It seems like we won’t be expecting the new System Of A Down record any time soon after all, as frontman Serj Tankian firmly stated that such project is not something he is willing to do at the moment.
During a recent chat with Artist Direct, the singer explained that a new album would require at least three years, which is not something he can commit himself to.
“I can’t write a forced record,” Tankian said. “It’s like romancing someone at a time you don’t want to be romantic. It’s not even a choice. We’ve enjoyed touring a lot. All of the tours have been well-received. We play really tightly – probably better than we ever have. It’s been cool. A new record requires three years. It’s not something I can do right now. When I can commit to a three-year album cycle, I’ll be down to do it.”
The singer elaborated further, saying, “You can’t take orders. We’re not making pizza. You can’t do it on anyone else’s timeframe.”
When asked to talk about what he’s been up to the most lately, Tankian went on to speak about his “disarming time paintings” venture, a project in which he made paintings and special musical compositions he embedded into each of the pieces.
“For the last few months, I’ve focused on doing this music-embedded painting,” the vocalist said. “I had never painted in my whole life, but I came up with this whole idea. Music has become so temporal and almost devalued due to the piracy. I have all of these painter friends who create these incredible paintings. I was thinking, ‘How do I make my music an exclusive experience?’ I said, ‘Well, why don’t I create a musical painting?’ In other words, I’ll have the speakers in there and a mp3 player and create a piece of music.”
What most SOAD fans would probably like to know at the moment is how will the singer’s attitude influence the band. As previously reported, the tensions started emerging after bassist Shavo Odadjian’s recent online outburst in which he bashed Tankian for holding the band back, going far enough to actually consider a replacement vocalist.
Apart from the musical paintings project, the frontman is also preparing to unchain two independent releases during the summer.
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