In a new interview with Lilian Tahmasian, an Australian YouTuber with an Armenian background, SYSTEM OF A DOWN drummer John Dolmayan once again spoke about the possibility of the band one day making a follow-up to its “Mezmerize” and “Hypnotize” LPs, which came out in 2005. The Serj Tankian-fronted outfit, which is made up of four Los Angelenos of Armenian descent, has toured intermittently since ending its hiatus in 2011 but has yet to record any new music. John said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I don’t know if I want [a new SYSTEM album] at this point. 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,” he added.
Asked if the fact that various members of SYSTEM OF A DOWN have different political views and opinions has been an issue in the past when it came to coming together and making new music, John said: “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.”
He continued: “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. 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.”
Elaborating on his personal political views, Dolmayan said: “First of all, being liberal, most of the time, is for the idealistic thinkers. We all believe in liberal concepts. I believe in a lot of liberal concepts. I believe in social concepts as well. I don’t want people to starve to death, I want people to have homes. But I also believe in self-sacrifice, and hard work will get you to where you wanna be. And I don’t wanna subsidize somebody that is lazy or doesn’t wanna pursue something because I worked very hard to get to where I am. Whether I had been successful or not, I was going to work extremely hard on whatever I did. So, there’s a balance there.
“We live in societies. What’s the benefit of that? It’s that we can help people through a collective effort,” he continued. “So it doesn’t cost you much, you much, you much — we’ve all gotta help. So that you can assist someone that otherwise maybe they’ve had horrible things happen to them and you can give them that helping hand. If someone’s drowning, you don’t say, ‘Well, you should have learned how to swim better.’ You give them a hand to get them out of the water so they don’t drown. So, as a society, I believe that’s what we should do. Now, what happened is it went off a little off kilter. It went off the deep end.
“I don’t believe in the ‘woke’ culture at all,” John added. “It’s no secret what my belief system is. And I also don’t think having lifelong career politicians is good for society.
“Here in the United States, it’s a constitutional republic. And we have people that are in Congress and the Senate, and the objective in the beginning of that was you would have a farmer, and a couple of months a year they would go and they would figure out what the government is gonna do and then they would go back to farming. And some of ’em were engineers and some of ’em were lawyers and some of ’em were doctors and business owners and it was a big mix — engineers, all these different people who had different life experiences. And they would go and they would dictate what the government did. Now we have people who go to law school and then they become an aide, and they’d say, ‘Well, should I go this, that? I’ll go this way and I’ll go this way.’ And then they spend the next 40 years of their lives toeing the company line. And then both of them take money from special interest groups. So it’s like a diamond. It goes from the indoctrination that they get in college or university — depending on where they went, it’s different indoctrination — and then they pick a side, Democrat or Republican, and then they all take money from the same pool.”
Dolmayan, who has publicly voiced his support for U.S. president Donald Trump on a number of occasions, confirmed that he once again voted for the billionaire real estate mogul 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 explained. “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.”
Regarding when and if student should be taught a range of sex education topics in schools, John said: “I don’t care if you’re transgender, gay, whatever you are, live your life, I support you in that, but keep it away from kids. Keep sex away from kids, in general. I’ve got a 9-year-old. I don’t want them learning about this shit. I want them concentrating on having a good time, building friendships that might last their whole lives and learning about things that matter. I want them to learn about poets and artists. I want them to learn history so that they know what not to repeat. And geography. Most people in the United States — I bet you — cannot name the continents. The continents. Think about that. A lot of people don’t know the Pacific and Atlantic. Where are they? The simple things that we take for granted, that we were taught this shit. And we learned it. What are they learning now? I don’t want sex in my classrooms until they’re old enough to have sex. Which is much later, hopefully, for my daughters.”
Circling back to the fact that Tankian — who also happens to be Dolmayan‘s brother-in-law — holds much different political views, John said: “With Serj, he’s very liberal. But he’s got some conservative ideas too. And I think now that he’s running a business, he’s understanding how difficult that is and how regulation hurts these small businesses.
“Look, the corporations don’t give a shit,” he continued. “They’re subsidized by the government half the time, and the other half the time they’re taking money from stockholders. They’re not earning it. So for them to pay 50 dollars, 75 dollars, all these benefits, it’s easy. They don’t give a shit. They’re just pushing it down the line. They’re not gonna pay for it. It’s the next CEO that’ll cover it. But if you’re a mom-and-pop small business owner, you open up a store, you save up money, you work somewhere else, you save up money. All your earnings go. Now you open up a business. Now you’ve gotta get this license, this license. And God forbid you don’t pay a fee?
“California does not like small businesses. They wanna crush small businesses. They want you to rely heavily on corporations and the government. But I have news for you. Corporations will only stay here until it’s not profitable. Once it’s no longer profitable, they will leave. No matter what they tell you, they’re about the dollar at the end of the day.
“Small businesses, they’re what build a country, because they employ far more people than corporations will. And I think we have too many government jobs. There’s too much regulation in general. Too many taxes.
“As far as politically — right, left, makes no difference to me,” John added. “It’s who’s doing wrong at this time. So, if the conservatives go way off on the right and become too religious or whatever the case may be, where they’re infringing on people, then I’m gonna be with the Democrats at that point, because I’m not a politician and I don’t give a shit about the political parties. I’m a realist. And whatever’s good for people, that’s what I’m gonna fight for. So I’ll always be the enemy. I can never win.”
“Serj was very against Donald Trump in 2016, 2020, and I was like, okay, well, a lot of people listen to SYSTEM OF A DOWN and they’re only getting one perspective and it’s a perspective I don’t agree with. If there’s a kid in school and that kid is surrounded… I remember what it was like being a kid in school. You don’t wanna stand out. You don’t wanna be the focal point. You just wanna fit in and enjoy your life. And I remember what it felt like to stand out, ’cause I’ve always been a big mouth, right? And I just imagined some kid in a school who doesn’t believe what everybody else is saying and refuses to go along with it. Those kids commit suicide, they have difficult times in their lives, and I want them to know that somebody famous doesn’t think the way everybody else thinks, and it’s okay for them not to think the way everybody else thinks, too. And if that costs me a couple of hundred thousand followers, I don’t give a fuck. If it costs me all my followers, I don’t give a fuck. Because if one kid feels better about it, it’s worth it. What the hell are those followers doing for me anyway? I don’t monetize my platforms. It means nothing to me to have the followers. What it means something to me is help whoever I can help.”
Less than two years ago, Dolmayan claimed that he lost “friends” and “hundreds of thousands of fans” due to his opinions.
Dolmayan previously discussed his political views during an appearance on an episode of “The Right View With Lara Trump”, the podcast hosted by U.S. president Donald Trump‘s daughter-in-law Lara Trump.
Dolmayan, who has been outspoken about his support of Trump and dislike of liberals, admitted that his political views have been met with some resistance from some of the SYSTEM OF A DOWN fans.
“I find it really difficult to keep my mouth shut when I see injustice,” he said. “And I find what’s happening to conservatives to be completely opposite with justice, completely opposite with understanding and compassion, where we are being victimized by people that should be there to protect you: news agencies, every social media platform having one thought process; Google having one thought process.
“The question I like to raise to people is at the end of the day, if the richest and biggest corporations think one way, shouldn’t you at least research the other way of thinking? Because there are gonna be things that are in their own self-interest. Just because they have an interesting name or an aim you think you can get behind and a slogan doesn’t mean that it’s a good thing. Look into who the people are that they build these organizations off of and try to look into it a little bit deeper so you gain a little bit of perspective and be open to other people’s opinions.
“Look, I’ve done myself no service,” Dolmayan admitted. “I took a lot of flak, I lost a lot of followers, I lost financial opportunities, and primarily because I supported Donald Trump as president. ‘Cause he was my president — I voted for him [three times], and I’m not ashamed to say it… And the reason why is because I think he’s doing things for the right reasons.”
After Dolmayan noted that “there are very different opinions” within SYSTEM OF A DOWN, particularly when it comes to him and Tankian, Lara Trump asked him what the initial reaction was from his bandmates when he voiced his support for Donald Trump.
“I did get advice from a few of my bandmembers and my manager and my wife especially that was, like, ‘Look, maybe it’s not the best idea to put all these views out there,'” Dolmayan said. “And my answer to them was, I supported my singer in everything he’s ever said, although I didn’t always agree with everything he’s ever said, and I just want the same respect back now. I’m not saying that he shouldn’t have a right to his opinions. What I’m saying is there are kids in schools, and they are young; they are impressionable. And there are kids that think the way I think, and they are alone for the most part because the opinion is swayed the other way. Teachers are swayed the other way — your educators, the people around you. You’re indoctrinated from a very young age in this country at this point right now — what we’re dealing with right now, today. And who’s speaking for those kids who are sitting there feeling like they’re wrong but they can’t help the way they think? Who are they looking at and saying, ‘That person agrees with me at least.’ I may not reach all of ’em, but if I reach a few of ’em, then that’s enough for me. And if that means I have to make a little bit less money, then so be it. My family isn’t starving; we’re doing just fine. If that means I’m gonna have less opportunities, so be it.
“It’s hard to take a stand,” John continued. “Most people are just trying to earn a living, take care of their families, give their kids a little bit of a better life than they had, and that’s their focus — trying to stay on top of credit card bills and their mortgage and rent, or whatever it is.
“All I can say is that if enough people are quiet, really bad things tend to happen, if you look back at history,” he added. “But if enough people are vocal, temporarily it could get bad, but eventually it’s always better.”
Dolmayan has repeatedly defended America’s 45th and 47th president, saying that Trump opponents “perpetuated and instigated a total shutdown of the economy” in the hopes that it would crash and that he would be blamed. Dolmayan also praised Trump and accused Democrats of “demonizing” the president and “blaming him for everything under the sun.” In addition, John called Democrats “the true bigots” who “fought to maintain slavery” and were “directly responsible for 70 plus million abortions, a large majority of whom were black.” Dolmayan also supported Trump‘s claim that his administration had done more for the African-American community “than any president since Abraham Lincoln.”
In an October 2020 interview with Forbes, Serj admitted that he found it “frustrating” to see John so publicly supporting Donald Trump.
“He’s Armenian. He’s my brother-in-law and my drummer. Is it frustrating being politically opposite to your own drummer and brother-in-law? Fuck yeah,” he said. “Of course it’s frustrating. But that’s having to do with American politics. When it comes to Armenian issues, we’re on the same exact page.”
Four months earlier, Serj reassured fans that, despite their differing beliefs when it comes to Trump, he both loves and respects John “irrespective of our extremely polarized political commentary.
“Remember irrespective of the stance, only artists that truly care and are impassioned will risk alienating their base for what they consider the truth,” he added. “Our dilemma and possible fallacy is that we have two in one band. Some may consider that a weakness but the artistic, political and social dichotomy if not quadrichotomy has made SYSTEM OF A DOWN what it is today.”
That same month, John stated about the discussions he has had with the other members of SYSTEM OF A DOWN: “You’d be surprised at how civil our conversations are, especially between me and Serj, who seem to have the most diverging opinions on things.
“I have a lot of respect for Serj and his opinions, although I don’t agree with them very often these days. And that’s okay. We expand each other’s horizons. I like to think that he learns from me and I learn from him.”
During Trump‘s final year in office, Tankian called for the then-president to resign and described him as “completely useless” over his handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
Source: blabbermouth.net
