Topic: Interviews

System Of A Down is set to call it quits after Ozzfest 2006 winds down later this month. The band has individual projects lined up for System's "indefinite hiatus," and many fans at the shows couldn't help but feel a sense of sadness.

Guitars have long come in all shapes, sizes, and decorative designs. Drum kits? Not so much. But three years ago System of a Down skinsman and comic-book nut John Dolmayan decided to play Fairy Godmother to this Cinderella of rock instruments by getting some of his favorite artists to decorate his 10-piece kit.

EW talked to him about the project, the prog-metallers' current headlining stint at Ozzfest (dates through Aug. 13), and the future of the band.

The Rolling Stone asked Daron Malakian about what to expect on the upcoming summer tour..

- When you first heard about that opportunity, to headline and do it without Ozzy ? how did that sound? was that intimidating? Or exciting? Or what?

Well, it was very intimidating. But we've always had a good time on that tour. I feel like it's the most well-organized. The bands all get on on-time. Sharon really runs a tight shift and I like that because everything's smooth. It's not like everytime we're going on at a different time. And that's also cool for a lot of the younger bands. I've seen certain situations in other tours where second stage bands have no idea when they're playing. It kinda works out for everybody. When we were just starting out it was just a really fun tour for us to be on from the get-go, and it's also been a big part of helping our band to get to where it is. So when they asked us it was kinda like (1) excitement, and (2) kinda return them the favor by doing the tour for them, you know?

- I wonder how you're gong to set it all back and start doing a set list, or if there's stuff you're going to focus on? Have you thought about that yet?

We kinda like to mix it up. We don't like to completely alienate our old songs. So we'll always bring in some of those old songs but we like to play some of the stuff off the new record, too. We're gonna mix it up. It's not gonna be strictly stuff off Mezmerize and Hypnotize. I think it's gonna be pretty broad, through all our records. We'll probably play a few songs off each record.

It's cool. You meet new people, some guys from new bands. It's like a long summer-camp. I've always called it that. I'm sure other people have, too, because it really feels like a summer camp type of thing.

From Rollingstone.com

If lately it seems that every time you walk down Jasper Avenue you’re looking at a new poster for System of a Down, you’re onto something.

Whether it’s for the double album the band decided to release in two parts spaced months apart, or for the seemingly unending tours that followed, System of a Down have been making their presence felt in Edmonton almost as much as girls with their Oilers jerseys pulled up around their ears have been lately.

System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan, who actually lived in Canada for some time after his family fled Lebanon because of civil war, explains that he and the band are always thrilled to tour in Canada.

“I lived in Toronto for four years and really enjoyed it. I love coming back,” he says. “We’ve developed a really nice following in Canada.”

That “really nice following” the band has developed must have been dismayed to learn recently that, following the band’s Canadian dates and headlining tour with Ozzfest, System of a Down will be taking an indefinite hiatus to work on solo projects.

For most of the band’s members, these solo projects will be of a similar nature to their previous work; Dolmayan’s project, however, is decidedly un-musical.

“I have ideas to do a small comic book-based business,” explains Dolmayan, who will most likely also play drums on a few tracks of each of his bandmates solo efforts.

On another non-musical topic, much ado has been made of System of a Down’s Armenian ancestry and their push to have Turkey finally recognize the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

While stressing that these issues are of grave importance to the band, Dolmayan laments that “the press made a much bigger deal of us being Armenian than we ever did.”

The press “couldn’t explain us,” he says, because System of a Down didn’t totally fit in with the embarrassing nu-metal movement they were unlucky enough to be lumped in with. And when System of a Down outlasted the nu-metalheads, the Armenian connection received more ink.

“When people started asking [about our shared ethnic backgrounds],” Dolmayan explains, “our reaction was to bring up the issue of the genocide,” in an attempt to use the press to spread their message.

Fans can expect that the band’s political views, which also include a definite anti-war/anti-Bush stance, to be on full display Sunday night, along with the heavy and intelligent music the band is known for.

By BRYAN CARROLL  Vueweekly