Daron Malakian Discusses New Scars on Broadway Album + More

System of a Down‘s Daron Malakian joined Loudwire Nights on Wednesday (July 9) to dive into his new album with Scars on Broadway, Addicted to the Violence.

Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

“I started recording this album around the pandemic time, 2020,” Malakian told host Chuck Armstrong.

“There were some things along the way, like, I recorded it, I lived with it, we did a lot of stuff at home. I did guitars, vocals, bass and tracking at home…I lived with it for like two years, maybe even longer.”

Malakian admitted he wasn’t happy with how the album was sounding and so they re-recorded the drums, guitar and bass, but kept his vocals that he previously did.

“Because we had mixed what we had before, we had to remix, remaster, redo all these things,” he said.

“I would always [be] second-guessing myself a lot, probably more than any other album I’ve ever made in my life, to be honest with you. When I made Dictator, I recorded it in a week and a half. I went in, I did all my tracks myself…I just went into the studio and did everything and it was this really quick thing that happened. But with this record, it seemed to take a long time for me to be happy with it.”

As he’s sat with the finished album and is ready for its release on July 18, Malakian said he still hasn’t gotten to a point where he understands why this one took so long for him to be happy with it.

“Some things take a longer time in the oven, I guess, and you just got to present it when it’s right.”

The System of a Down Song Daron Malakian Says Was Intended for Scars on Broadway

As Malakian and Chuck discussed Addicted to the Violence, he opened up about how he approaches songwriting and how he never writes with System of a Down or Scars on Broadway specifically in mind.

“Even though I was done with [Addicted to the Violence], System-related things would come up,” Malakian shared.

“‘Protect the Land’ was recorded for this Scars record. Back in the pandemic time, ‘Protect the Land’ was recorded for Scars and then when we talked about what was going on in Armenia and Artsakh and all that, I already had a song. When System was like, ‘We need a song,’ I was like, ‘I have the perfect song.'”

READ MORE: Serj Tankian Explains How His Toyota Prius Helped Push Him to Release Latest Solo EP

Malakian said that wasn’t an uncommon occurrence because he doesn’t write songs differently for the bands.

“I think my songs work for both bands, so it wasn’t weird to take a Scars song [to System],” he said.

“My style is what my style is and I think you hear that in both bands. If we decided not to record Mesmerize and Hypnotize back in the day, plenty of those songs would have ended up as Scars songs.”

What Else Did Daron Malakian Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

• Why he doesn’t intentionally write song about heavy topics: “I’m never really trying to tackle anything … Whether this side is right, that side is wrong, that side is wrong, this side is right, I don’t really like to get on a side with my songs and I’d say it was the same with System as well. Serj [Tankian] is a little outspoken politically, so I like the songs to just kind of speak but I never brought in a song for System or Scars to give my political viewpoint … Words come out of me and I think those words that come out of me are coming out of me because I’m living in this world and sometimes the words [are] personal or because of what I’m watching or what I’m seeing. And then sometimes I don’t even know what I’m thinking about, like, ‘My cock is much bigger than yours, my cock can walk right through the door, with a feeling so pure it’s got you screaming back for more.’ Everyone thinks that System of a Down is a political band? I wrote that, I just sang that shit, that just came out of me. It’s not this political message, it was not anything like that. It was just this line that just came out of me and I was like, yeah, that’s got attitude.”
• What runs through his head when he thinks about the future of System of a Down: “I’ve got songs. I don’t have riffs, but I have songs. If the band needs them and if we need to move forward, I’ve written a lot of songs through the years that I haven’t recorded and that I’ve kept to myself. But I also don’t mind taking those songs to Scars on Broadway. I think we’re all getting along right now and I kind of want to keep it that way. I think we’ve always gotten along as friends, it’s whenever band politics about these kinds of things come into play where the friction starts … I think we have five great records. We haven’t put out a record in a long time and people still come to our shows.”
• What it was like seeing the insane pyro from fans at a recent show in South America: “When it came to the flares and the fire and there’s people breathing fire in the crowds and then it got to the point where I started instigating it … System of a Down has never, ever used pyro on stage, it’s just not our thing and also I probably can end up hurting myself, I don’t know where I am when I’m on stage usually. We don’t have any pyro on stage but our fans bring the fire and so that last show in São Paulo, they really, really outdid themselves and it was crazy.”

Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below

Daron Malakian joined Loudwire Nights on Wednesday, Juyl 9; the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also see if the show is available on your local radio station and listen to interviews on-demand.