Daron Malakian is uncertain about writing new material for System of a Down.
“I’m proud of the records. I don’t live with any regret of anything like that,” the musician said in a chat with Tetragrammaton With Rick Rubin about new SOAD music. “But it would have been nice to see where the band would have evolved if we kept putting music out.”
He added, “If we put out an album now, it’s just so far away from [‘Hypnotize’ and ‘Mezmerize’], it doesn’t continue the story to me. There was a time that [making a new System Of A Down record] might have been something I wanted.”
“I’m not sure how much I want that anymore — I’m sure people won’t be too happy to hear that from me. I’m not at the same place I was maybe 10 years ago,” Malakian further shared.
In an interview with Eddie Trunk last month, bassist Shavo Odadjian said the band is getting along better and is ‘testing the waters’ for more shows. Fans hope this will lead to new writing sessions. He said, “We’ve been talking. Everything’s great, knock on wood. Everyone’s happy.”
“So we decided to test the waters and play some shows. And that’s what it is. There is no strategy to it, there’s no plan to do the rest of the world just yet. I’m not saying it’s not gonna happen; I’m not saying it is gonna happen,” Shavo stated.
He then noted, “We told each other, ‘Let’s play it by ear, do these shows, see how we feel afterwards. If we don’t wanna do any more, we don’t do any more. If we wanna do more, we’ll do more.’ There’s no heavy responsibility on anyone, because I feel like a lot of it is just thinking too much, overthinking what could happen.”
SOAD went on break in 2006 and reunited in 2011 for festivals and some shows. Their last albums, ‘Mezmerize’ and ‘Hypnotize,’ came out in 2005. They will also tour South America this spring, starting April 24 in Bogota, Colombia, with seven stadium shows. The band will play three stadium shows with Deftones, Avenged Sevenfold, and Korn in August.
