source – https://www.facebook.com/daronmalakian
After six years collecting dust on the shelves, System of A Down guitarist/vocalist Daron Malakian has decided to revive his Scars On Broadway project with the long-anticipated second album Dictator to be released on July 20th. It’s been a decade since the self-titled debut arrived and today (23rd), he revealed the first single with “Lives.”
Check out the video below:
Malakian spoke with Rolling Stone about the project as he described the new song:
“For me, it’s about how Armenian people have survived the genocide. I’ve always heard about how we were victims, and we always saw pictures of our ancestors and our great grandparents with their heads chopped off. I wanted to write a song that would be a morale booster, something uplifting and let people know that while there were a lot of people that died and we should respect that, there was also a lot of people who survived. It’s a tribute to that and how far we’ve come. The video complements the song really well.”
The guitarist discussed his original plan for the Dictator to be released sometime in 2012:
“I recorded the album and then around that time System started playing live again. So every time we’d play live, there’d be conversations like, “Maybe we’ll do an album.” So being the guy who wrote the majority of almost all the System songs in the past, I was like, “All right, let me see what’s happening with it. Let me hold onto these songs and let me see how this develops.” We talked about it and we weren’t all on the same page. Not everybody was into the idea. But every time we played live, it kept coming up.
I just got to the point now where a lot of people were asking about the Scars album – I hear it all the time – so I was like, “I’m gonna put this album out.” Not knowing what’s happening with System has kept me from putting my own stuff out. Too much time has passed, and I’m really excited to finally get some music out finally.”
Later he was asked if System of a Down has abandoned the idea of making a new record:
“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.
But we’re all friends. We all still go out. We play the songs live. We enjoy it. But doing an album is a totally different thing than playing the songs we already have live. It takes a little bit more togetherness, a little bit more commitment from everybody, and I’m not sure everybody is ready to commit to that right now. And it is what it is, man. I can’t force anybody to do anything they don’t want to. But with that said, our relationship as friends, and even as a band, is healthy. It’s respectful, and we support each other with anything each one of us does on our own. It’s not one of those things where there is bad blood and I can’t be in the room with that guy. It really comes down to where each person is in his life and not everybody is ready to commit the same way I might be.”
