason that final Scars On Broadway album. What impressed you to resurrect the band and launch a brand new album?
“The timing was good. I don’t sit down and take into consideration writing an album; I write songs, and typically inspiration simply hits you, and you are feeling like a few of these songs which are floating round in your consciousness are able to be heard.”
Had been the songs all written with Scars On Broadway in thoughts?
“No. A few of these songs are actually previous, a few of them are new and collaborations with Orbel [Babayan, Scars On Broadway guitarist]. I can’t let you know, ‘I’m gonna go residence and write these nice songs tonight!’ When a tune comes, it’s one thing that impresses me. I’m like, ‘Hell yeah! One other one occurred!’ I simply attempt to pay attention and be delicate, and when the time is correct, let individuals hear them. The time for Scars felt proper.”
The themes of songs reminiscent of Your Lives Burn and Killing Spree appear very related proper now.
“Killing Spree I wrote an extended, very long time in the past. Now, you see somebody on a subway being taunted, abused or damage and also you’ll see individuals recording it as an alternative of serving to them… you’ll see a child stroll into his faculty and shoot his classmates… you’ll see riots within the streets – all that is occurring. And a tune like Killing Spree to me shouldn’t be for or in opposition to any of it, it’s simply ‘That is the world I stay in.’ Some persons are afraid to speak about sure issues like that, so I’m simply not modifying myself. It’s simply the world.”
You grew up in an inventive family. What was that like?
“Yeah, each my dad and mom are artists. My dad paints abstract-style work and artwork was at all times round me. My strategy to artwork could be very impressed by my dad. My dad has by no means given an artwork exhibition; his stuff has by no means been in museums or galleries or something. He paints for himself. He has a long time’ price of work in his home that he doesn’t even care to indicate anyone, however they’re nice. And he doesn’t do it for anyone else. He does it for him. And whether or not I used to be in System Of A Down or Scars, if I had a fanbase or not, I’d be doing what I do.”
Did your upbringing encourage you to enter an inventive route?
“No, no one pushed me into the musical route, way back to I may keep in mind. Music has at all times been essential to me. There’s by no means any reminiscence I’ve in my life that music wasn’t part of. I began gathering information at 4, 5, six years previous.”
What had been you want at college?
“I used to be form of like the category loudmouth, form of the clown. Me and my mates had been just like the dudes that bought into fights. I used to be the one man that loved steel – all my mates had been into gangsta rap and shit. I dropped out of highschool, however my mates now are all my mates from 30 years in the past, and most of them are plumbers. Actually, I don’t actually have like this artsy crowd that I hang around with or something like that.”
System Of A Down got here up by the mid-90s LA membership scene. As 4 Armenian guys, how totally different did you’re feeling to the opposite bands on the time?
“At first no one wished to signal us, as a result of we didn’t sound like Korn or Limp Bizkit, and we had been 4 Armenian guys! I imply, what the fuck is an Armenian to any person that lives in Kentucky?! They don’t even know what Armenians are! And we regarded like we had been simply fucking aliens to individuals, the best way our stage presence was and the best way our look was on the time. Serj [Tankian, SOAD singer] is a really totally different, distinctive form of frontman, I’m the guitar participant who sings and screams and does all of the loopy stuff. Folks didn’t get it at first, however we bought it.”
What modified?
“We simply went out and did what we did. We had been younger and hungry, we believed in what we had been doing. You’ve bought to know, we had been a military earlier than we had been signed, we had been fucking tearing down the Sundown Strip. Our exhibits had been packed after we weren’t signed. It began with our group of mates, however that shit grew and grew and grew, and we turned the largest band on the Sundown Strip.”
You had been lumped in with the nu steel scene, however that doesn’t actually really feel correct for what System Of A Down had been doing.
“We had been fortunate that there was a scene. We had been in a position to play, and play in entrance of audiences that got here to see these different bands. However I don’t assume anyone feels like we did. I don’t assume we felt like we didn’t belong and I don’t really feel like we did belong. However there’s so many fucking genres after which there are subgenres of the subgenre, it simply will get misplaced.
System Of A Down and Scars, that’s what I do. I don’t have a look at what different bands are doing and say, ‘Effectively, I’ve bought to try this to slot in with these guys.’ However for some purpose we match into that entire [nu metal] factor. That’s simply the time that we existed.”
Some nice bands got here from that scene.
“I’ll say one factor in regards to the authentic nu steel bands – Deftones, Korn, all those that had been the primary, and add us to that checklist – they had been all doing one thing distinctive.
We had been all the youngsters that grew up listening to Metallica and Slayer, all that fucking thrash stuff, however we weren’t copying it. We had been taking that affect and we had been bringing in different issues, different influences, and creating one thing new with that heavy sound.
All these copy bands, I don’t give a shit about any of them. Those that got here out and began their very own factor and did their very own factor, these bands deserve credit score.”
Talking of thrash bands, certainly one of your first huge excursions was with Slayer.
“Our first tour within the US and our first tour in Europe had been each opening for Slayer. Some individuals bought it, some individuals didn’t. We might get booed off the stage in a few of these nations.”
You definitely had a polarising impact.
“The strategy I took to these Slayer exhibits was that in the event that they didn’t begin chanting ‘Slayer!’ whereas we had been taking part in, I’d make them begin chanting ‘Slayer!’ We simply didn’t let that faze us. I keep in mind we had been in Poland and other people didn’t get it in any respect.
They booed us off the stage, they threw issues at us, they threw cash, they threw a bagel at Serj! However we simply saved doing what we do and transferring ahead. Like, if I used to be a comic, I discover my jokes humorous – if everybody else isn’t laughing, I don’t care.”
It’s humorous you point out comedy. System Of A Down had been pigeonholed as a political band, however there’s humour in loads of your songs.
“I respect you saying that, as a result of what you’re saying is what I really feel. Folks would get actually caught on the politics. The bandmembers, we don’t all agree on one factor in relation to politics. I feel when there’s members of the band which are a little bit outspoken about their politics, individuals assume that everybody’s politics are the identical as what Serj is saying or no matter John [Dolmayan, SOAD drummer] is saying. However there are extra layers than simply politics.”
There’s loads of your lyrics which are clearly not political!
“Certain. I write no matter is spat out of me at that second. I didn’t really sit there and write on a bit of paper ‘My cock is far greater than yours!’ [from SOAD’s Cigaro]. I simply mentioned that whereas I used to be riffing and I used to be like, ‘OK, I don’t even know what the fuck which means.’ However that’s how I felt at that fucking second.”
These totally different moods are what so many individuals love about your work in System and Scars On Broadway.
“As a result of life shouldn’t be one matter. Life has moments if you’re comfortable, if you’re unhappy, if you’re humorous, if you’re an asshole, the place you’re critical. It’s bought to have all of that as a result of, in me, all of that exists, and if I can’t specific these sides of me, then I really feel like I’m in a field as an artist.
I feel the one factor System and Scars each share is the totally different layers of feelings, character and emotions that come out within the music that I write. That’s as a result of I don’t sit there and say, ‘Effectively I gotta be heavy steel’ on a regular basis.”
How did the songwriting dynamic work if you had been creating music for SOAD?
“That’s exhausting for me to reply, as a result of I really feel like my songwriting course of is kind of totally different to loads of artists. Chop Suey! for instance, I wrote that on tour behind the bus. I had a guitar, an acoustic guitar, and I simply wrote that association. I don’t write riffs, I write songs. Chop Suey! I introduced in with the vocals.
Generally Serj would use that melody and write totally different lyrics – for instance the unique lyrics for Chop Suey! had been: ‘Get up / Inform me what you consider tomorrow / Is there gonna be a ache in sorrow? / Inform me what you consider the individuals / Is there going to be one other sequel?’ That was my line. However then it’s Serj saying ‘Get up, seize a brush…’.
We might collaborate in that means, however I’d say 85 to 90% of the time it was me bringing in the entire thing.”
Do you know that you just had been on to one thing particular with these songs?
“I wrote the entire Toxicity file whereas I used to be nonetheless residing with my dad and mom. They might hear me taking part in my guitar in my room, and when Toxicity got here out, they’d hear Aerials or Chop Suey! on the radio or MTV they usually’d be like, ‘Oh that’s the one we heard you taking part in in your room on a regular basis!’ So I feel they knew greater than me.”
Toxicity was a massively profitable album when it was launched in 2001. How bizarre was it for you when all of it blew up?
“In case you’d have requested 14-year-old Daron what he was going to do when his goals got here true, he’d have mentioned, ‘Fuck yeah! I’m gonna celebration! I’m gonna be like Mötley Crüe!’ Then it occurred, and I really turned much more centered on my writing. I didn’t actually need to go away the home once I was off tour, I nonetheless don’t. Being recognised in public, it was bizarre – individuals strolling up and wanting their image with me. I simply knew I wanted to put in writing songs, that’s what was gonna proceed this prepare, not my fucking image in {a magazine}.”
SOAD went on hiatus in 2006. Was Scars On Broadway an essential outlet for you at that time?
“When System took the hiatus, I’m not gonna lie, it was tough for me at first as a result of that’s probably not what I wished. However I can’t drive different individuals to do one thing simply because I wished it. However my very first thing was, ‘OK, if I launch music, I want an outlet for that’, and Scars turned that outlet. I’ll be sincere with you, man, I’m simply as pleased with the Scars stuff as something I’ve accomplished. I feel a few of my finest shit is on Scars.”
System haven’t made an album since 2005, and also you’ve made three Scars On Broadway albums, however presumably you by no means cease writing. What number of songs are you sitting on?
“I don’t learn about 1000’s, however I’ve bought just a few. If I had a nine-to-five job, I’d in all probability nonetheless come again residence and write music for myself. However although we’re not making information with System in any case these years, I nonetheless do write as a result of it’s an itch and I simply bought to itch it. It’s like a toddler performs together with his toys. You don’t play together with your toys since you’re taking part in for any person else, proper? You’re taking part in in your personal amusement.”
So many individuals would love to listen to these songs.
“Look, I’m very conscious that there’s an viewers on the market and there’s those who need to hear from me and that’s wonderful. Actually, I’m very blessed, my life is fucking like… I bought to pinch myself. However I’m additionally form of lazy too when it in relation to making an album.”
Possibly there’s an enormous field set of unreleased Daron Malakian songs ready to be launched in the future.
“Ha ha ha! Belief me, I inform myself, ‘Dude, you really want to begin releasing extra music.’ I even inform my guitar participant in Scars On Broadway, ‘Remind me that I want to begin recording, man!’ I simply want that was my motivation, as a result of if that was my motivation, then I’d. I get caught up in my very own head, in my very own world, and it’s not a precedence to me. So, I bought to make it a precedence and begin recording my shit. I simply must encourage myself to do it.”
Addicted To The Violence is out now by way of Scarred For Life.