Serj Tankian explains why System Of A Down couldn’t write new music

System Of A Down singer Serj Tankian recently talked about the unsuccessful writing sessions he and his multi-platinum Armenian-American bandmates had in the mid to late 2010s while trying to put together a new album in an interview that was first published this past September. Despite still having a devoted fan following, the band has notoriously been at odds over new music for almost 20 years. Only two benefit singles released in late 2020 were able to briefly alleviate the band’s lack of new content since their last full-length release in 2005. Over half a million dollars was generated for the Artsakh/Armenian people impacted by the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War thanks to those two tracks. Since then, no fresh content has surfaced.

Frustrations within the SOAD camp started to spill into the public eye back in 2018, when interviews with band members began blaming the group for its slowed creative process. Vocalist Serj Tankian was primarily portrayed as the holdout in those interviews and remarks. Tankian was prompted to publicly address the issue as a result, releasing this “manifesto” outlining his reasons for not wanting to record additional new work with the group. In it, he discussed his problems with financial splits, his own lack of creative participation, and other things. Tankian had put that out there in the hopes of changing the group’s internal dynamics and enabling them to continue in a way that suited him better, but his bandmates didn’t appear to agree in the end.

Years later, however, a lot has been written about the stuff the group did produce when they tried to reunite over ten years ago. Tankian confirmed once more that there isn’t a mythical unfinished System of A Down record sitting on a hard drive out there by clearly outlining the scope of those unsuccessful writing sessions in an interview with Sona Oganesyan that was just released (see below).

I would say there is no album that is written. I would say that the band…. So years ago — and this is outlined in the book — but years ago, there was a try of coming to minds with myself and the guys in the band. I tried to come to them with what I call jokingly a manifesto, and saying, ‘Listen, if we’re going to move forward, let’s do things in a more egalitarian fashion. Let’s equally split publishing. Let’s equally bring in songs’ — especially the creators, mostly Daron and I, Shavo  as well. And everyone gets a veto on songs, like all these amazing kind of, you know, theoretical, positive, egalitarian terms. Apparently it doesn’t work in a metal band. You know? The joke is on me. So it didn’t work. But at that time I invited Daron over. Many times, we had dinner at my house, and I would have him play me music that he had written and I would make notes about that music and send it to him, and I would send him music. I would play him music that I had written. And so at one point, we had a band meeting — a very long one — and we didn’t come to terms on stuff, but the guys wanted to work on some of those songs. I was in New Zealand. And so they started working in a rehearsal studio on some of those songs, which included Daron‘s songs and a few of mine, if I’m not mistaken. Nothing was recorded. And they had sent it to me, I was in New Zealand at the time. They had sent me a recording to listen to. And nothing, like when I say recording, I’m talking about like a tape from a rehearsal studio, you know, not a recording per se. Um, I would say that ‘Genocidal Humanoidz‘ was probably one of them, if I’m not mistaken. I don’t remember if ‘Protect The Land‘ was one of them. I don’t remember maybe, probably not, I would say. But you know, some of those, a lot of those are Daron songs, and some of them he may have released recently and some of those are my songs which I released, probably on ‘Elasticity‘. So that’s the story. I mean, there is no ‘record.’

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04/24 Bogota, COL – Estadio Nemesio Camacho El Campin
04/27 Lima, PER – Estadio Nacional
04/30 Santiago, CHL – Parque Estadio Nacional
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08/27 New York City, NY – Metlife Stadium (with Korn, Polyphia and Wisp)
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08/31 Chicago, IL – Soldier Field (with Avenged Sevenfold, Polyphia and Wisp)
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09/03 Toronto, ON – Rogers Stadium (with Deftones, Polyphia and Wisp)
09/05 Toronto, ON – Rogers Stadium (with Deftones, Polyphia and Wisp)