After years of not being on the same creative page, System of a Down came together to release two new songs to benefit the Armenia Fund. The band ultimately raised $600,000 for the fund, with bassist Shavo Odadjian adding in an interview that the new songs came about because of a group text he started.
So two new songs means the wait is over and System of a Down can finally get down to making a new record, right? Not really. Guitarist and vocalist Daron Malakian recently told BBC Sounds it's a little more complicated than that.
"It's not that simple [to make more music together], I guess. I wish it was. It should be; it should be," he said. "But it gets a little bit more complicated than that. I don't wanna get into, like, 'Well, it's this person and that person.' We did this for a noble reason, and we did this for the right reasons. We didn't make any money off this — everything we've made from these songs we've donated straight into Armenia Fund."
"So it wasn't like a money grab; it wasn't trying to get fame and attention, and, 'Hey, we're gonna break the Internet,' or nothing like that. It was totally for the noble reason of our country needs us, and that was really the driving force and the motivation for this — it wasn't really about, 'Wow, we're so excited to do a new System of a Down record again.' But the fact that it happened so smoothly and everything like that, I personally do walk away and say it's a shame that certain things can't come together to make that happen, let's just say. 'Cause we did do these two songs in a really comfortable, smooth [way]. Everyone got along."
Check out both songs below.