Daron Malakian, the guitarist of rock band System of A Down, has explained the delay of the band’s new album. In a recent interview with Kerrang! magazine provided by Blabber Mouth, he states “There’s just a certain way that System make albums, and there’s a bunch of us that want to make an album that way and there is, I guess, one of us” — apparently referring to singer Serj Tankian — “that doesn’t want to make an album that way and wants to make an album his way,” Daron said. “And not everyone is on board with that. That’s been the issue. I have material for a new 4 album. Right now, if everyone got together and was ready to play ball, I have an album ready. If it was up to me, System would have never gone on hiatus.”

Malakian was then asked about his creative differences with Tankian. Malakian states “It may never be resolved; or it may be, but so far it hasn’t been. There was a time, I think, when I would have taken this a little bit more personally, but not anymore. I realize that it’s not me. We’ve had so many meetings about it.”

He continued to say “I don’t want to throw Serj under the bus — he’s my friend and he’s someone that I care about — but I don’t know how to change his mind. We’ve all sat down and we’ve had meetings, and he’s totally set in his way of thinking.”

Tankian sat down with Rolling Stone last December saying that the band were having creative differences when playing each other songs for the new record. Tankian stated “We have [attempted to make an album]. We’ve discussed it and we’ve played each other songs, but we still haven’t come eye to eye on how things should be done for us to be able to move forward with it. And that’s where it’s been.” He then sent out a newsletter to fans, saying that a new album is on the rocks. In the newsletter, he said “I have 5 rock songs that I wanted I do with SOAD but it doesn’t look like that’s gonna work out, so I am finishing those up to release them as a solo EP or possibly as a soundtrack for my film cause they are interrelated.”

Tankian also cleared up his statement about being more interested in writing instrumentals than vocals from Expert magazine. He states “I’m happy to sit down and have a few chats about a film score that I’m doing, because that’s easy, but dedicating two years to one project like that is difficult. That’s why I’m afraid of putting out my own record – not afraid, but don’t want to make that time dedication right now. So I might just put it out as an EP on iTunes and Spotify and do a few interviews and just let it be.”

While it has been almost 13 years since the band released their last studio album, they all still get along better than ever. “That’s the funny thing. When people don’t see a record, they assume the worst about your internal relationship. But the truth is we’re actually better friends — at least I’m better friends with everyone than I’ve ever been,” said Tankian. They recently announced their first U.S. tour in three years. See the list of dates below.

Malakian recently released the title track to his new album with his other band Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway, titled Dictator. The album is due July 20th.

System of a Down Summer 2018 Tour Dates
Oct 13 – San Bernardino, CA – Glen Helen Amphitheater
Oct 14 – Sacramento, CA – Aftershock Festival
Oct 16 – Phoenix, AZ – Talking Stick Resort Arena
Oct 17 – San Diego, CA – Valley View Casino Center
Oct 19 – Las Vegas, NV – T-Mobile Arena

Photo Credit: Mauricio Alvarado