System of a Down Band Members' Plans During Hiatus Discussed

Band Photo: System Of A Down (?)

MTV.com caught up with System of a Down and talked to the band members about what they'll be doing during the band's hiatus after touring with Ozzfest. Here are some excepts:

for guitarist Daron Malakian and bassist Shavo Odadjian, it's Scars on Broadway, a fresh collective that's still very much in progress but should start working on material this fall.

"It's going to be another band that both me and Shavo are in, and we're going to try and go places we haven't with System," Malakian explained. "Each [System] bandmember has his own thing he wants to do. Shavo has films he plans on working on too. So we all have artistic itches we want to get through, and I think these are healthy ways to do it. We've been around for 12 years, so it's nice for us to break a little free and come back and hopefully appreciate [being in System] more someday. We're not putting any timelines on it.

"[Scars] are going to go into a lot of different fields that System haven't gone into," he continued. "I mean, heavy metal is an influence, but it's not the focus of System of a Down. There will be metal elements in Scars, but that's not what's going to define the music."

For Odadjian, the System vacation means returning to the studio with his good pal RZA, the mastermind behind Wu-Tang Clan. "We've been messing around in the studio, and I worked on a track that will be on the next Raekwon record, [Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2,]" he said. "With RZA, we have become good friends, and we're in the studio together all the time. There's a collaboration with the GZA which will be coming out soon, but we're not sure when. We've been working on it the last four months and will start preproduction in Los Angeles [in the fall]".

Dolmayan plans to take his obsession with comic books online with a new Web site, TorpedoComics.com. Not only will he be selling comic books, action figures and movies via the site, he'd like to host creative seminars with some of the writers and illustrators he's loved since his childhood, as well as some of today's leading artists.

"I am a big comic-book fan and always have been," he said. "It's sort of my second passion, next to drumming. So when I discovered we were going to be taking some time off, I thought, 'What would be better [for me] to do than form this company?' I just thought it would be fun."

Like Malakian and Odadjian, System's soft-spoken, Afro-sporting frontman Tankian will be working on his own music this fall too. (He'll also be working with Fair to Midland and Slow Motion Reign, the newest additions to the roster of his label, Serjical Strike.) Tankian plans to release his solo debut in late 2007.

"I've been writing it my whole life," he said. "I'm really excited about it, and I have the same energy that I had when we were recording our first record. I have more than enough songs, but I'm also trying other methods of arrangements and tricking myself into doing things that I've never done to add to the dynamics, diversity and hopefully potency of the record itself."

And what say ye, Serj, of System's impending hiatus?

"System of a Down are always there for us, whenever we want to be there for System of a Down," he said.

Read the full article at MTV.com.