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 Topic: InterviewsThe new items published under this topic are as follows.
SOADFans: Mosaix Magazine Article
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| Posted by ZAk on Wednesday, May 18, 2005 - 07:13 PM |
By Ramon Alexander Jaime
Serj Tankian defies anything that straddles convention. As front man for the band System of a Down, his onstage persona is an aggressive, outspoken advocate for social justice. With the frenzy of a blistering, neo-metal sound serving as a daunting backdrop, his in-person sedate demeanor is a fascinating paradox. He’s a soft-spoken, self-effacing philosopher with a purity of heart that is immediately evident. If the famous adage, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” ever applied to anyone, it would definitely fit Tankian. But don’t let this gentle soul mislead you – he has a passion and a vision that is anything but passive. Historically, musicians as part of the creative collective have been notoriously political, and to varying degrees, extremely visible. Woody Guthrie protested a variety of causes including an anti-war agenda and the injustices on racial segregation in the ‘30s and ‘40s; he was followed by folk singers such as Pete Seeger and Peter, Paul and Mary, and then rock musicians of many stripes in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, agitating against issues ranging from the war in Vietnam to nuclear power to Ronald Reagan’s blunt Cold War rhetoric. |
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Modern Drummer Magazine Interview
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| Posted by ZAk on Monday, May 16, 2005 - 05:27 PM |
“Ever since I was a kid, I knew
I was destined for this,” says System Of A Down drummer John
Dolmayan. “I used to go to shows and think, ‘I’m going to be on that stage
one day.’ It’s really easy for me to say that now, but I knew it back then. And
if you talk to people who knew me back then, they’ll tell you the same thing.”
The “this” Dolmayan is speaking of is his place in life today as an immensely
successful modern rock drummer for the multi-platinum Los Angeles–based group
System Of A Down.
Nearly 4 years ago, Dolmayan and his band released the Rick Rubin–produced
Toxicity, a blistering collection of material that was anything but
the traditional sophomore slump. It offered some of the wildest and most
intriguing singles to hit modern rock airwaves in recent memory. (If you doubt
this, go back and give a listen to “Chop Suey,” “Aerials,” and “Psycho.”) |
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SOADFans: Guitar World Interview
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| Posted by ZAk on Thursday, May 12, 2005 - 01:24 PM |
It's never Been East to Describe System of a Down's music.
Its contradictory mix of styles is by turns abrasive and
dissonant, gentle and melodic, often within the same song.
For those who ponder such things, Daron Malakian the group
guitarist has a candid Explanation.
"People sometimes say our music is kind of 'schizophrenic,'" says
Malakian. "And, yeah, it is kinda of schizophrenic. That's because we
live in a crazy fucking society."On System's newest album,
Mesmerize/Hypnotize, Malakian plays an even greater role as a
lyricist, singer and multi-instrumentalist, and the result is an album
that superpasses its ambitious predecessor. |
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SOADFans: Preaching in the desert
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| Posted by JP on Thursday, May 12, 2005 - 07:14 AM |
Serj Tankian of System of a Down, seated to chat with If '! of Bugler, on its new disc ("Mesmerize/Hypnotize"); its activism against the foreign policy of George W. Bush and its vision of the Argentina de Kirchner, which they think to visit in order year.
Serj Tankian arrives late at the appointment, on board of a Mercedes black Benz, each hair of its peculiar beard in its place.
It lives in Hollywood and it assures that that is not incompatible with its deep social commitment, still in the city that many (until they themselves in one of its new songs) consider of "plastic". "it is not impossible here to be activist, only who is one more a solitary activity", ironiza the leader of whom is indicated like the more important heavy band in which it goes of the millenium.
Or, at least, the one that more weight. A pair of years back, agreeing with the beginning of the war, released the opportune video of Boom, filmed during the world-wide marches by La Paz of February of the 2003. And at the same time, Serj said to him to If '! that "the world fears more to him to Bush than to Saddam".
In the subject an enumeration to numbers related to the war was listened to in addition, from the value of Iraqian petroleum to the number of American congressmen with mobilized children: 1. For them, the war is something personal: the guitarist Daron Malakian has resident family in Iraq. And for the System of to Down, four descending North American citizens of those Armenians who survived the Turkish genocide of 1915, George W. Bush is another genocida.
-- Parece that those that think as vos are a minority in your country, since they could not change the presidency...
--No I believe that we are a minority. I think that this society very is polarized.
In song "B.Y.O.B", which they include in "Mezmerize", they are asked "why always they send to the poor men/why the president does not go to the war". They are speaking of Bush and Iraq?
-- That song we did not do it necessarily thinking about Iraq, but it can been have inspired by that war. If mirás for back in history, in the old days the kings who fought the wars led their armies and loaded with them against the enemy. Now the leaders make the decisions in Internet. Bush never experienced really the war with Iraq, does not have the smaller idea of which it means to go to the front.
-- and to vos you can be considered a pacifist?
-- You could say that. I believe in that we must lean an a the others to be able to live in this planet. If querés to call pacifism, OK.
-- Why then to title another one of the songs "Attack"? It does not seem a very pacifist term that we say...
--La line of the choir says "Attack", is why we called it thus. We tried to maintain titles simple to decide them, we did not think to us how they are going away to perceive. Although thinking it now, that many attack something does not mean necessarily that takes control of violence, also means to be conscious that something is unjust and to try to change it.
-- and why they finished being two discs instead of one?
-- Hicimos 35 songs, we ended up recording 28 and we are going to leave some in the way. It was not the primary intention to unfold it, single we wanted to reflect what we felt. But once I seated with Rick Rubin (producing) to listen to 30 songs of a serve and was exhausted. He is hard to digest it everything of blow. Let us put it asi ': for us it is a single disc who we sent in two quotas so that people can digest it easier.
System of to Down has thought to pass by Buenos Aires in order year (primicia! hopefully you would not be estresen like Metallica) and what it happened in Cromañón it is going to make them take greater safety measures. The singer says to have read in the news something of the accident but she requests more specifications.
At the end of racconto it is shockeado by several things. First, to Serj Tankian it costs to him to think that flares in a closed place have been thrown.
Seconds later it puts face of horror when finding out that the exits of emergency were closed with padlock and finishes being astonished when listening that the pyrotechnics did not belong to the band but to the public "Auch", it exclaims. "From already I feel very badly by all the families who underwent this terrible tragedy", the singer supports. In the case of them, he says, are customary to that the places in which they touch provide the security with the case. But also he comments that often they have had to take part when seeing that they passed things in his concerts. "Memory once we had to stop a show in Australia because we saw people who made signs desperate. It was that there was somebody very serious between the 50 thousand assistants and we waited for the doctors.
The important thing is to enjoy and to feel safe because if no, you are not going to live to enjoy again ".
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SOADFans: Toazted Exclusive Interveiw With John
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| Posted by JP on Wednesday, May 11, 2005 - 08:37 PM |
Toazted had an interview with drummer John Dolmayan from System Of A Down in a very expensive hotel in Amsterdam, Holland.Right after a special listening session of the new album "Mezmerize" we spoke to John about this great new album, touring, Rick Rubin and more! |
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