{"id":6207,"date":"2025-07-18T19:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T19:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/6207\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T19:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T19:17:09","slug":"daron-malakian-tells-us-about-his-new-scars-on-broadway-album-and-the-chances-of-new-system-of-a-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/6207\/","title":{"rendered":"Daron Malakian tells us about his new Scars On Broadway album \u2013 and the chances of new System Of A Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daron Malakian of System Of A Down<\/a> has spoken to NME about Scars On Broadway<\/a>\u2019s new album \u2018Addicted To The Violence\u2019. Check out the aggressive new record below, along with our chat with the guitarist-vocalist below.<\/p>\n

The album \u2013 out today (July 18), coinciding with Malakian\u2019s birthday \u2013 is the third Scars album, and the band\u2019s first since 2018. The LP was first previewed in early June with the riffy single \u2018Killing Spree\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the musician, the album has been in the works for a long time \u2013 dating all the way back to 2005 when he was recording System Of A Down\u2019s \u2018Mezmerize\u2019 and \u2018Hypnotize\u2019.<\/p>\n

However, it still carries an unnervingly evergreen theme: \u201cEven though I might have written some of these awhile ago, they still seem pretty relevant to the world we\u2019re living in now\u2026 certain things haven\u2019t changed much.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Some things have changed though. The once-tumultuous relationship within System Of A Down now seems to be much more stable as they\u2019ve recently wrapped up an extensive tour of South America<\/a>, marking the first time they\u2019ve played this many back-to-back shows over an extended period of time. \u201cI\u2019m really happy that we\u2019re all putting things in the past and moving forward, enjoying each other\u2019s company,\u201d Malakian told us ahead of their upcoming North American trek in August and September<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Check out our interview with Daron Malakian on the new Scars On Broadway album \u2018Addicted To The Violence\u2019 below, in which he tells us about his take on world politics and the Palestine-Israel war, Kneecap and where things stand regarding new System Of A Down material.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

NME: Hey Daron! Congratulations on the new Scars On Broadway album\u00a0 \u2013 how does it feel to be back with your own project?<\/p>\n

Daron Malakian: \u201cIt\u2019s nice to finally get this album out. I started recording this around the time of the [COVID-19] pandemic, around 2020. Different things happened, I would listen to the record and wouldn\u2019t be happy with one thing or another, then somewhere around 2022\/23 I re-recorded all of that. I just kept second-guessing myself until I got to a place where I was like \u2018Alright, let\u2019s go now\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I was there, other things would come up \u2013 System Of A Down would play a festival or a few shows so I had put that on the shelf. Something always came up to push it back. We just did the South America shows<\/a>, and we had plans before that when I got back home I would put out a single and now we\u2019re finally here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Has any of the album been re-shaped after any recent global developments or events?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really write songs with what\u2019s necessarily going on at the moment. Some of the stuff I wrote, I wrote a very long time ago. \u2018Killing Spree\u2019 could\u2019ve been on the first Scars record because I wrote it while I was writing System\u2019s \u2018Mezmerize\u2019 and \u2018Hypnotize\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is, even though I might have written some of these awhile ago, they still seem pretty relevant to the world we\u2019re living in now. I don\u2019t really focus on politics \u2013 some of the songs are me living in the world and how society affects me, or me just watching society and writing about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not even about a viewpoint sometimes. The song \u2018Killing Spree\u2019 is not about, \u2018Do I agree with it or disagree with it?\u2019 \u2013 I\u2019m just sitting there and singing about what it is, what I\u2019m seeing. And these are things I saw a long time ago but certain things haven\u2019t changed much. I\u2019m not going to write about the pandemic, or the ICE riots happening in LA. Sometimes they mean something specific, sometimes they don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u2018Killing Spree\u2019 is a dose of harsh truth \u2013 how important was it for you to call out the rise of gun violence and mistreatment of mental illness head on?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not gonna lie, man. I was high off my ass in my living room writing this song and those lyrics just came out of me. I\u2019m not necessarily thinking about the real world at that moment, maybe subconsciously for the lyrics to come out a certain way, but it\u2019s nothing that I have control over. Once it spills out of me, later on I realise \u2018Oh, you\u2019re singing about this\u2019, it\u2019s very out-of-body and I don\u2019t even feel responsible for it sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album features an overarching theme of addressing violence \u2013 was that something you wanted to convey when putting the record together?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never put an album together with the idea of having all the songs agree on a topic. I think a lot of people want to box up my songs into either political or social viewpoints about society. Sometimes, they\u2019re just me and I\u2019m just a guy living in society. And in my world, there are politics, comedy, sadness, depression, happiness, love, hate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I think of \u2018Killing Spree\u2019 now, I can tell you it\u2019s probably about how I feel there\u2019s a generation that might be a little desensitised to violence. People have become assholes really. In the United States, sometimes you have a kid who walks into his school and shoots everybody. Sometimes, you have people fighting or that case recently of someone on fire on a train platform and no one did a thing\u2026 people aren\u2019t very sympathetic or empathetic anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

On \u2018Your Lives Burn\u2019, you call out politicians and the media for deliberately causing division\u00a0 \u2013 where do you stand with everything happening now?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRight down the middle. I\u2019m a centrist. I\u2019m not a team. I think both sides do ridiculous things. There are some things that I agree with on both sides. \u2018Your Lives Burn\u2019 is my commentary on how they divide you and they keep you busy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the US, we have people who believe in gun rights, people who don\u2019t believe in gun rights. People who believe in abortion, people who don\u2019t. People who believe in trans rights, people who don\u2019t. And both sides are causing these issues, and they\u2019re putting them into our society and they have us fight over them. And when I say \u2018them\u2019, I mean the government or those in charge, oligarchs, whatever the fuck you wanna call them.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo while your lives burn in the fire, they\u2019re keeping you distracted so you don\u2019t pay attention to what they\u2019re doing. The truth of the matter is, all these people who are fighting amongst each other should turn around and face the government and start attacking them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u2018Done Me Wrong\u2019 includes nods to your Armenian heritage \u2013 something that\u2019s been a constant throughout your career. Given the parallels between the Armenian genocide and the war in Gaza, do you have any comment on what\u2019s been going on in Palestine?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t. When it comes to that, I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t like to see Palestinians die, I don\u2019t like to see Jews die, I don\u2019t like to see Christians die. I don\u2019t like to see anybody die.\u201d<\/p>\n

What are your thoughts on the Kneecap situation<\/a>?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cArtists should be able to express whatever they want to express. I don\u2019t agree with censoring people, whether I agree with or not. I give all the people who disagree with me the right to express their viewpoints. I don\u2019t know Kneecap or what\u2019s going on with that, but I don\u2019t agree that they should be censored or kicked off anything for expressing their opinions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the same time \u2013 and I\u2019m not talking about Kneecap, I\u2019m talking in general \u2013 I try not to get too preachy because there are always two sides to certain things. I\u2019m just a guy who lives a very comfortable life. I\u2019m blessed, I play in one of the biggest bands in the world. I have another band that I\u2019m very proud of that people seem to like. I\u2019m not going to sit here and tell people what is right and wrong while I sit on top of my house that is on top of a hill. I\u2019ve done very well for myself, but I sometimes feel like actors and musicians, they\u2019re not the people that I usually turn to when it comes to major topics. I don\u2019t turn to Green Day<\/a> for politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

System Of A Down recently played South America. What was it like being on the road for an extended period of time again? Did that foster any feelings of wanting to record new System music?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were playing in front of a South American audience, and South American audiences are probably some of the best \u2013 if not the best \u2013 audiences to play in front of in the world<\/a>. The passion that those people have down there for our music and our band blows me away so I had a great time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also had a great time hanging out with my band. I think we all did, it feels like we\u2019ve reconnected as friends. That\u2019s where we started, we were friends and sometimes somewhere down the line, you get fame and money. You get politics in the band and differences of opinion on which way the band should go, where you kind of get divided.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started, we all used to travel in one little RV together. And then we made enough money to where each of us had our own bus. So along the way, what happened was we ended up with our own lives, doing our own things, and we only came together on stage. In a very natural way, you start getting separated from one another \u2013 not because of bad blood but because of how things turn out as you get more successful and I can see that\u2019s what happened with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the chemistry like now?<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing about System Of A Down: all of our personalities are extremely different from one another. We are all very different people. Even our politics \u2013 you can\u2019t base the band\u2019s viewpoints based on what Serj [Tankian]<\/a> thinks, or what I think, or Shavo [Odadjian]<\/a> and John [Dolmayan]. I don\u2019t always agree with what Serj thinks, he doesn\u2019t always agree with what John thinks and the same goes for everyone in the band. It\u2019s not a cult, it\u2019s a band, and it\u2019s made up of four different people.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for 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

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean that we\u2019re going to make a new album, it just means that we\u2019re friends again. It\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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the core of everything, we\u2019re just four Armenian guys who formed a band and we have a few albums that for some reason, the world still loves today and people still connect to, enough to show up in soccer stadiums and we\u2019re selling them out. We enjoy what we do, we enjoy each other, we\u2019re proud of each other and I love going out there and celebrating what we\u2019ve accomplished together \u2013 new album or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never say no, but at the same time, that\u2019s not where we\u2019re at right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daron Malakian and Scars On Broadway\u2019s new album \u2018Addicted To The Violence\u2019 is out now.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daron Malakian of System Of A Down has spoken to NME about Scars On Broadway\u2019s new album \u2018Addicted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6208,"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-6207","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\/6207","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=6207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}