SYSTEM OF A DOWN Guitarist Says He Is Uncomfortable With Being Tagged A 'Political' Band

SYSTEM OF A DOWN guitarist and chief songwriter Daron Malakian has told The Sydney Morning Herald that he is putting the finishing touches on two new studio albums — "Mesmerize", due this spring, and "Hypnotize", due this fall. He said he's not a perfectionist: "I just want it to be right, I don't nitpick at shit. I get the production credit on the record, and I get to be the [AC/DC guitarist] Malcolm Young of SYSTEM OF A DOWN.

"I respect those people. You look at SLAYER and you see Kerry King. I look at SLAYER and I see [songwriter-guitarist] Jeff Hanneman."

By his own reckoning, Malakian writes about 95 per cent of SYSTEM's music, including the lyrics. He bristles slightly at the suggestion that his band is a dictatorship.

"It's a democracy, everyone respects the way the band works, I don't step over anybody," he said. "I really don't want to sound like I'm discrediting my band members here because I'm not. It's really how SYSTEM works. Serj [Tankian] writes songs but not in bulk the way I write songs ... It works as a team."

Although frontman Tankian co-founded the activist group Axis of Justice with AUDIOSLAVE's Tom Morello, Malakian is uncomfortable with SYSTEM being tagged a "political" band.

"We just sing about what the world, about what's around us," he said. "We have political songs and we have songs about, y'know, psycho-groupie-cocaine crazy.

"Somebody asked me, 'Are you guys about sex, drugs, rock'n'roll, politics, having a good time?' I said, 'Yes!' We're not about a history lesson, like, 'You gotta learn all about the Armenian genocide' or all about politics. We're not only about that and we're not only about sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, we're like a f---ed-up mutation of all that shit."