System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan has always been a staunch advocate for his bandmates to “put the bullshit aside”, and start chipping away at new music.
The band have not released a new studio album since 2005’s Mezmerize and Hypnotize. Records that Dolmayan has acknowledged, will most likely not receive a follow-up on account of inner-turmoil within the group.
In a new interview with Download TV, Dolymayan has expressed how “simple” it would be for the nü-metal heroes to string together a new record. “It would be so simple for us to go and make an album. We have the music. We just can’t get out of our own way on that one,” he revealed.
“I truly believe that if we went into the studio even to record one song, it wouldn’t end with one song, and it would break the ice.”
Dolmayan continued to delve into the tension within the band that is proving to be a roadblock to creating new music.
“But there’s egos involved and, quite frankly, wisdom isn’t always something you achieve in older age – sometimes you achieve stubbornness, and we just can’t get out of our own way on that one.
“But I would like to say that it is a band issue. I know that certain members of my band have been blamed in the past, but at the end of the day, it takes four people to make the music we make and it takes four people not to make it.”
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He continued, “So I want the fans to know that as much as I personally want it to happen, or have wanted it to happen in the past, there are things that that are not in anybody’s control, and no one member of System of a Down is greater than the other, especially in regards to making an album.
“So unless the four of us get on the same page at the exact same time and the stars align, I think it’s very unlikely that we’ll make new music, which is a sadness, because I think we have a lot to offer still.”
The band’s inability to get along could be boiled down to their vastly different political ideologies. These past few weeks have witnessed Dolmayan and frontman Serj Tankien espouse views from the opposite end of the political spectrum. Whilst Tankien has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, and a vocal supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. Dolmayan has instead opted to praise Trump and criticise the movement to defund the police.
Check out ‘Chop Suey!’ by System Of A Down:
