System of a Down fans have been waiting nearly 20 years for a new album. The group’s last LP, Hypnotize, arrived in November 2005. And though the band isn’t actively making any new music, drummer John Dolmayan says he knows what it would take to get SOAD recording again.
“Traditionally when we go in to record, Daron [Malakian] would bring his songs in, ’cause he’d have a lot of them. They were very well thought out. They were the most complete,” Dolmayan explained during an appearance on the podcast But That 1%.
Creative differences between guitarist Malakian and singer Serj Tankian have often been cited as the core reason SOAD hasn’t made new music. To that end, Dolmayan suggested his guitarist should allow the frontman to present his ideas to the band first.
“What I would do, if I was Daron, if I was giving Daron advice, which I’ve actually given him this advice, and I said, ‘Why don’t you just tell Serj, ‘Bring your songs in first. We’ll go through all your ideas.’ And then [bassist] Shavo [Odadjian], you bring in all your ideas. And then Daron, you bring in your ideas last. What’s the difference? But that olive branch says, ‘I care about your songs more than I care about my own, and I’m gonna have you bring in yours first.’”
Envisioning a hypothetical timeline for recording, Dolmayan suggested the band could hit the studio after wrapping their upcoming tour commitments.
“We would do the tours that we already have planned, which we’re going to, and then in 2027 we would block off six months,” Dolmayan explained. “We would go into either Daron’s house, my house or Serj’s house or Shavo’s house in a studio that we have in one of those houses, which we all have our spaces, and we would work on a new System album with no rules. And I would say, ‘Serj, bring in all your songs first. Then Shavo, bring in all your riffs and songs next, and then Daron, bring all yours last. And I’ll put absolutely no limit on how many songs you can bring in or timeline of how long that’s gonna take. And then we would go in and make a new record.”
Despite enduring popularity and a legion of fans hungry for new material, System of a Down has only put out two singles since the release of Hypnotize: “Protect the Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz,” both of which raised money for charity.
