System of a Down released two new songs recently to raise awareness for the conflict between Artsakh and Azerbaijan, and Serj Tankian was recently asked by Belgium’s Studio Brussel how it was to record again with his bandmates after 15 years.
“It was great. It was not so much an artistic decision or a decision of, ‘Hey, let’s make music together. Let’s have fun making music together.’ It was nothing like that. It was more about because Azerbaijan and Turkey had attacked the peaceful, civilized people of Artsakh on September 27th. We have to do something for our people. This is bullshit. We need to get some justice. So we did it as an act of activism more so than a musical decision.”
Tankian, when pressed about a new System of a Down album, sadly said that nothing is planned.
“We got together for the cause. We’re still working for the cause. We’re still fundraising for the cause. We have not talked about the future of the band. It’s not something that we’re thinking about right now. Right now we’re still dealing with the fallout of what happened with the war, refugees, displaced people, humanitarian aid. So we’re concerned about that. We’re not concerned right now about music or anything else.”
System of a Down have toured since reuniting in 2011, but they have stuck to being a nostalgia act, never releasing a new studio album to follow up 2005’s smash hits Mezmerize and Hypnotize. The band worked on new material a few years ago but abandoned the project when Serj Tankian rejected recording a new album after creative differences.
