Not that it's shocking, based on statements from members of System of a Down recently, but guitarist Daron Malakian confirmed the band is not writing music now.
It seemed like the trajectory was for the band to release new music in 2017, but then things fell apart. In a recent interview with Kerrang!, guitarist Daron Malakian was talking about his new solo album with Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway, when he passingly mentioned that the band is not working on material at all right now:
"I don't really write for people, and if no one heard what I wrote, I would still write songs," he said. "It's just what I do. If I'm not writing I feel like I'm not doing what I'm here to do. So I have a lot of music that's still to be released in the future, whether it's with System or Scars. I have a lot of material.”
"I think the Scars stuff tends to take more of a rock direction, even though I would say there's a lot of material on [the upcoming Scars On Broadway] album that I think has more of a System of a Down flavor in it than maybe the first Scars album did," he said. "As of right now, System's not making albums, so this is the project through which I'm releasing my songs."
In an interview last month with Rolling Stone, Malakian made it clear that he was not the hold up:
No, it's not abandoned. But as of right now, not everyone is on the same page. Trust me, man, I'm probably the biggest System Of A Down fan in the world. I mean, I named the band [laughs]. So I'd like to see something like that happen.
Last December, it was Serj Tankian who spoke to Rolling Stone who noted that the band did write some new material but he's not sure what they would do with it:
We have. We've discussed it and we've played each other songs, but we still haven't come eye to eye on how things should be done for us to be able to move forward with it. And that's where it's been.
Ultimately, the reason Serj doesn't want to commit to a new System album is because he doesn't want to commit to longform touring:
That's the funny thing. When people don't see a record, they assume the worst about your internal relationship. But the truth is we're actually better friends – at least I'm better friends with everyone than I've ever been. John's my brother-in-law; he's in my family. We have a great time together touring. But sometimes putting together a record, and that creative output and how things should be done, is different in four people's heads and it doesn't always come together. Fortunate or unfortunate, however you want to call it, that's the truth. But touring is easy, because you've done all these songs. You have fun, you go out and tour, and that's it.
System of A Down will get together for a few select shows later this year. View the routing here.
