Daron Malakian of System Of A Down has spoken to NME about Scars On Broadway’s new album ‘Addicted To The Violence’. Check out the aggressive new record below, along with our chat with the guitarist-vocalist below.
The album – out today (July 18), coinciding with Malakian’s birthday – is the third Scars album, and the band’s first since 2018. The LP was first previewed in early June with the riffy single ‘Killing Spree’.
According to the musician, the album has been in the works for a long time – dating all the way back to 2005 when he was recording System Of A Down’s ‘Mezmerize’ and ‘Hypnotize’.
However, it still carries an unnervingly evergreen theme: “Even though I might have written some of these awhile ago, they still seem pretty relevant to the world we’re living in now… certain things haven’t changed much.”
Some things have changed though. The once-tumultuous relationship within System Of A Down now seems to be much more stable as they’ve recently wrapped up an extensive tour of South America, marking the first time they’ve played this many back-to-back shows over an extended period of time. “I’m really happy that we’re all putting things in the past and moving forward, enjoying each other’s company,” Malakian told us ahead of their upcoming North American trek in August and September.
Check out our interview with Daron Malakian on the new Scars On Broadway album ‘Addicted To The Violence’ below, in which he tells us about his take on world politics and the Palestine-Israel war, Kneecap and where things stand regarding new System Of A Down material.
NME: Hey Daron! Congratulations on the new Scars On Broadway album – how does it feel to be back with your own project?
Daron Malakian: “It’s nice to finally get this album out. I started recording this around the time of the [COVID-19] pandemic, around 2020. Different things happened, I would listen to the record and wouldn’t be happy with one thing or another, then somewhere around 2022/23 I re-recorded all of that. I just kept second-guessing myself until I got to a place where I was like ‘Alright, let’s go now’.
“Once I was there, other things would come up – System Of A Down would play a festival or a few shows so I had put that on the shelf. Something always came up to push it back. We just did the South America shows, and we had plans before that when I got back home I would put out a single and now we’re finally here.”
Has any of the album been re-shaped after any recent global developments or events?
“I don’t really write songs with what’s necessarily going on at the moment. Some of the stuff I wrote, I wrote a very long time ago. ‘Killing Spree’ could’ve been on the first Scars record because I wrote it while I was writing System’s ‘Mezmerize’ and ‘Hypnotize’.
“The thing is, even though I might have written some of these awhile ago, they still seem pretty relevant to the world we’re living in now. I don’t really focus on politics – some of the songs are me living in the world and how society affects me, or me just watching society and writing about it.
“It’s not even about a viewpoint sometimes. The song ‘Killing Spree’ is not about, ‘Do I agree with it or disagree with it?’ – I’m just sitting there and singing about what it is, what I’m seeing. And these are things I saw a long time ago but certain things haven’t changed much. I’m not going to write about the pandemic, or the ICE riots happening in LA. Sometimes they mean something specific, sometimes they don’t.”
‘Killing Spree’ is a dose of harsh truth – how important was it for you to call out the rise of gun violence and mistreatment of mental illness head on?
“I’m not gonna lie, man. I was high off my ass in my living room writing this song and those lyrics just came out of me. I’m not necessarily thinking about the real world at that moment, maybe subconsciously for the lyrics to come out a certain way, but it’s nothing that I have control over. Once it spills out of me, later on I realise ‘Oh, you’re singing about this’, it’s very out-of-body and I don’t even feel responsible for it sometimes.”
The album features an overarching theme of addressing violence – was that something you wanted to convey when putting the record together?
“I’ve never put an album together with the idea of having all the songs agree on a topic. I think a lot of people want to box up my songs into either political or social viewpoints about society. Sometimes, they’re just me and I’m just a guy living in society. And in my world, there are politics, comedy, sadness, depression, happiness, love, hate.
“When I think of ‘Killing Spree’ now, I can tell you it’s probably about how I feel there’s a generation that might be a little desensitised to violence. People have become assholes really. In the United States, sometimes you have a kid who walks into his school and shoots everybody. Sometimes, you have people fighting or that case recently of someone on fire on a train platform and no one did a thing… people aren’t very sympathetic or empathetic anymore.”
On ‘Your Lives Burn’, you call out politicians and the media for deliberately causing division – where do you stand with everything happening now?
“Right down the middle. I’m a centrist. I’m not a team. I think both sides do ridiculous things. There are some things that I agree with on both sides. ‘Your Lives Burn’ is my commentary on how they divide you and they keep you busy.
“In the US, we have people who believe in gun rights, people who don’t believe in gun rights. People who believe in abortion, people who don’t. People who believe in trans rights, people who don’t. And both sides are causing these issues, and they’re putting them into our society and they have us fight over them. And when I say ‘them’, I mean the government or those in charge, oligarchs, whatever the fuck you wanna call them.
“So while your lives burn in the fire, they’re keeping you distracted so you don’t pay attention to what they’re doing. The truth of the matter is, all these people who are fighting amongst each other should turn around and face the government and start attacking them.”
‘Done Me Wrong’ includes nods to your Armenian heritage – something that’s been a constant throughout your career. Given the parallels between the Armenian genocide and the war in Gaza, do you have any comment on what’s been going on in Palestine?
“I don’t. When it comes to that, I don’t know. I don’t like to see Palestinians die, I don’t like to see Jews die, I don’t like to see Christians die. I don’t like to see anybody die.”
What are your thoughts on the Kneecap situation?
“Artists should be able to express whatever they want to express. I don’t agree with censoring people, whether I agree with or not. I give all the people who disagree with me the right to express their viewpoints. I don’t know Kneecap or what’s going on with that, but I don’t agree that they should be censored or kicked off anything for expressing their opinions.
“But at the same time – and I’m not talking about Kneecap, I’m talking in general – I try not to get too preachy because there are always two sides to certain things. I’m just a guy who lives a very comfortable life. I’m blessed, I play in one of the biggest bands in the world. I have another band that I’m very proud of that people seem to like. I’m not going to sit here and tell people what is right and wrong while I sit on top of my house that is on top of a hill. I’ve done very well for myself, but I sometimes feel like actors and musicians, they’re not the people that I usually turn to when it comes to major topics. I don’t turn to Green Day for politics.”
System Of A Down recently played South America. What was it like being on the road for an extended period of time again? Did that foster any feelings of wanting to record new System music?
“We were playing in front of a South American audience, and South American audiences are probably some of the best – if not the best – audiences to play in front of in the world. The passion that those people have down there for our music and our band blows me away so I had a great time.
“I also had a great time hanging out with my band. I think we all did, it feels like we’ve reconnected as friends. That’s where we started, we were friends and sometimes somewhere down the line, you get fame and money. You get politics in the band and differences of opinion on which way the band should go, where you kind of get divided.
“When we started, we all used to travel in one little RV together. And then we made enough money to where each of us had our own bus. So along the way, what happened was we ended up with our own lives, doing our own things, and we only came together on stage. In a very natural way, you start getting separated from one another – not because of bad blood but because of how things turn out as you get more successful and I can see that’s what happened with us.”
What’s the chemistry like now?
“One thing about System Of A Down: all of our personalities are extremely different from one another. We are all very different people. Even our politics – you can’t base the band’s viewpoints based on what Serj [Tankian] thinks, or what I think, or Shavo [Odadjian] and John [Dolmayan]. I don’t always agree with what Serj thinks, he doesn’t always agree with what John thinks and the same goes for everyone in the band. It’s not a cult, it’s a band, and it’s made up of four different people.
“But for the first time in a long time, it feels like we went on tour and we all had dinner and laughs together. We all got along and rediscovered our friendship on this last tour and we really enjoyed it. I missed my friends. I’m really happy that we’re all putting things in the past and moving forward, enjoying each other’s company.”
“That doesn’t mean that we’re going to make a new album, it just means that we’re friends again. It’s the album shit that drives wedges between us. I’m a little afraid to go there, to be honest with you. I rather just have my friends and celebrate this band that we formed over 30 years ago.
“At the core of everything, we’re just four Armenian guys who formed a band and we have a few albums that for some reason, the world still loves today and people still connect to, enough to show up in soccer stadiums and we’re selling them out. We enjoy what we do, we enjoy each other, we’re proud of each other and I love going out there and celebrating what we’ve accomplished together – new album or not.
“I never say no, but at the same time, that’s not where we’re at right now.”
Daron Malakian and Scars On Broadway’s new album ‘Addicted To The Violence’ is out now.
