John Dolmayan Wants “Very Strict Guidelines” Before Working on New System of a Down Music

Ever since the release of their final two studio albums Mezmerize and Hypnotize back in 2005, fans have been hoping against all hope that the dudes in System of a Down could finally find common ground again and make some new music. There’d been a couple flashes of potential cooperation here and there and they’re playing more shows than they have in a long time, but in my professional opinion? Don’t hold your breath.

I can confidently offer that opinion after drummer John Dolmayan’s recent interview with Lilian Tahmasian. In their conversation, the pair discussed the inter-personal situation in System of a Down and Dolmayan didn’t mince words. Yes, they can play live shows together, but the self-professed MAGA chud would need “very strict guidelines” if they were to write music again.

And what would those “guidelines” likely entail? Most likely the stifling of political topics in the band’s music from Serj Tankian, whose beliefs are diametrically opposed to Dolmayan’s.

“We had problems with that because Serj is very outspoken. He has one way of thinking, some things we agree with — the rest of the band — and some things we don’t. Some things we’re exactly on par with. With Serj — we don’t want that to be the only thing because we don’t feel like that’s the only element of System of a Down. It’s a big part of the band.”

One of the biggest sticking points for Dolmayan, who has no problem cashing checks based on System of a Down’s discography — yes, including the songs with political commentary — was the fact that Tankian sometimes speaks out politically during shows. He thinks that’s outshining everything else the band does.

“Justice is a big part of the band. Justice has no politics. It’s either just or unjust. It has no political affiliation. It either is or it isn’t. But there’s a lot of things that come into play, like morality, so we just didn’t want it to be the only focal point, and that was… Serj spent a lot of time talking about political stuff on stage.”

Now, even though he doesn’t agree with Tankian’s politics, Dolmayan said he was okay with hearing about the vocalist’s convictions because he was so passionate about them.

“Now, I personally love it. The more crazy he got and into it…I believe anything that’s passionately displayed is worth listening to, even if I completely disagree with it. If you’re really passionate about it, I want to know what you think. So I like that part of it, but the rest of the band and I too felt like it was just too much of our focus.

“…We don’t just sing about politics. We sing about love, death, hate, stupid things, inane things, artistic things, insane things. It’s all these things that make System of a Down so unique. We didn’t want the focal point to be politics, but that’s what Serj wanted to talk about at the time. We’re in a weird situation where I don’t want to limit what he has to say, but I don’t want to limit what people think of me either.”