System of A Down Interview

While SOAD are currently in the process of working on their next album the band manage to buck the inevitable with the release of a 16-track compilation album of unreleased music called “Steal This Album”.

Within the past year System of A Down have become metal superstars. Their sophomore album, “Toxicity” has now sold in excess of 4-million copies worldwide and they have inspired hundreds of bands with their original “schizophrenic” sound. The Los Angeles based rockers have gone from underground heroes to major players in the music industry by reshaping and reforming heavy metal as we know. By adding elements and textures ranging from heavy political topics, (such as the prison system and government in general), to spiritual sentiments to silly outrageous subjects like psycho groupies SOAD have become Icon’s of our times. The schizophrenic nature of the band, going from hot to cold to hot again is what gives their music a twisted beauty and makes it so attractive. “We’re just System Of A Down, man.” says Bassist Daron Malakian in a modest tone, “We just do what we do and that’s that. The main thing that we do is we don’t really watch what everybody else is doing and we try to constantly influence ourselves and stay dedicated to what we do.”

While SOAD are currently in the process of working on their next album, (due out in a year or two according to Malakian) they will be releasing a 16-track compilation album of unreleased music called “Steal This Album”. System Of A Down, which is guitarist/vocals Daron Malakian, Lead vocals Serj Tankian, bassist Shavo Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayan recorded over 30 tracks during the “Toxicity” sessions and left behind plenty of great tracks many of which will be featured on the album. Although they had always planned to release the unused tunes it was Internet pirating that sped the process.

So how did the tracks leak onto the Internet in the first place? “Well, if I knew that someone would have had their ass kicked a long time ago,” says Malakian with a sinister giggle. “Oh man, I have no idea how, you never know. It could have been some intern, some engineer or something, you never know who does it. Basically, someone was there when we were tracking the songs, like just us four in a room together and they must have taken that and put it on the Internet. I mean, all the vocals are rough, none of my vocals are in their cus’ I hadn’t put them in yet. There’s only one guitar track and it just doesn’t sound the way it should sound. The point is that I heard what the kids were hearing and it was such a bad version of the songs. When I heard that I just thought it sucks and people were already hearing the songs so we couldn’t release them later on cus’ they wouldn’t be new later on, so we might as well put them out right now the way we want them to be heard.” By deciding to take matters into their own hands, mix the tunes properly and release them officially through their label, they managed to beat the music pirates at their own game and ultimately beat the bootleg ‘system.’ “Everyone of these songs were good enough to make it on another System album, so we just put them all together and made another System album out of them.”

Rick Rubin and System’s guitarist Daron Malakian produced the album appropriately titled “Steal This Album,” and mixed in Los Angeles by Andy Wallace (who mixed the Toxicity album). The album will includes such tracks as “Innervision,” ” Fuck The System,” “Pictures, ” “Boom,” “A.D.D.” and an acoustic song called “Roulette,” which Malakian began writing seven or eight years ago which features only Tankian (vocals) and Malakian (vocals, guitar). In addition, various “interludes,” intros that have been used on the band’s tours and other musical tidbits will be woven throughout the CD. “I guarantee that (our fans) will not be disappointed with this album,” gushes Malakian, “I am so damn proud of it. You know, at first I was a bit weary about putting it out because I hate the whole title of ‘B-Sides’ or ‘didn’t make the cut’ because that’s not how I looked at it. But, now that I finished the sequence and everything’s done with the record I think that its something that is just as good if not better than anything else we put out. It’s definitely something to look forward to.”

The case itself looks like a bootleg. “The Steal This Album” packaging will resemble a homemade CD as it will be housed in a clear jewel case with no cover art, no booklet, and no standard J-card. The title will be scrawled across the face of the CD. Inserting the CD into a computer and logging onto a special Internet site can access all complete credits and other information. “Its pretty much the way you’d get it as if some bootlegger sold it to you,” says Malakian, “only the guy would have charged you about $20.00 for it, if not more. This is a better sounding version of it that’s coming from us and you can count on the quality.”

“Steal This Album,” due on Nov. 26 through American/Columbia Records, will definitely satisfy SOAD fans and ease the anticipation for the next album. “The music will be all over the place just like “Toxicity.” We will go from something that will make you laugh to something that will make you think to something that will make you cry. It’s very schizophrenic..”