{"id":49220,"date":"2025-08-06T10:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T10:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/49220\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T10:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T10:04:09","slug":"system-of-a-downs-planned-replacement-for-serj-tankian-sounded-great-but-didnt-feel-right-says-daron-malakian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/49220\/","title":{"rendered":"System Of A Down’s planned replacement for Serj Tankian “sounded great” but didn’t feel right, says Daron Malakian"},"content":{"rendered":"

System Of A Down<\/a>\u2018s Daron Malakian has opened up about testing the waters with a potential replacement for Serj Tankian<\/a> \u2013 see what he had to say below.<\/p>\n

In May last year, Tankian revealed in his memoir\u00a0Down With the System: A Memoir (Of Sorts) <\/a>that his disdain for touring once led to his decision in 2017 to tell his bandmates in System Of A Down to carry on without him<\/a> so they could continue living their dream.<\/p>\n

At the time, the band pushed back against the idea, but Tankian was informed that the band had begun looking at new singers while attending a charity event some time later. Nothing came of those sessions, and Tankian has remained with System Of A Down since.<\/p>\n

Now, guitarist-vocalist Daron Malakian has weighed in on the matter, revealing how far the process got before they decided to drop the search. Speaking to Ultimate Guitar\u2019s podcast On The Record, Malakian shared:\u00a0\u201cIt was something that I never really wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cFor me, System Of A Down is us four. If one of us four isn\u2019t doing System Of A Down, I don\u2019t really wanna do System Of A Down. Did we think about that? Sure. But did we really pursue it deeply? No. We tried. I don\u2019t wanna get into names. We tried, and whoever we tried, he sounded good.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople would think, \u2018Oh, Daron is the one that would want that.\u2019 I was the one that was most against it. I was, like, \u2018I don\u2019t wanna look to my left and see other people.\u2019 System is System, and if that\u2019s not gonna be System, then I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s the System I wanna be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malakian cotinued: \u201cSo yeah, I\u2019m not interested or really kind of never was interested. I think Serj might have said something in his book about the guy couldn\u2019t do the growls or something, and that\u2019s why we didn\u2019t [pick him to replace Serj], and that\u2019s not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Serj] and I have never had this conversation of why it didn\u2019t happen. But really the reason why it didn\u2019t happen is I kind of was the one that was, like, \u2018I don\u2019t think I wanna pursue this. I don\u2019t wanna do this without him.\u2019 Looking on the outside of the band. I\u2019m a fan of that. I\u2019m not trying to change that. Never was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Daron Malakian and Scars On Broadway. Credit: Press<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Daron Malakian has made his affinity for Serj and the rest of his bandmates in System Of A Down apparent. Speaking to NME <\/a>in July for the launch of his band Scars On Broadway<\/a>\u2018s new album, Malakian reflected on the current relationship within SOAD.<\/p>\n

He told us:\u00a0\u201cFor the first time in a long time, it feels like we went on tour and we all had dinner and laughs together. We all got along and rediscovered our friendship on this last tour and we really enjoyed it. I missed my friends. I\u2019m really happy that we\u2019re all putting things in the past and moving forward, enjoying each other\u2019s company.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

As for what it might take to put together a new System Of A Down album, Malakian shared:\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s the album shit that drives wedges between us. I\u2019m a little afraid to go there, to be honest with you. I rather just have my friends and celebrate this band that we formed over 30 years ago\u2026 I never say no, but at the same time, that\u2019s not where we\u2019re at right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

In late July, drummer John Dolmayan weighed in on the potential of a new record saying that while it would be a stretch to make it work<\/a>, the \u201csecret sauce\u201d to making an album would be for Malakian to bring in his ideas last because they\u2019re typically nearly complete and leave little-to-no room for collaboration.<\/p>\n

Last September, bassist Shavo Odadjian said that his \u201cdoor is always open\u201d to making new music<\/a> with the band and that he had \u201ca hundred riffs waiting\u201d. In an interview in December, however,\u00a0he told\u00a0NME\u00a0that the hopes of anything coming to fruition were still slim.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Tankian has taken a hot-and-cold approach to a new SOAD record as well. Back in October 2024 he said that a new System record would be\u00a0a \u201cfresh start in a brand new way\u201d<\/a>, but then later revealed that he had been put off recording after\u00a0becoming \u201cvery passive\u201d while working on \u2018Mezmerize\u2019 and \u2018Hypnotize\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"System Of A Down\u2018s Daron Malakian has opened up about testing the waters with a potential replacement for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,2527,341,6923,1352],"class_list":{"0":"post-49220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-metal","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-nu-metal","14":"tag-rock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}