Le nouvel album de System Of A Down est revenu au centre de l’actualité musical cette semaine, alors que le bassiste du groupe Shavo Odadjian a mentionné que ce n’était “qu’une question de temps” avant que SOAD sorte un nouveau disque.
Juste pour clarifier, ces propos de Shavo étaient tirés d’une nouvelle entrevue qu’il a faite cette semaine. C’est donc très récent.
À son tour, le chanteur Serj Tankian a parlé d’un nouveau disque de System Of A Down dans une nouvelle entrevue avec le magazine Rolling Stone.
Il a par contre été beaucoup plus conservateur que Shavo, affirmant qu’il avait des chansons pour SOAD, mais que le groupe n’avait pas parlé de plans futurs puisque cela amène beaucoup de tension.
Il mentionne qu’il aime toujours énormément les membres de System et qu’ils sont amis depuis 25 ou 30 ans, mais que la différence entre l’aspect business et amitié est difficile à départager dans un groupe.
Si nouvel album il y a, le chanteur mentionne qu’il voudrait faire quelque chose de “plus grand” qu’un disque normal avec quelque chose de plus autour de l’album.
Tankian confirme aussi qu’il a travaillé sur des chansons rock en plus de faire de la musique pour des films.
Voici les questions de l’entrevue de Rolling Stone où il parle de SOAD :
You’re also touring with System of a Down next year. You and Daron Malakian had a bit of a back-and-forth in the press this year about why the band hasn’t made a new record. What happened after that?
We got together to rehearse, said hi and had a conversation and just carried things forward as we’ve always done. We’ve been friends and together for 25 to 30 years. That’s a long time. The difference between business and bands are people know when they’re working within a business, but when they’re in a band, it’s confusing because you’re also very close friends. There are times when you have to say, “OK, this is not working on the business end but I love you.” With bands, you rarely see that happening.
The reason I posted what I did is because I didn’t want any negative security threats against any of us, in terms of, “Fuck you. You’re the reason that no System record’s being made.” For me, it was just saying, “Look. I’ve tried. We’ve tried. We just haven’t been able to see eye to eye. It’s not because we’re lazy. We’re still friends. We still tour.” This is the truth.
Did the back-and-forth open up any more conversations about the band’s future?
No, it didn’t really. I think it released a lot of tension and negativity. Everything became more public and open, and that was that. There were no further discussions.
One thing I was curious about specifically is that you said you wanted to make a “full experience” or concept record. What do you mean by that?
I just feel like music has been commoditized. If I were to do an orchestral show, I’d also want to do an art show. So it’s using multiple senses, doing experiential events. Music is music: You’re ultimately going to release it and people are going to listen to it, but I thought it would be great if we created some type of event or set of events that stem out thematically from the music that can encapsulate whatever new record or sound we’re propagating. In other news, we’d not just release a record, but do something more grand around it.
Another thing Daron said was that you were never really a “heavy metal” or “rock” guy. What does that mean to you?
I think what he meant was the heavier elements of the band come from him and Shavo, which is true. Growing up, I did listen to heavy music, but my background was all sorts of world music, if you will. I grew up listening to a lot of Armenian, Arabic and European music — all types of music. In the Seventies, I listened to disco and funk.
My brother introduced me to a lot of heavy metal. The first time I heard Slayer, my brother played it in the house and I became a fan. I was more of a binge-and-purge music listener. I would listen to death metal for three months — the best of any death metal I could find — and then the next three months I’d listen to hip-hop. Then punk for three months. I didn’t have the same heavy rock roots as Shavo and Daron.
Incidentally, have you been working on any new rock music?
I have. I recently finished mixing a lot of the songs I was hoping we could do with System. I want them to be part of my music film, so I’m waiting for that. I have finished five rock songs. I just did a rock remix yesterday, actually, of one of the revolutionary songs for the Armenian film. It’s a rock song in Armenian, and I did a heavier mix.
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Bref, bien qu’il semble y avoir une petite ouverture, l’histoire semble se répéter entre Daron et Serj. C’est le bassiste Shavo qui a semblé s’exciter un peu trop pour un nouveau disque de System Of A Down. Dommage pour les fans.
Pendant ce temps, voici toutes les photos de la dernière performance de SOAD au Québec.