In 'Kill Rock n' Roll,' the choruses came about at the moment I was listening to a lot of the Supremes, and if you listen to that part, you can hear a melody and a harmony there that's not too far away from what the Supremes would probably be doing, but there's heavy guitars in the back.
— Daron Malakian
I'll always be a member of System of a Down. That will never change.
I was always searching for something bigger, faster and better, and Slayer came up with that.
You put too many songs on your record, and it ends up like a family with too many kids: some of them get neglected.
I'll be honest with you: politically, I have no issue with people, but my beef sometimes is with religion at the end of the day.
I always want to grow and top myself.
I am depressed sometimes, but it's not what keeps me at home or focused on work.
I don't understand some of the music I hear on MTV or the radio, because they don't mention the times we live in. They have nothing to do with nothing.
I like structuring verses, choruses, but sometimes the verses might be a tango and the choruses might be death metal.
In the Middle East in the summertime, to keep cool, a lot of people sleep on the rooftops.
Music is an emotion, and I put it out there.
System of a Down is the music that I wanted to buy but couldn't find at the store. It's the band I wanted to be a fan of.
You know, even U2 took a little time off, and then they came back with a new sound.
Basically I write songs, and I need for there to be a home for these songs.
I guess you'd say I'm a gearhead. It's not just guitars; I have five or six drum sets, a bunch of keyboards... It's like Guitar Center exploded, and all the cool stuff dropped in my backyard. I'm a really lucky guy, I have to admit.
People's attention spans don't run too long these days.
Politicians use religion, and they get their troops riled up with religion.
In Glendale, where I live, there's a street called Broadway. The bottoms of the light posts have swastikas on them.
I don't think when I'm doing music. Things just happen. I've even taken my clothes off while performing. But then I'm so shy that I can't even take my clothes off in the dressing room, even though it's just the other guys in the band in here with me. It's really weird.
Music is pretty much all I do.
I would never cancel a tour unless I had real reasons and personal things that require my undivided attention.
A lot of times, I don't feel responsible for the songs myself. But that's my job or my place in life: to keep my search and catch the ideas before they pass me by.
As a musician, I don't think I'm the greatest guitar player. I'm a bigger fan of the drums than I am the guitar; I just happen to play guitar. I play drums almost every day at my house. I wrote a lot of songs behind the drum kit, just having the music and vocals in my head and playing the rhythm.
I'm not very happy. I'm frustrated with human beings. I'm the guy who just wants to smack people in the face and say, 'Wake up!'
There's no rule that says you have to make records constantly, like clockwork, to continue being who you are.
You can't just release double albums and expect people to sit there and devote their time to it.
A lot of MTV's programming is hip-hop based, and the messages are usually all about bling bling. A lot of hip-hop artists sing about stuff that's more important, but they seldom get heard. The ones who get heard are the ones saying, 'Think about yourself. Make your money. It's all you. Everybody have a good time and party.'
I just think religion is something... It could be a beautiful thing for the individual, but when it becomes organized, that's when religion starts taking a kind of ugly turn to me.
I ain't got no beef with Obama.
Whatever I write has to evolve around my taste in music at that moment, because that always changes.
My dad is my biggest influence on me as a musician, even though he's not a musician.
How does a band like System of a Down get big?
Every song I've written is luck, I think; it's luck - 'How did that just happen?'
I don't get it when people complain that baseball games are too long.
I don't ever put down bands.
If I was money-motivated, I wouldn't have joined a rock band with three other Armenian guys.
