System Of A Down's Serj Tankian and Shavo Odadjian open up about reuniting – and what it means for their future…
Serj Tankian and Shavo Odadjian have not ruled out the possibility of more System Of A Down material, following the release of their first new songs in 15 years – Protect The Land and Genocidal Humanoidz – last year.
Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music (watch the full interview below), the frontman and bassist open up about coming back together to record the charity singles in order to raise money and awareness for those in need in Artsakh and Armenia. As Shavo says, though, he has always been ready to go at a moment's notice and a "supporter" of the band – whether they've been musically active or not.
"Personally, man, from day one, even when we disbanded for a little while in ’05, ’06, I'm always a supporter," he explains. "I'm always on the side of like, this needs to be going on forever. We'll never call it quits. I will refuse. I don't care. I'll refuse if anyone else does, we're calling it quits. I'm not going to call it quits. As long as we're all still alive, we're going to be the unit that we are. I am still in."
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Detailing what it will potentially take for more new music with System, Shavo continues: "The thing is that for it to come out as good as it did and as good as it might in the future, we all have to be on the same wavelength and be as content and happy with what we're doing. If one of us is not, it won't be what it should be or what it needs to be. That's the deciding factor of if we should or not. In 15 years have we had, and we did it with someone less heartened, if someone's heart wasn't as much as the other two or the other three or the other one, it wouldn't be what it needs to be. I say everything I'm saying, in the mind state of, hopefully we all feel the same again, to do it again. If we don't, I'm not going to take this much. I'd rather take the full thing."
"Absolutely," agrees Serj. "No, it felt beyond special. It felt very natural and it's something we've done for so long together and especially having a cause that, for me, that was the most important thing. It's one thing, like I said, it's one thing to do something for yourself and for your band and for music itself or whatever you want to call it, for your career or for your business. Or it's another thing to do it for something completely outside of yourself in every way, donate the proceeds and the song or the group of the songs become a part of the activism, a strong part of it. I think that's unique that we've done that with this band. We've done it in the past throughout our music, with different songs. Obviously, we have songs that are not necessarily socio-political and are fun and, and, and all sorts of stuff. I think when we have done this, we've done it really well. This time, it's exceptional in that sense, not to praise us or anything like that. The fact that we used it exactly, we used it as a weapon, unapologetically, and that's what it should've been. I'm really proud of what we've done. It felt really great."
Addressing what else might happen with SOAD, Serj adds, "The future is unseen. We will see what happens. The vibe is very positive. As long as we're on the same page, we can continue doing stuff, if we're on the same page."
Watch the full interview below:
