SYSTEM OF A DOWN‘s John Dolmayan, in another discussion about the band’s future, spoke with Australian-Armenian YouTuber Lilian Tahmasian, where he addressed the ongoing question of a sequel to their 2005 albums, Mezmerize and Hypnotize.
“I don’t know if I want [a new SYSTEM album] at this point,” Dolmayan said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “There’s just too much drama involved. And I like going out and having a good time with my friends and playing shows. And I don’t want that to disappear. There would have to be very strict guidelines for me to make another record with SYSTEM again.”
When asked if differing political views within SYSTEM OF A DOWN have hindered the creation of new music, John responded: “Yeah, well, we had problems with that, because Serj is very outspoken. And he has one way of thinking. Some things we agree with — the rest of the band — some things we don’t. Some things we’re exactly on par with. My belief system is a little different.
“With Serj, it was, like, well, we don’t want that to be the only thing, because we don’t feel like that’s the only element of SYSTEM OF A DOWN. It’s a big part of the band. Justice is a big part of that. Justice has no politics. It’s either just or unjust. It has no political affiliation. It either is or it isn’t. There’s a lot of things that come into play — morality. So we just didn’t want it to be the only focal point. And Serj spent a lot of time talking about political stuff on stage. Now, I personally love it. The more crazy he got and into it, I believe anything that’s passionately displayed is worth listening to — even if I completely disagree with it. If you’re really passionate about it, I wanna know what you think. So I like that part of it. But the rest of the band, and me too, felt like it was just too much of our focus.”
“Lyrically, we don’t just sing about politics — we sing about love, death, hate, stupid things, inane things, artistic things, insane things. It’s all these things that make SYSTEM OF A DOWN so unique,” he continued. “So we didn’t want the focal point to be politics. But that’s kind of what Serj wanted to talk about at the time. So we’re in a weird situation where I don’t wanna limit what he has to say, but I don’t wanna limit what people think of me either. And also, you have to understand that when we first came out, nobody knew who Armenians were. We’re an ex-Soviet Union, communist country, who is in a bitter hundred-plus year battle with an enemy that is one of the biggest allies of the United States. We have missile bases there. Let’s see. It’s a very conservative mindset — in the early 2000s, especially. And the pendulum swung all the way to the ridiculous. But these were not popular opinions.
“The Zack De la Rochas, the Serj Tankians, these were not the popular opinions. It became the popular opinions, but they were not at the time. And I guess I agreed more with it back then than I did at a later time because I felt like once it becomes the status quo in the popular opinion, then you’ve gotta really shift your way of thinking. And if you don’t, then you’re governed by a way of thinking that you had at a more adolescent time in your attaining wisdom and everything else. And I believe you should always be open to changing your opinions on things.”
Dolmayan, who has previously supported Donald Trump, confirmed that he voted for him again in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. He said: “I’m glad he won, because it brings a little sanity back. Irrespective of what you hear out there, it’s much more sane with him than it was without him.
“We need law and order,” John further added. “Just like you lock your door at night, you don’t want somebody coming to your house when you have secure borders. We need people coming to this country. We all came to this country. And we need more people coming in. And the United States should always be a bastion for people that need it. Maybe they get oppression one way or the other in their countries and they need to leave. Or maybe they just want a fresh start. Or maybe they wanna be part of something that’s unique and interesting like the United States. And they should be allowed to do that, but do it a certain way — pay taxes, whatever you need to do, and live your life.”
Source: metaladdicts.com
