System Of A Down bassist Shavo Odadjian has spoken out about how the current pandemic has effected small businesses: “I feel like it’s a corporate takedown.”
The ongoing pandemic has had such an impact on many businesses around the world, but in a recent interview with Rock Sound, System Of A Down bassist Shavo Odadjian has noted that he really feels for “small businesses” throughout this entire ordeal.
“Before they locked us up, I was saying, ‘Hell no are they gonna lock us up. How can they do that? How can they cut out small businesses?’,” the System Of A Down bassist queried.
“That’s who I really feel for. Fuck me getting locked up. It’s okay — I have a family, I have children, I get to do work over Zoom, I get to talk to [people like] you — that’s okay with me. But I really feel for the small businesses — I feel for them — especially in America.”
As lockdown has continued in waves, with second lockdowns happening worldwide, Odadjian noted that the second round “closed up the little places,” in what he believes is “a corporate takedown.”
“The billion-dollar companies are making billions of dollars during the pandemic, and then the little companies are falling apart. It’s just what’s happening, ’cause they’re shutting them down. And the big companies are taking over — the Walmarts, the Amazons are taking over, because that’s the only way you can get something. The Targets — they’ve become essentials, and everybody else hasn’t. It’s crazy.
“I did not believe that this could happen and the world could go on this way, but it is. But I really feel bad for the owners of the small businesses who worked their asses off, families, for years to build something out of passion and hard work, and then they have to just shut down, because the government just tells them, ‘You’ve gotta shut down.'”
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Although some may criticise, Odadjian states that he knows it’s for safety, shouting “I’m all about it, of course. If it’s gonna help, I’m gonna do it. It’s not that. I’m not one of those people, ‘No way. I don’t think it works.’ I’m not a doctor. I’m not the one that says that. If it works, I’m doing it. If it works for the rest of the world, I’m gonna do it. But to shut down these businesses? Just like that, without hesitation, saying, ‘This is the best thing for you guys’?”
Continuing on, he notes that “every state is different” and that’s why he reckons the pandemic is so bad in America with “every state” having another rule.
“I don’t feel like we have much unity. I think [it’s] because every state is separate. It’s to each his own. And one guy thinks we should shut everything down; the other guy thinks we should shut nothing down. One guy we should wear masks; the other guy says, ‘No masks. We don’t care. Masks don’t work.’ So it’s up in the air. It’s like a juggling… How you align things when everything is in the air?”
Check out System Of A Down bassist Shavo Odadjian talking with Rock Sound:
