Serj Tankian posts statement on why System Of A Down hasn't released new music
System Of A Down‘s frontman Serj Tankian has released a tell-all statement discussing the reason behind the band’s delay in releasing new music.
Read more: System Of A Down still deadlocked on making new album
Following guitarist Daron Malakian’s recent interview with Kerrang!, where he shared that the band still aren’t seeing eye-to-eye on new music, Tankian published a tell-all statement to his Facebook page, sharing his side of the band’s deadlock.
Tankian’s statement, which he titled “Confessions About SOAD By Serj Tankian,” discusses his personal reasons why the band hasn’t released a new album since the release of their Mezmerize and Hypnotize albums, saying:
“It is true that I and only I was responsible for the hiatus SOAD took in 2006,” Tankian shared. “Everyone else wanted to continue at the same pace to tour and make records. I didn’t.”
He goes on to share that artistic and egalitarian differences during that time period stalled the band on moving forward with recording new music. Additionally, Tankian also cited that after the release of those albums, he wanted to leave the band, saying:
“I wanted to leave the band before Mezmerize/Hypnotize for these developing reasons,” Tankian wrote.”This is why I personally don’t feel as close to the music on those records. There were songs I wanted to bring in but was hampered by unkept promises coupled by my own passivity at the time.”
After taking a break to focus on his solo career, the frontman noted that he felt that he was ready to revisit System Of A Down to tour, and eventually, release new music.
As the vocalist notes, he did, at times, feel like there was “emotionally tinged outbursts by one band member or another mostly blaming me for the band’s inactivity.”
Due to this, Tankian shared that a couple of years ago, he went to the band to discuss what their next steps should be when moving forward to make a new album: an equal creative input, equal publishing split, a directors cut and new concept or theme to the album.
“Ultimately I had to draw a line in the sand because I knew I could never be happy going back to how things used to be within the band,” Tankian said. “And as we couldn’t see eye to eye on all these points we decided to put aside the idea of a record altogether for the time being.”
Tankian concludes his statement by saying:
“My only regret is that we have been collectively unable to give you another Soad record. For that, I apologize.”
You can read Tankian’s full statement below:
As we noted, we’ve been reporting on System Of A Down finally making new music for quite a while now, and it doesn’t look like a new record will be coming anytime in the near future, especially after this new statement.
While the band has put a pause on recording new music, it doesn’t seem that they are against touring with each other.
System Of A Down announced a few months ago that they will be heading out some headlining dates with At The Drive-In and Skeleton Witch this October. Check out the full list of dates below.
See you this fall. https://t.co/DnX3WSO0px #systemofadown #soad2018 #letsdothis pic.twitter.com/osNGFhUx1b
— System of a Down (@systemofadown) April 9, 2018
