von soadfans.de
Der Anfang ... In der jetzigen Form gibt es System of a Down seit 1997 und besteht aus Serj Tankian, Daron Malakian, Shavo Odadjian und John Dolmayan. Zuvor spielten Serj Tankian, Daron Malakian, Shavo Odadjian zusammen mit Andy Khachaturian (heute Sänger bei "The Apex Theory") in einer Band namens "Soil". Nach der dritten Demo stieß John Dolmayan zur Band und ersetzte Andy Khachaturian am Schlagzeug. Der Name "System of a Down" entstand aus einem Gedicht von Daron Malakian namens "Victims of a Down". Allerdings änderten SOAD das "Victims" in "System" um, da sie finden, dass "System" ein aussagekräftigeres Wort ist.

Dan Epstein: Can you confirm or deny that you used to be called "Victims of a Down"?

Serj Tankian: We were never called "Victims of a Down". That's what the poem that I wrote was, and that's how we got the name System of a Down.

DE: What is "A Down"

SJ: Whatever you want it to be

DE: What is "A System of a Down"?

SJ: Whatever you want it to be.

DE: What do you think it is?

SJ: It shouldn't matter. It doesn't matter what we think are songs are about or what we think at all. It's all on you.

DE: So the name is useless.

SJ: It's useless.

DE: How did you develop your style?

SJ: I have no clue what you are talking about.

DE: How does it feel to be deemed unpatriotic by some critics?

SJ: I say fuck you....I say fuck you....Wait let me finish that. I think that people that don't investigate beyond the mass media their own country's dealings around the world and don't know anything about their own country's politics aren't patriotic at these times.

DE: Do you really think that fans think that you are unpatriotic?

SJ: You are actually the first person to say that to us, and it really offends me big time.

DE: Why?

SJ: Because I was fucking born in this country and I love this country....It's reactionaryism

System of a DownDE: Did your first-week record sales seem small since it occured at the time of the World Trade Center incident?

SJ: Yes, everything seem small.....We felt that our sales were not as important because of the Trade Center attacks.

DE: So did you not get enjoy it?

SJ: There was some joy for us. But on the other hand, there were more important things to think about at the time.

System of a DownDE: When will be a good time to think back about your record sales?

SJ: When we make another record. I mean we don't look back at anything....Why should we feel good about record sales. Who the fuck cares?....On the first record we were selling like 2000 a week and nobody came to us and said, "How do you feel about your record sales?" Why should that make someone feel good? I mean, we create the music and that made us feel good. Why don't you ask us about that?

DE: What reaction to your music makes you feel good?

SJ: It's not reaction. Reactions don't make me feel good. Art makes me feel good. Creation makes me feel good. Peace makes me feel good. Happiness makes me feel good. Interaction makes me feel good.

DE: Interaction with who?

SJ: Anyone, anything....interaction with you.

DE: Tell me about your website Surgicalstrike.com

SJ: It's basically where I advertise my poetry book and sell my poetry book. And I have a little record company with some bands. And that's what that is.

DE: What bands are on your website?

SJ: A band called Bad Acid Trip, Kittens for Christian and a band called Big Elf, and there are some other projects brewing as well.

DE: And how did you find those bands?

SJ: Most them are friends of our from Los Angeles.

DE: So is it a friendship thing? Or do you believe in them as well?

SJ: No, I believe in them obviously for me to put them on.

DE: Tell me about Pool Gardens

SJ: What would you like to know?

DE: It's a poetry book

SJ: Yes

DE: How long is it?

SJ: 96 pages with pictures.

DE: And what are the nature of the pictures?

SJ: They're pictures of my balls...Some of them.

DE: Really? Honestly?

SJ: I don't know. Do you think so? Because perception is a vision, isn't it?

DE: This is true. I guess if I look at the pictures I would be able to see balls in them

SJ: Possibly.

System of a DownDE: What was it like sharing the stage with Slipknot on the Pledge of Allegiance tour?

SJ: It's been great sharing the stage with Slipknot on Pledge of Allegiance and Rammstein, they were really cool, but they had to take off. But they were a fun band to hang out with and what not. So it's been a good tour so far.

DE: There has been no clash? It's two pretty huge metal bands in my opinion, but very different styles.

SJ: My question is this: Why does there have to be questions about clashing? Aren't people like, "Aren't you guys having a great time sharing the stage with another metal band?" We're not playing with Clearwater. We're not playing with bands that are completely different. We are playing with bands that are similar in vein and genre. Although we are quite different as far as artistic interpretation and what not. But it's kind of interesting to be posed the question starting with a type of negative, you know, connotation....I like this interview it's really defensive...That's the point I just made and it shouldn't be. Can you repeat the question please?

DE: How can two metal heavyweights mix so well despite the different styles?

SJ: Because we are metal lightweights. We never claim to be heavyweights.

DE: So the people that come to see the heavyweights can go to the concession stands when you guys play?

SJ: They can get popcorn with butter. That's pretty heavyweight....They can go watch wrestling if they want heavyweights. They can watch boxing. We're just artists and we're doing what we do and we're not heavyweights. We don't even outweigh ourselves....And we don't weigh ourselves...And we don't even know how much we weigh. Total combined weight, I don't even know how much.

DE: What comfort items do you like to bring on tour?

SJ: My bong, and my cds. See that's good question. There you go...When I go on tour I like to bring my bong, my pills and my cds.

DE: What kind of pills do you like to bring?

SJ: My own pills... My viagra.

DE: And what CDs?

SJ: I don't know. I've got about close to 2,000 back there. I can't tell you which ones.

DE: What seems to be in constant rotation?

SJ: The Stooges. Iggy and the Stooges.

DE: Cool, you can bring that with you everywhere...Any material positions that you need?

SJ: Not need. I bring clothes.

DE: What's keeping you warm?

SJ: Currently, this particular sweater

System of a DownDE: Your song "Psycho" pokes fun at a lot of things, i.e. groupies...Have you encountered a lot that inspired you to write a song about that?

SJ: Maybe, yeah....Well, let's just say before we wrote music we never experienced anything like that before, so we just write about our experiences and the fact that we're not a political band, we're not a sexist band we're not an anything band. We just write about what we go through. And you know, we don't have any agenda, we're not against a certain people or a certain government or a certain whatever. We write about things that we talk about amongst each other and we write about that. Yeah, there have been groupies on this bus....and those are the funny ones.

DE: Funny how?

SJ: You know. You've seen people on coke. They're funny. They look funny. Aren't they? They move their mouth and they're just like....You know it's just like sometimes you encounter some girls that, the psycho groupie party like girls that will follow you from like different cities and even if they are pretty, they start getting scary following you in different cities and stuff. And so you encounter stuff like that. And it's part of our live now. And so we write about it. It's not all we're gonna write about.

DE: So are you open to a lot of fan interaction, and going out and meeting people?

SJ: Yeah, I used to be. I'm still one of those people. I'm like a fan. Like, even when I met a band that doesn't sell as many records as we do. So if I'm a fan of a band like that or if I meet someone like that, I'm still nervous to meet them, just like fans of System of a Down are nervous to meet us. So I'll always be fan. That's what keeps me going.

DE: Do you have to be a ho to go to the show?

SJ: Sometimes. It depends on who you are there to see.

DE: To see you guys?

SJ: No, not necessarily, but it might help. You don't have to be a ho to see a show, but maybe to get backstage.

DE: You guys have a strong anti-violence belief. Do you hope that your fans have the same values?

SJ: We hope that the whole world can hold the same values. The values of be good to each other.

DE: How do you encourage your fans to hold these values?

SJ: By pitting and beating each other up in the pit....We're like a walking contradiction. We don't make sense ever, and we're not trying to. But we believe in what we are saying ,and we don't expect you to believe in it. But we believe in it.

DE: So you're not inviting the fans on stage for hugs or anything?

SJ: No. I cuss at the fans. But I also cuss at my best friends. Fuck you. We're like family. We're like brothers.....We've been together for a long time, and share our love a lot of beautiful times. We've completely accepted each other. We're completely different, but we've accepted each other....There are things about him that I can't stand ,and there are things about me that he can't stand. But those things are things that I wouldn't change about him.

System of a DownDE: What do you say when those things come up?

SJ: We just laugh...We make jokes.. So I was like, if you were in war, would you tell your soldiers to cease fire for 15 minutes until you could finish your hamburger? I just found it funny that he doesn't like to hear sounds...And I don't eat hamburgers...I know that you fuckin' don't eat hamburgers.

DE: Tell me about the money that you raised for the Armenians? Are you proud of what you did?

SJ: I don't believe in pride. I believe that pride is an ego-based self-fooling technique. We're very happy that we were able to participate in a very just effort, to bring light and recognition to a forgotten genocide early in the century perpetrated by the Turkish government in 1915 against those of Armenian descent...Well, I feel pride because I like to use that self-fooling technique on myself all the time, so I feel pride, yeah...One thing that needs to be understood is that we don't hate Turkish people. And we just want this to be something that they admit. And something else that is misunderstood. Everything about us is misunderstood. We're not a political band, we don't hate Turkish people, we don't hate everybody. We're actually really easygoing people. Most of the time. Not to you, but to people that ask us questions we like.

DE: Do you feel that your fans are catching on to your causes?

SJ: It just makes people aware. And that's it. The people that we are singing to are going to be the Congressmen and Presidents of the future. If there is a future. And that's how we expect to make a change, and we don't expect things to change overnight. Maybe things will change in 15 years, maybe things won't change at all. But at least there will be more people that know that, that happened to our people and that makes me feel good in the long run, that we made people aware of it. Even if government deny it, citizens know that this happened....Despite emotions, despite profit-leaning interests, there is only one truth to everything in the world, even what's going on today. And you have to look at that truth, accept it and not be able to react to it, but be able to do things that really, really change the process of life even with this very upheaving times.

DE: You're not a political band. But you're political people.

SJ: Well aren't you? We're just concerned...Don't you see what's going on?....We're aware, period, of life. Not just of politics, but of the flowers not growing around our bus right now....Yeah, the environment. It's got a lot more deeper things going on than just politics. It's about the air you breathe and the air that you're going to have to buy...Just like the water you buy...Because it's going to be so polluted, just like the water you buy. Twenty years ago, you probably wouldn't have bought water, you know, and now you buy water for a dollar. All possibilities in the future exist right now. It's a choice that we make as to which we want to come true. The reason for that is because we are nature. We are part of nature we are animals, although we have such big egos as humans that we think that we are better than nature or we're bigger than nature although we're animals. We're thinking animals or whatever you want to call. So we have the possibilities through the technology to make a change to whatever future we think is right, and if most people, well not even most people, if 10% of the people of this world want peace today, I swear to you there would be peace today. Today, I mean right now. It's that simple. It's all a belief, belief techniques.

DE: Clear Channel put the song "Chop Suey" on a list of songs that shouldn't be played on the radio. Why do think that happened?

System of a DownSJ: Because they are offended...But they also put on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by The Beatles, too... I think it's sad that we got to go back to Nazi Germany for our influence on how to take care of this situation...The radio station that put any song off the air, in my opinion, are big fans of Adolf Hitler....They may not know it, but they are big fans of Adolf Hitler...Censorship is Un-American

DE: Was there a lyric in your song that may have caused that decision?

SJ: The word "sky," like "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds", same reason that was on there....You know what they won't even let them play? "What a Wonderful World." "What a Wonderful World," what's wrong with that one?...That's weird..."Give Peace a Chance"...Yeah, "Give Peace a Chance." They took that one off too? Ah who knows. Adolf Hitler is not dead.

DE: How did they come up with this list?

SJ: They probably didn't even pick them themselves. They probably did a search utilizing words, you know a word search, you know, "sky," "plane," "pilot," you know, "tower," and probably took off every song having to do with that. It's probably Big Brother the Computer. Welcome to the 21st Century

DE: Tell me something secret about this band that no else knows

SJ: We don't dislike you, that's the secret....if there was a secret why would we want to tell you all on a TV station anyway? The secret is that we are not a political band, that's the secret that everyone doesn't seem to know and that's not a secret, and I think, if you listen to more of our songs and listen to more of our record, you would know that, too. And I was a good breakdancer in 1985.

DE: What kind of fun has been happening on this tour?

SJ: Yesterday, I hit my guitar on Chavel's head and he had to get five stitches. That was fun...On the side of his head.

DE: Is this a way of demonstrating the love between the band members?

SJ: In a way. I've got my love marks. I've got my love scars.

DE: You guys are from LA. What's it like out there?

SJ: Smoggy. We've always lived in LA, so it's a way of life I don't feel good breathing air that doesn't have smog in it. Yeah, it just doesn't feel right.

DE: How Hollywood do you guys get?

SJ: People that aren't from Hollywood have that Hollywood attitude. People that are from Hollywood can read through that Hollywood attitude, like a book, and we try so hard not to be that way.

DE: What do you do to pass your time out there?

SJ: I go to hockey games. I don't ever go to a club and I try not to see famous people, if there was any such a thing. And I try not to see anybody who does what I do for a living. And I go on shooting sprees.

DE: Tell us about your most recent drive-by.

SJ: I jacked cracked dealer on El Verado Street with a Honda Accord. And then I dumped the Honda Accord in the LA river, which is about this high, and then here I am I playing guitar for System of a Down a year later.

System of a DownDE: What did you do with the crack?

SJ: I sold it to a bunch of people on the corner of Hoover....You're like Hoover, you're creating something pretty quickly, so I'm impressed.

DE: Do you guys get into the nature much?

SJ: We are in nature. The sky is nature...The closest thing to nature is my bag of pot.

DE: Thanks for your time.

Original von Der Phoenix
Das Gedicht hätte man übrigens auch einfach auf der Rückseite vom selbstbetitelten Album "System of a Down" gefunden. Das mit dem eiskalten Händchen.

Wobei, wahrscheinlich zieht sich die Musik ja eh jeder aus dem Netz.