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The war and the Armenian genocide (in which the Ottoman Turks killed as many as 1.5 million Armenians between 1895 and 1915) as well as homelessness and the other passions of singer Serj Tankian's Axis of Justice political-action network (which he formed with Audioslave's Tom Morello), have been the focus of several emotional, sometimes tearful System interviews with MTV News over the past few years. This is the first time since the "Aerials" video shoot that they've sat down to discuss solely music, and while there's a definite excitement in the air as they play back a few tracks, the traumatic experiences are not exactly history.
"I feel like this record is really balanced in a lot of ways with thoughts, with ideas, with music, and in terms of social or political [topics] or anything like that," reflects Tankian, still in the pinstripe sport coat he donned for a photo shoot earlier. "I think one thing we were realizing doing a bunch of interviews together is that we have a very personal approach to politics, or political approach to personal things, whichever one you want to say. And there is something that we do with that that somehow it grabs people. I think it has to do with that we take things on a very personal level. [For example,] like 'Hypnotize,' one of the verses will talk about, let's say Tiananmen Square [where Chinese students held pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989], and then you get into 'I'm just sitting in my car.' It's very personal."
"Hypnotize," like some of System's most memorable songs, finds Serj and Daron singing the same simple line ("I'm just sitting in my car/ Waiting for my girl") over and over, but the music and the way it's sung keep it from sounding repetitive. The song's two verses, although only four lines each, inspired the titles of the double album (Mezmerize is due May 17th, followed six months later by Hypnotize, because "people don't have the attention span to listen to two albums at one time," Malakian says, "and the songs need space for digesting").
"They disguise it, hypnotize it/ Television made you buy it," Malakian sings in the opening verse. "Mesmerize the simple-minded/ Propaganda leaves us blinded," he sings later.
"It's a reflection of what I see in a crazy snowballing world of people walking around like zombies," Malakian explains. "We are condemned for things, and then we're sold the same things that we're condemned for. Like, they say, 'Child molestation is bad,' but Calvin Klein goes and signs a 13-year-old model and spreads her legs [in an advertisement]."
Of course, the title "Hypnotize" and the track itself — and in fact all of System's music — is open to and meant for interpretation. Malakian and Tankian are adamant that no System song is about one thing.
Take, for instance, "Cigaro," an untamed tiger of a track that was leaked on the Internet last month and became an instant hit on KROQ-FM in Los Angeles. The song begins and ends with the line "My c--- is much bigger than yours" and has Tankian blurting out the chorus "Cool, in denial/ We're the cruel regulators smoking cigaro."
"We've talked about it being a political song, we've talked about it being a song about ego, we just recently spoke about it as [being about] not having balls enough to have a sex change," Malakian says. "It's all over the board. And System of a Down will always be all over the board in my opinion. ... When you're shooting out art and you aren't blocking yourself and you aren't censoring yourself, you're going to shoot out a lot of different sides of yourself that you usually block. I believe in just doing natural mutations of something, like giving birth to something, not thinking about it before or after, just doing it."
System apply the same approach to their music, only amended to suit their perfectionism.
"The motto of this band from day one is that no idea is a bad idea until it doesn't work," Malakian says as Tankian, bassist Shavo Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayan nod in accord. "Some things end up working our way and some things don't, but if you don't try it, then you never know. Just keep the flow going. Let's try to come across new things. Let's try to impress ourselves before we can impress anyone else."
As System of a Down have matured as musicians, one of music's most experimental bands has only gotten more willing to try new things, especially Malakian. One night while working on the new album and struggling to get the exact guitar sound swimming in his head, he brought in every guitar in producer (or "song doctor," as the band calls him) Rick Rubin's home studio and mounted them on the wall. Daron pointed his amplifiers at the guitars and started playing, with the vibrations off the guitar strings creating a one-of-a-kind sound.
Oftentimes during the writing and recording sessions, Malakian would call one of his bandmates, play him a song from another band over the phone and say, "That's how I want [insert instrument] to sound on [insert song]." But don't think that sort of behavior makes it OK to call System a technical band.
"We're very misunderstood about being technical, and we're not," Malakian explains. "We're trying to get the right vibe from that snare. We aren't trying to say, 'Add this frequency to that frequency.' It's not a math project, it's more the feeling that you get when you hear the snare or any other instrument that we've thrown onto the record. It's just walking in and knowing what you want."
It's clear after talking about Mezmerize/Hypnotize for a while that it's Malakian's baby. The guitarist produced the album with Rubin and sings lead vocals on several tracks. While this might cause friction with a less secure band, it's a non-issue for System.
"If the song doesn't call for my voice then I'll shut up," Malakian says. "If it calls for my voice, then I'll sing it. Me and Serj both believe that it's always what's best for the song as vocalists, and that's the mentality as a whole band. John doesn't try to overplay something, even though he can. He really plays solid for the song. We all play it for the song."
"And we're getting better at articulating what the other person is gonna do," Dolmayan adds. "All the years of touring have definitely helped with that. We are more in contact with each other's souls when it comes to playing."
Malakian, ever the sports fan, likens the band to a basketball team.
"You might have four or five or six star players on your team, but if they don't pass the ball to each other, then they aren't going to win," he says. "I've seen great teams who have big rosters, payrolls and stuff, but they can't get along with each other, they have egos, attitudes, whatever, and no one passes and they don't win. You know what team wins? That team of rookies that are hungry."
Guess that means the celebrity team loses.
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