Daron Malakian: 'There's always gonna be a bad guy causing some kind of ruckus'

System of a Down's guitarist, vocalist and principal songwriter on his new solo album 'Dictator', immigration, and the SOAD hiatus

'I'm not trying to make Scars on Broadway the next System of a Down'

Daron Malakian is a night owl. Most nights he’ll stay up to around 4am, writing music or testing out new songs. It’s 2am in LA when he picks up the phone to talk about his new solo album Dictator, released under the name Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway.

It’s an album that he’s been sitting on since he wrote, performed and recorded it across 10 days in 2012, and finally decided enough time had passed after years of waiting to see what would happen with his other band, System of a Down.

“I’ve been anxious to put it out,” the 43-year-old says. “I didn’t have a clear picture of what was going on with System of a Down so I was just waiting to see. Then enough time passed, and it just feels good to finally put it out and let people hear it.”

Fans would be forgiven for thinking the album was written this year, with a title like Dictator and tracks called “Sickening Wars” and “Assimilate”.

“Obviously when I wrote the song ‘Dictator’, Trump wasn’t around,” Malakian says. “But through history, if you look back through hundreds of years, and even into the future, there’s always gonna be a bad guy. There’s always gonna be a devil causing some kind of ruckus in the world. That’s why I think it’s relevant, and why it’ll still be relevant in four or five years.

“I don’t like to write lyrics that are dated or just about the time I’m living in at the moment. I like people to relate. Not necessarily to politics – sometimes my lyrics are just about everyday feelings, ups, downs.”

Malakian was born to Armenian immigrants who came to the US from Iraq – his father is a renowned dancer and choreographer, while his mother is an artist. Given his family background, he offers a measured distaste for what’s been taking place on US borders where children have been separated from their parents. But he also suggests that in the current political landscape, the left side is “just as radical as the right on some issues”.

“Most people’s ideas are right down the middle, they’re not so far to the left or far to the right,” he says. ”And because those people aren’t usually so radical about their ideas, they tend to be silent, they don’t yell as loud as the radical right or left. But we end up coming along for the ride. That to me is the reality of it.

“Immigration brings all that great diversity in food and music and culture to America… you can get great tacos in Los Angeles because we have a lot of Mexican people who live here. If my parents hadn’t moved from Iraq you wouldn’t have these Armenian guys in a heavy metal band. There would be no flavours, no colours, and I wonder if people actually take time and think about that.”

On the video for Dictator’s first single “Lives”, Malakian took inspiration from his father’s work and released a video which celebrates traditional Armenian dance and costumes: “I wanted Armenian people to celebrate their culture and not just feel victimised,” he explains. “The dancing was inspired by my dad, who was a choreographer, and that was pretty much the exact video I wanted to put out for that song.”

“Angry Guru”, a juddering, frenetic metal track where Malakian spits and snarls out the lyrics, there’s a particularly striking line – “silence leads to violence” – which he says refers to the consequence of not speaking up for fear of causing offence.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t respect people’s cultures, but we should also be honest with each other, and sometimes political correctness feels less like I’m being honest and more like I’m just being polite,” he says. “And that politeness brews up and blows over and eventually you get something ugly. The media pushes this fear instead of calming it down, sometimes … I think when change is happening fast, a lot of people can’t take it. You have to hold their hand a little bit and slow it down for them. They’re afraid to see change because they don’t understand it. They get a little paranoid.

“Trump plays to these people,” he continues. “I’ve never seen anything like it, he’s not careful with his words, and he doesn’t seem to realise that everybody’s listening to him. And I think this is the type of candidate we’ll see from now on. In our social media world where every day there’s something new.

“Trump does things that would have got another president impeached. Because we live in the social media world our attention spans are so small and so brief. Like when there was the invention of television, and the kind of presidential candidate that came after had to be better looking, and have more of a persona.

“Now I think we’re seeing a new type of candidate which has an internet persona. And that’s why Trump works, because he makes himself the biggest conversation, and the biggest news, every day.”

‘Trump does things that would have got another president impeached’

One of the biggest surprises on the record is Malakian’s cover of “Gie Mou” by the Greek singer Stamatis Kokotas, which he first performed live with the original Scars lineup that features his SOAD bandmate John Dolmayan.

“When I went to record Dictator I felt it really fit well, and isn’t something people might have expected,” Malakian says. “I don’t hear too many people doing that instrumental thing. It’s actually the one track that gets asked about the most, I think because it’s different. You heard more of that from bands in the 70s or something.”

There are also influences from classic industrial bands of the 80s, Front Line Assembly and Front 242, along with bands like Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy and Joy Division. His cover of “Assimilate” by Canadian industrial band Skinny Puppy was another one he’d performed live with the original Scars lineup, which sounds utterly distinct from the original.

“It’s a really heavy track, I don’t always get a chance to scream and belt it out like that, so that was fun too,” Malakian agrees. “All in all I’m just really happy to put this album out, I knew it was a strong record… some of these songs could have ended up as System songs, so I was waiting to see what was going to happen with that first.

“People have had time to live with that first Scars album, and a lot of time has passed since the last SOAD album… I think people have realised that I’m a big part of the writing there, so now fans don’t mind so much whether it’s System or Scars,” he adds. “I was nervous too, because of not putting out music for so long.”

He feels people tend to attach themselves to a band name, and consequently become reluctant to listen to similar music from a different project: “I swear to god, there weren’t many changes for this record. There were so many off Mezmerize and Hypnotize [SOAD albums from 2005] that could have been Scars songs. Just enjoy them! No one cares what it’s called.”

Later this year there’s a brief tour with System, after that Malakian says he’ll think about touring the new music from Scars. And he won’t wait another six years before releasing more of his own new music.

“I’m going to go into the studio, figure out what songs to record, probably put out another Scars record, maybe next year,” he says. “I don’t know when that next great song is gonna come. That keeps me humble. I don’t have this perfect formula for writing. I’m always searching and keeping my eyes open and trying to find inspiration from somewhere, anywhere.”

He chuckles at being told it’s almost 20 years to the day since System released their acclaimed, self-titled debut album: “Is it? I had no idea. The years fly by pretty fast… 20 years, that’s crazy.

“I’m very proud of what the band’s achieved,” he says. “It’s cool that, while we’re not on the same page on making a new album, those albums still stand up, people still like it, and when we play live fans still show up and support the band. Those songs still mean something, and that means a lot to me, 20 years later.”

‘I don’t know when that next great song is going to come – that keeps me humble’

Confusion among fans about when – if ever – they should expect a new SOAD album is well-documented, and was recently addressed by both Malakian and vocalist Serj Tankian, the latter of whom admitted he was solely responsible for the band’s hiatus.

“We enjoy playing live, but not everybody is on the same page when it comes down to the amount of touring it would take to put out a new album, or the kind of album we’d want to make,” Malakian says now.

“Time passes, people change. I think money and fame and success changes people. I’m sure it changed me to some degree, everyone became their own individual away from the band. And I can’t make anybody do something they don’t wanna do. If you’d left it to me, System of a Down never would have gone on hiatus.”

SOAD is kind of like his baby, he continues, and it was difficult to see the band stop so suddenly. He wonders if emotionally, it impacted his Scars project to the point where he called off a tour because he “wasn’t quite there… in terms of pushing a new band while I was still in mourning for my old one”.

“Look man, I’m not trying to make Scars the next System of a Down,” he says decisively. “I’m just putting out music so one day when Daron Malakian is dead and gone, people will say… ‘Well that’s what Daron Malakian did’.”

‘Dictator’ is out now