System Of A Down‘s Daron Malakian has opened up about testing the waters with a potential replacement for Serj Tankian – see what he had to say below.
In May last year, Tankian revealed in his memoir Down With the System: A Memoir (Of Sorts) that his disdain for touring once led to his decision in 2017 to tell his bandmates in System Of A Down to carry on without him so they could continue living their dream.
At the time, the band pushed back against the idea, but Tankian was informed that the band had begun looking at new singers while attending a charity event some time later. Nothing came of those sessions, and Tankian has remained with System Of A Down since.
Now, guitarist-vocalist Daron Malakian has weighed in on the matter, revealing how far the process got before they decided to drop the search. Speaking to Ultimate Guitar’s podcast On The Record, Malakian shared: “It was something that I never really wanted to do.”
He continued: “For me, System Of A Down is us four. If one of us four isn’t doing System Of A Down, I don’t really wanna do System Of A Down. Did we think about that? Sure. But did we really pursue it deeply? No. We tried. I don’t wanna get into names. We tried, and whoever we tried, he sounded good.”
“People would think, ‘Oh, Daron is the one that would want that.’ I was the one that was most against it. I was, like, ‘I don’t wanna look to my left and see other people.’ System is System, and if that’s not gonna be System, then I don’t know if that’s the System I wanna be a part of.”
Malakian cotinued: “So yeah, I’m not interested or really kind of never was interested. I think Serj might have said something in his book about the guy couldn’t do the growls or something, and that’s why we didn’t [pick him to replace Serj], and that’s not true.”
“[Serj] and I have never had this conversation of why it didn’t happen. But really the reason why it didn’t happen is I kind of was the one that was, like, ‘I don’t think I wanna pursue this. I don’t wanna do this without him.’ Looking on the outside of the band. I’m a fan of that. I’m not trying to change that. Never was.”
This isn’t the first time Daron Malakian has made his affinity for Serj and the rest of his bandmates in System Of A Down apparent. Speaking to NME in July for the launch of his band Scars On Broadway‘s new album, Malakian reflected on the current relationship within SOAD.
He told us: “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.”
As for what it might take to put together a new System Of A Down album, Malakian shared: “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… I never say no, but at the same time, that’s not where we’re at right now.”
In late July, drummer John Dolmayan weighed in on the potential of a new record saying that while it would be a stretch to make it work, the “secret sauce” to making an album would be for Malakian to bring in his ideas last because they’re typically nearly complete and leave little-to-no room for collaboration.
Last September, bassist Shavo Odadjian said that his “door is always open” to making new music with the band and that he had “a hundred riffs waiting”. In an interview in December, however, he told NME that the hopes of anything coming to fruition were still slim.
Tankian has taken a hot-and-cold approach to a new SOAD record as well. Back in October 2024 he said that a new System record would be a “fresh start in a brand new way”, but then later revealed that he had been put off recording after becoming “very passive” while working on ‘Mezmerize’ and ‘Hypnotize’.
