System of A Down all fired up

System of A Down

It's common to hear American rock stars bagging the war in Iraq.

But few have System of A Down's personal connections. Daron Malakian, guitarist and songwriter for the American metal band, has family living in Iraq.

"It's brought out a lot of good songs," he says, chatting from his LA living room. "The last few years of my life have been a crazy rollercoaster ride. There's these people who go, 'Yeah, go ahead and bomb them' and my grandmother lives there."

A handful of those songs are about to be road-tested when the band play the Big Day Out but fans will have to wait for the album if they want to hear the rest. Then they'll have to wait again.

SOAD plan to release two albums, Hypnotize and Mesmerize, six months apart. It was a decision born out of sheer necessity - Malakian had spent so long writing that by the time the band had reached the studio, there were too many good songs to ignore.

"We don't believe in double albums," he says. "I think the attention spans of people these days can't cope with them.

"In the 60s and 70s kids were frying their brains on acid and a bunch of them would sit down and commit themselves to listen to Tommy or something. I dunno, maybe there's not enough kids on acid anymore."

Aside from 2002's odds-and-sods collection, Steal This Album!, it's been a long time since fans have had any new music from the band.

"It takes me such a long time to write songs," he says. "They have to be great, I have to wait until I'm a huge fan of them. I would rather write four, five, six great songs than 10 shitty ones."

Malakian is coy about revealing too much but he says there will be more vocal interaction between himself and frontman Serj Tankian, and that emotion will remain at the core of their sound. And if it's possible, he promises Hypnotize/Mesmerize will outdo the schizophrenic nature of their breakthrough Toxicity, an album that incorporated Slayer's breakneck riffs, Faith No More's complex sense of melody and the Armenian folk music the band members - also including bassist Shavo Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayan - were brought up listening to.

Their uniquely abrasive style quickly soaked up a huge following and Toxicity sold more than four million copies worldwide. Malakian laughs when he recalls someone urging them to tour in Iceland because they were apparently as big as Michael Jackson there.

But before that, it was a different story.

"People would say to us, 'You guys will never get signed'. We accidentally became rockstars I guess. It's strange to think that four Armenian guys who make the kind of music we do would be in this position."

Now that they are, SOAD use their profile to throw a spotlight on the issues they are passionate about, and that's not just the war. (One of the band's most memorable projects was a collaboration with anti-Bush campaigner Michael Moore for their music video, Boom!.) The band are also committed to raising awareness about the genocide of the Armenian people early in the century. However Malakian, who was born in Hollywood, is the only member of the band not to have visited his country.

"We have plans to play there. But it's an emotional thing. I'm worried that if I go there - with the troubles with Turkey and everything - that I'll leave feeling more depressed."

It's not the only thing on his mind. Malakian admits to feeling "freaked out" by the tragic events that saw ex-Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell gunned down at a concert last month. The incident reminded him that fame is a part of the job he will never get used to. Just from chatting for a few minutes, it's easy to tell Malakian is a genuine, down-to-earth, nice guy.

"None of us think, 'Hey, I'm a rockstar. I'm Daron and I'm no different to who I was before. But it's weird when you're signing autographs and these kids come up to you and their eyes turn different. We saw this girl break a CD once and she was slicing her body and going 'Shavo! Shavo!' And you can tell it freaks him out because Shavo's face turns white.

"I get so [expletive] nervous because I just feel like, wow, nobody's special. Some guys know all there is to know about plumbing. I know just a little bit about music."

THE PROTEST GROUP

WHO: System of A Down

MEMBERS: Singer Serj Tankian, guitarist Daron Malakian, bassist Shavo Odadjian and Drummer John Dolmayan.

ALBUMS: System of A Down (1998), Toxicity (2001), Hynotize/Mesmerize (due this year).

FORMED: Southern California in the mid-90s.

TRIVIA: Serj Tankian has looked at buying property in New Zealand.