Daron Malakian

Daron Malakian first made his name as the enigmatic guitarist and songwriter behind System of a Down. Between 1998 and 2005, the band released five albums—three of which debuted at number one on the Billboard charts. In 2006, System announced an indefinite hiatus.

Eager to keep creating, Daron launched a new project: Scars on Broadway. Their debut album arrived in 2008 to critical acclaim.

Since then, he’s reunited with System for a series of live performances—including a recent South American tour that drew massive crowds. Their final stop in São Paulo, Brazil, attracted an estimated 75,000 fans.

Now, after seven years in the making, Daron is releasing Addicted to the Violence, the third Scars on Broadway album—featuring what he considers some of the best songs he’s ever written.

On today’s episode, Leah Rose sits down with Daron to talk about why he believes he was destined to be a rock star, and how his parents’ journey from Baghdad to Hollywood helped make that dream possible. He also explains what people often misunderstand about his relationship with System frontman Serj Tankian—and reveals the surprising contrast between his outrageous onstage persona and who he really is offstage.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite Daron Malakian songs HERE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. Darren Malachean first made his name as the enigmatic
guitarist and songwriter behind System of a Down. Between nineteen
ninety eight and two thousand and five, the band released
five albums, three of which debuted at number one on
the Billboard Charts. In two thousand and six, System announced

(00:35):
an indefinite hiatus. Eager to keep creating, Darren launched a
new project, Scars on Broadway. Their debut album arrived in
two thousand and eight to critical acclaim. Since then, he's
reunited with System for a series of live performances, including
a recent South American tour that drew massive crowds. Their
final stop in South Polo, Brazil attracted an estimated seventy

(00:58):
five thousand fans. Now, after seven years in the making,
Darren is releasing Addicted to the Violence, their third Scars
on Broadway album, featuring what he considers some of the
best songs he's ever written. On today's episode, Lea Rose
sits down with Darren to talk about why he believes
he was destined to be a rock star and how
his parents' journey from Baghdad to Hollywood helped make that

(01:20):
dream possible. He also explains what people often misunderstand about
his relationship with System frontman Surge Tonkien and reveals the
surprising contrast between this outrageous on stage persona and who
he really is off stage. This is broken record, real musicians,
real conversations. Here's Lea Rose with Darren Malachean.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Let's talk about this new album, so Scars on Broadway.
Album it's called Addicted to the Violence to first album
in seven years. And I was curious, like, since it
sounds like you've been working on the songs for a
little while, and I was curious if in that process,
because we live in such a tumultuous time, just every

(02:12):
day just brings something new, something different, something that is,
you know, more shocking than maybe the next day. Did
any of those songs that you were writing. Did the
meaning sort of change for you?

Speaker 3 (02:25):
The thing is, I didn't write these songs necessarily during
these times. Some of these songs I wrote many, many
years ago, but they still kind of relate to the
world we live in. I think there's always some kind
of chaos in the world, whether it was twenty years ago,
ten years ago, five years ago, I think, one hundred

(02:50):
years ago. So I think chaos and I think that's
something that's been kind of that's always been there during mankind.
So that's why I think. But you know, not all
my songs are about chaos. But you know, the Idol
track is called Addicted to the Violence. But I can't,

(03:13):
you know, sit there and say every song on the
record is about the same thing, and it is about
there was this theme. Because I write songs. I always
tell people write I write songs, I don't write albums,
And those songs end up on albums. But I wasn't
writing those songs for an album. That right makes sense.

(03:35):
So at some point when I get off my ass
and I'm like, let me, let me record some of
these or you know, I play around them. I entertain
myself with my songs. I don't really write them for
anybody else. The fact that anybody else outside of me
likes them is a complete bonus. They're usually just for

(03:58):
me to begin with. The last thing I think of
when I write a song is I can't wait till
everybody hears this. It's just completely If I didn't have scars,
if I didn't have system, I would still be doing this.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Do you remember the first time you saw somebody react
to something that you wrote.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
It was when I was a teenager. I used to
have a group of friends that were because I wrote
songs when I was like thirteen fourteen. You know, I
started playing guitar when I was like twelve, and I
started writing my own songs at around thirteen fourteen, fifteen
years old. And my group of friends they were not

(04:43):
and still aren't. All my friends are plumbers. They're all
because they're all my old high school friends. And all
my old high school friends weren't musicians. They were more
kind of tough guy kind of you know, that's the
kind of crowd I hung out when was like, we
fought a lot out of school, and we were just

(05:05):
we were those guys.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
So we'd get together group of friends and I'd played
my song's original songs that I had written when I
was like maybe fourteen years old, more kind of folky,
sometimes ballady type. Lonely Day, you could say, is a
song that is kind of in that world of the
type of songs I used to write at that time.

(05:29):
And sometimes one of my friends, who's probably somebody that
you wouldn't see, get very emotional or you know, that's
just kind of the group that I was in would
like get emotional after I sang one of my songs
that like could get together or a party or whatever.

(05:50):
And I could see that, like my song touched touched them.
And it was then that I realized, Yeah, I love music.
I've always loved music. I started collecting records when I
was like four or five, really young. But it was
then that I realized that but my path in music

(06:12):
was it wasn't about being a shredding guitar player. It
wasn't about even an instrument. At the end of the day,
I realized the instrument is just a tool to bring
out these songs. Writing songs is my strength. This is
something that I can do and I love to do,

(06:32):
and I do it myself, but it seems to touch
other people as well, even though that's not why I
wrote those songs, but it does, and that's how I
kind of that's my focus kind of stayed through all
these years. Like even if you you know, read my
interviews from twenty years ago, I'd always say that I'm

(06:53):
a songwriter. I write songs, I compose songs. That's what
I did for System, so I do for Scars. That's
my you know, in music, you got a lot of
different you got the people who are technical musicians, You've
got the composers, you got producing, and there's so many
musicians that are just better musicians than I am. But
if you put me in a room with musicians, I

(07:16):
can make I can make those musicians sing together with
my song.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
Mm hmmm.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
Because you guys, you got guitar players who are amazing
guitar players, but they can't write songs.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Do you like amazing guitar players?

Speaker 3 (07:30):
Like?

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Do you like super technical players?

Speaker 3 (07:33):
I appreciate it, but it's not what I want to
do or even I have moments where I'll listen to
somebody like that. But if I want to talk about
like my I was always into drums more than I
had drums and vocalists, and I am into guitars. But
if I had to pick like guitar players, I like
like I like Roy Buchanan, I like Jerry Garcia. Oh nice,

(08:00):
just dudes that aren't necessarily But you know, growing up,
I used to really love Randy Rhodes, But as I
got older, the guitar players I enjoy listening to are
not necessarily shredders there, And when I do a guitar
soul in a song, it's usually kind of melodic. I
like the melodic kind of guitar players, So yeah, I mean,

(08:22):
but the guitar for me is just a tool to
write songs. I've written plenty of songs on synthesizers and
just maybe a vocal comes out first, never really focused
on it being you know, the guitar, being like I
really have to perfect this instrument or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, it's so interesting. Does it feel for you like
when you're up on stage? Is it an outlet to
get something out and to express something.

Speaker 3 (08:50):
When I'm on stage, there is a personality that comes
out of me. I don't fake it, It just comes out.
And that dude, that dude's really different. Like I don't
know how to explain it. But the second I walk
onto that stage, you put a microphone and the guitar
on my shoulder, and I start turning into a much

(09:12):
more confident version of myself and I'm comfortable up there.
I've always loved performing. Performing is also something that you know,
aside from the songwriting, I consider myself a performer as well.
But it's it's it's something that is just all of
it has just come natural to me. It's never been

(09:33):
something that I think about too much. It just happens.
I get on stage and I say shit that I
would never say real life. I do things that I
would never do in real life. I could see, like
when I see pictures of me, I see the way
I am on stage. You know that guy dances, that

(09:54):
guy screams, that guy yelled, that guy does all these
things Like I don't dance. I'm kind of really, kind
of mellow most of the time. It's almost like that
guy is not a good representation of who I am
in real life. But that's who comes out. That that's

(10:16):
who comes out when I walk on to stage, and
and that's cool. But you know, he just I'm glad
he stays there.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (10:24):
Is it? Is it therapeutic for you?

Speaker 3 (10:27):
Like? Does it?

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Does it achieve something? Help you work through something? Whereas
I'm thinking of your friends, like your friends maybe aren't
as vulnerable and expressive as you, like, I feel bad
for people who don't have that outlet like you have
this amazing outlet.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
He too, No, it is therapy. I look, I'm sure
everything that's there is here, but I can't express it here.
The same way, you know, and then it feels comfortable
to let loose and be angry, be you know, sometimes
I'm completely stupid. I say some stupid shit up there.

(11:05):
Sometimes I'm funny, like, uh, you know, Sarah. Sarah will
come to me after the show and he's like, dude,
you had me laughing the old time, like I could
barely fucking say out laughing, you know. And the rest
of the band, you know, they they have like I turned,
I say something. I turned to my band and they're
all like laughing because they didn't know I'm gonna say that.

(11:27):
I didn't know I was gonna say that, and it
just you know, I'm the audience doesn't know what's about
to happen. And there's just different sides that, you know,
and even in the songs that I write, Yeah, I
can't sit there and say that, you know, whether it's
System or Scars, that it's just like pure I mean metal,

(11:47):
because it's not.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
No, it's not. It changes, it's changed a lot.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
There's all kinds of emotions that human beings go through. Yeah. Uh,
you have your like I said, you had your funny times,
you have your stupid times, you have your sad times.
You have your angry times, you have your times that
you're concerned out society. I mean, and you're this person

(12:12):
and you're living in this world. And for me to
just be like, well, I write angry music and it
would it wouldn't seem honest to all of my emotions
and all of the human emotion that's out there. And
and so when I'm writing songs, I never like put

(12:34):
a wall and say, well that's that doesn't fit in
this rock metal world or that doesn't and so you know,
and then sometimes I'm expressing like Killing Spree for example,
the song is like, you know, it's very heavy riff,
kind of driving song, but if you listen to the

(12:56):
way I'm singing the song, it's very cartoon cartoon like
you know, uh wow ow how wow. You know, there's
all these and so there's like this series and the
topic is maybe some thing that's kind of serious. The
song is kind of heavy, but the emotion that I'm
singing with is kind of like not heavy, not serious.

(13:21):
It's cartoon cartoon esque. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
I love that. Yeah, I was thinking. One song that
stood out to me was The Shame Game.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
Oh cool, Yeah, I like that.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
I love that song. Yeah, I think that might be.
That's one of my favorites on the album. But that
like how you were saying, it's not all heavy, it's
not all metal. That's definitely a different sound, kind of psychedelic.

Speaker 3 (13:44):
It's exactly.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah, that's what I thought. It feels sort of like
I mean, it's hard to classify, but I was thinking
kind of like nineties kind of psychedelic. But that song.
I think that song's gonna sound super good live.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
Thank you. Yeah, proud of that one. You know. I
tend to really enjoy those type of songs, and I
feel like as I go into my writing, I kind
of write more of those type of songs these days
than I do the heavier stuff. And Scars kind of

(14:18):
system has that stuff too, Like I wrote when I
wrote Aerials, Uh, you know, a song like Atua has
both of those things in it, Like this, the verses
are very kind of you could say, uh, everly brothers
Simon and gar. Then we go into you don't care

(14:38):
about how I feel I don't, and it turns into
this metal thing and goes in and out of that
lonely day lost in Hollywood.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
So lost in Hollywood for sure.

Speaker 3 (14:49):
Scars kind of especially the first album you know, kind
of has more of that kind of stuff in there. Yeah,
people ask me to compare Scars to System. I would
always say, Scars kind of moved into a more rock
direction and and you'd have those dark moody, more of

(15:13):
those dark moody, mid tempo kind of songs, songs like
Insane on the first record Babylon.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
I Love Babylon.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
Like System, we didn't make any more records, but I
was still going into that direction, and you can see
it and mesmerize and hypnotize them that direction. So if
if System continued to make records, I could see that
System would have moved into that direction. But since there

(15:43):
we kind of took the hiatus and didn't make the
records anymore. Scars took me into that direction, right, and
so that's why you know you hear it moving into
a more rock direction. Babylon. Babylon is you know, my
family was in all the wars in Iraq during you know,

(16:07):
the first Bush, the second book. They were there during
Iran Iraq War. So it's kind of a song about
me and my family and my connection to my family
in Iraq and my concern running to Babylon like to
you know. And then there was a there's a line

(16:28):
that's like, I like the way we slept on rooftops
in the summertime, if we were And so that line
comes from when I was a kid, my parents would
always tell me, in the summer, people because it's so hot,
people would sleep on the roofs, you know. And when

(16:50):
I went to I went to Iraq when I was
in like fourteen years old, and it was in the summer,
and I was like, I would like to sleep on
the roof because I always I always heard about that
from my family. So I did. And so a few
nights at my I think it was my uncles or
my aunts, I can't remember, but we slept up on

(17:13):
the rooftop in the summertime. So that was like a
lived experience that I had that I you know, was
in the lyrics of the song Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
How was Iraq different than what you had imagined it
would be like when you were living in Hollywood. You're
living in la and you imagine what life was like there.
How was it different actually being there than what you
thought it would be like?

Speaker 3 (17:39):
Well, I had probably the same perception as most Americans
would maybe you know, maybe a little different because my
parents were from there. But you know, I thought I'm
going to a place where it's like sand and camels,
you know, honestly, Yeah, But no, there was a it

(18:00):
was a city, there was cars, There was a city,
like a very different kind of city, a very different
kind of vibe obviously because of you know, Saddam and
all that stuff. But like it was, you know, just
not as modern as where I was used to growing up. Yeah,

(18:23):
more modern than I thought it would be at the
end of the day.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
Do you remember questions people asked you about Hollywood or
about la it.

Speaker 3 (18:32):
Was I was fourteen years old, such a yeah, totally.
But I remember, you know, I had all my metal
cassettes and all the stuff, because that's you know, I would.
I would just I took a bunch of like rock magazines,
metal magazines, and I took a bunch of my cassettes
and I would listen on my headphones. I just remember

(18:52):
when I would like show and Slayer was extreme for
that time in the United States in nineteen eighty nine.
You know, yeah, player was like pretty extreme for your
average metal guy at that time. But I would sort
of show the Slayer show No Mercy, and they would

(19:18):
they would almost like question, It's like, is this even music?
What is this even? Like I said, it was even
extreme for the United States at that time.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
We'll be back with more from Darren Malackean and Leah
Rose after the break.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
Do you still listen to hard music? Like, do you
find that as you've gotten older, has your music taste
has it gotten a little softer? Or can you still
listen to hard music?

Speaker 3 (19:49):
I've always listened to all kinds of music. I could.
There isn't much that's new in metal that I'm really
gravitating to, Like I don't, I don't, I don't. I mean,
I'm I don't. I'm not talking shit about any of
the bands, but it's just I don't. It's it's not

(20:10):
turning me on.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah yeah, yeah, no, I get that.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
But uh, I've always had a My taste in music
has always been like this place, that place. It was
just always been all over the place, you know. When
I was a teenager, yeah I was more metal. But
as I got older. But when I say older eighteen
nineteen twenty twenty one, I started listening to Bowie, the Beatles,

(20:35):
Grateful Dead, stuff, that wasn't stuff that people turned me
on to yet at that point in my life, or
I didn't get turned onto yet. Yeah. And the thing
about me is I just I go through I mean
so many different kinds of music every other week, Like
this week I'm into like or this five months or

(20:59):
six months dub reggae, oh cool, Yeah, like kick Uppy
and these cats and the like. I go through phases
of like Miles Davis and uh, you know, I sese
phases that I've always gone through in my life, you know,

(21:20):
my twenties, like the goth bands that I was listening
to the early eighties, goth cool. When I was writing
mesmeriz and Hypnotized. Back in the day, I was really
into a black metal Norwegian. And I have to say,
if I listen to heavy music or metal music, if

(21:41):
you want to, you know, it's usually my go to
is black metal. I there's melody in the music, it's
it's there's just something that I really love about black
metal music. When it comes to what I listened to.
If I was to you know, I'm gonna turn on
something heavy, you know it would be dark Throwneh, satiric,

(22:04):
con immortal, those.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
Cool have you ever met any those guys, Like have
you been over to Norway and like played with any
of those guys.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
I'm very close friends with Satyr from Satyra Khan. I
have been for probably twenty five years now. He's still
keep in touch. He's I don't really have that many
friends that are in bands. I have acquaintances, but nobody
that I really regularly keep in touch with. Joey from

(22:35):
Slipknot was a friend of mine, and you know, it
was tough to lose him every so often. I'd been
from Dillinger Escape Plan and I kind of talk. But
Satyre from satirra Khan is somebody that I really keep
in touch with or you know, our friendship is a

(22:55):
little closer and more personal. And I really respect his band.
I love his band. I'm a fan of his band.
And that whole scene to me is one of the
last great metal if not the last great metal music
scene that I can recall.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
And when were they active, like around what years.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
Uh nineties up until now? A lot of those bands,
yeah still but early nineties. Because there's two waves of
black metal. There is the first wave with the bath Ory, Venom,
Celtic Frost that was in the early eighties kind of.
And then there was the second wave of black metal,
which came in the early nineties with Mayhem, Dark Throne,

(23:45):
Satiric Kron was part of that. But a lot of
black great bands. You know, a lot of people kind
of you know, they see the imagery and they see
all that stuff. But the music you listen to the music,
it's really melodic and it's kind of like classical music cool.
There was a mood. There was a scene same with

(24:07):
the like I mean, I know a lot of people
like to you know, lup Us in with new metal,
but that is the scene that we came up in.
And even in Los Angeles, you know that kind of
music Corn Deftones. When we first heard it and we

(24:32):
were part of it, we were being honest, we were
being original. We were you know, it was something. It
was a scene that I guess wasn't even meant to
be a scene, right. It just accidentally happens that all
these bands and they share these things in common, they
share a sound in common, and then what ends up

(24:55):
happening is it becomes popular. And when it becomes popular,
it starts becoming kind of cookie cutter, and it becomes
something at that time out labels these days I don't
even exist or they don't. But like at that time,
the label wanted to next System of a Down and
I was like, that's funny because none of you motherfuckers
wanted to sign us.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
Yeah right, you know.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
But now that we're thing, you know, being Armenian is
really cool now, isn't it. Like when we were coming
up there like, well, you guys are Armenian. I don't
know if anyone's gonna get what's an Armenian? You know?
And now that we were signed there was funny because
at that time not anymore, but like people were looking
for is there an Armenian member in that band? Like really, yeah,

(25:40):
it kind of funny, man. But all of these bands
I just mentioned the original ones, the ones that were
the first. We're not cheesy, We're not We're doing something unique.
I remember when I first heard the first Corn album,
I was like, dude, this is fucking different. It's heavy. Yeah,

(26:01):
the way that it sounds is even different. The way
that it's produced is different. It was like something I'd
never heard before. But then ten thousand bands came out
copying Corn and that's what turns it into oh, and
then it gets labeled as a genre. Yep, you metal,

(26:23):
Like we never called it that. And I hate genres.
To me, all music is the same.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
I know the thing about the genres though, Like I
understand that because I hate genres too, and I know
musicians hate genres. But if you're like a journalist or
you're trying to write about this stuff, it's like it's
helpful just in those terms.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
Look, the notes on a piano where I'm a guitar
are all the same. It's like a cow and a
cow has like beef, and I give beef to the
guy who makes Mexican food and he's gonna make Mexican
food with the beef. And give beef to the guy
who makes Armenian food. He's gonna make Armenian food with
the beef. And you know, and so it's how it's

(27:06):
the music is presented. Yeah, and as you know, it
turns in I don't know, it's kind of weird. Music
turns into like how you know, Mexican food or a
Median food. I mean, but for me, I don't know, man,
the kind of music I write, whether once again system
of announced Scars on Broadway, I feel weird. I like

(27:30):
being put into like a genre because yeah, there's heavy
stuff that's going on, but once there are songs on
the same album that don't even fit the genre likely
and shame game. I don't feel like I all my
songs fit into the same place. Yeah, and so when
you put me in a genre, I'm like, Okay, maybe

(27:50):
you could put that one in that genre, but how
about that one? Like So that's why genre bother me
because I don't feel like I always fit into them.
I don't feel like all my songs fit into the
same ones totally.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
I wonder, like, how has it been for you since
you've had the experience of releasing albums that have been
super successful through traditional record companies and also releasing albums
through independent because you released it on your own label, right.

Speaker 3 (28:20):
Yeah, well it's not really label just do you do
it yourself kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
But yeah, which do you prefer, Like, are there advantages
to the major label system that you see now or
do you prefer just DIY?

Speaker 3 (28:36):
They were both fine because nobody ever told me what
to write ever. Rick never did, the Columbia Never Records
never did. We kind of did our own thing, and
I wrote the songs that the kind of songs that

(28:57):
I wrote, and nobody ever like said, well, you got
to be more like lymp Biscuit. And because lymp Biscuit
was so big when we were coming out, you know,
and so we were kind of coming out and just
doing our thing and gaining and gaining and gaining and gaining.

(29:17):
And uh Rick told me a story where he when
he went to the head of K Rock once and
I don't know, I think he played them Chop Suey
and and he the person that was ahead of K
Rock at that time. I don't know if he still
is or she still is or isn't. He told Rick
that this song will never be played on this station

(29:43):
and this band will never be played because they just
it does not they're not what we do, you know,
type of And I guess soon after that, Chop Suey
became like the biggest song in the freaking you know,
on K rock or on their station, and we didn't
do anything to conform to Oh, you know what, then

(30:05):
I should write a song that you're gonna like feel
like fits in.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
Nothing like that song.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
Still, yeah, thank you, But we never had to deal
with so when it comes to like major labels or
radio stations or anything like that. So the difference is
that there is like a machine that's pushing your shit. Yeah,
that world at that time. You know, I haven't really

(30:34):
dealt with the label for quite some time, so I
don't real I don't know what kind of power, what
kind of thing they have now, But at that time
they had power. Yeah, and they push your stuff. And
next thing, you know, their MTV at that time was
still playing videos, and they played Chop Suey and you know,
you get.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
Like crazy that video was always on.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
And so the machine was doing its thing. When I'm
doing it myself, there is no machine. I hire a publicist,
let's put some money into this, you know, and and
the fans or the streams or people buying vinyls pretty
much bring back and pay for the stuff that needs

(31:18):
to be paid for a video. You know, all these
things cost money. Sometimes going on the road, you know,
it costs money because SCARS doesn't get the same guarantees
as system does. So we still need buses, we still
need all this stuff. So this what I do with SCARS,

(31:42):
it's kind of yeah, I run it, but it's funded
by the fans. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
And also I mean, you have the benefit of when
you go out with System that can help fund it too.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
Sure, I have a separate thing that when Scars, any
money comes in from Scars, I put it into that
and I'm like, this is the Scars you know, Piggybank.

Speaker 2 (32:09):
Okay, that's cool. So you can actually see what's being generated.

Speaker 3 (32:12):
Yeah, and what I put back into the band and
what I.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
I guess tell me the story of Scars, Like when
you started the band. I know the first album came
out in two thousand and eight.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
Where were you.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
At professionally, Like, why did you decide that was the
time to start the band?

Speaker 3 (32:27):
Well, I knew System was not going to be making records.
I didn't know that we were never going to make records,
but at the time we were like, okay, we're taking
a hiatus, and for me, I was like okay. I
at that time, I mean, I was used to like
I have an outlet for my songs, and my outlet

(32:48):
for my songs was System. So Scars kind of started
even before I knew there was going to be a hiatus.
I was like, here, I want to do this second
band kind of thing. I tried out a lot of
different renditions and different musicians and different things before I
got to work. I got on the first Scars record,

(33:11):
but when System kind of took the hiatus, I was like, well,
I gotta do something here. I can just sit here
on my hands. I have songs, and so it just
seemed like the natural thing to do is like, Okay,
let's take this band that I was kind of working

(33:33):
on already and put a little more focus into it.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
Well, last break and we're back with the rest of
Darren Malachean.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
Do you think that the fact that your parents are
both artists, how does that influence the way that you
make your art? Do you think there's any connection to
the way you approach your work as a songwriter, as
a singer, as a producer. Did you inherit any approach
from your parents? Is there any commonality?

Speaker 3 (34:09):
I watched my dad paint paintings my whole life, and
my dad has never done an art exhibition. He has
a house full of hundreds of paintings that he paints,
but he paints them for his He's always trying to
like find something new, but it's not about showing anybody else.

(34:29):
And I think that's where I get my thing from.
Is where I would do it regardless, because I've seen
him do it regardless. Yeah, I mean the only thing
that I like, I'm the one that like put his
stuff on my album covers or system album covers, Like, well,
Mesmeriz hypnotizes my dad's stuff.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
Oh wow, I didn't know that all.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
The star stuff is my dad's stuff. Oh cool. But
his stuff on his own is very different than that stuff.
That's me pushing him in a direction because I'm like,
it's an album because this stuff's very abstract. So his
approach is I approach. I mean, that's just kind of

(35:12):
watching the way he does it. And it wasn't like,
well I'm gonna watch him and take that. It's just
in the house. This is ye, this was how we
did things. This is how it was. My mom when
she was in Iraq was a sculptor and and she
does she did, but when she came to the States,
my mom is the responsible one, yeah, in the things.

(35:35):
So she was kind of like saving the money and
working and my dad worked too. But like you know,
if it wasn't for my mom, like we would have
just been like homeless problem bohemian art. Yeah. So luckily
she has a side to her that was very responsible

(35:55):
and organized, so she kind of had to leave her
art to the side. And but you know, she's one
of those people that will sit there and then like
ten minutes can draw your face.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
Very she went to school for art. That's another thing
where it's a little different with my dad and my mom.
My dad never went to school for I never went
to school. But my mom is more training as an
artist in that way, but through the ears, like she
she is an artist, but had to kind of put

(36:33):
her art to the sode for Yeah, got understand. He
came from Iraq with nothing. Yeah, like nothing and uh
coming from bag Dad to Hollywood, yeah, you know, and
uh so you know they they had to make some
sacrifices and it's it's I know, this is a crazy

(36:56):
fucking thing to say, and and but it's true that
since I was a kid, this is what I do
now is what i've I always was like, since I
saw all the early bands that I was in to,
it was an obsession and it was something that I
was interested in, and it was always like music was
always a big deal in my life. And even as

(37:18):
a kid, in my head, I was like and I
I guess I had the maturity as a kid to
think this way. But it was like I knew what
kind of sacrifice my parents had made. I knew that
my parents were both artists, and it felt like this

(37:40):
like was your like it's my destiny, like to to
become one of these, like this musician or whatever it is.
And then as I got older, you know, eight, nine, ten,
eleven years old, I would start telling people like I'm

(38:00):
going to be in a band one day. I'm going
to do this. Like I mean, as a really young child,
it's crazy. Anybody, anybody who knew me at that time
will tell you he's not fucking like he said that,
and he kept saying it. And as I got older,
people would say like, well, you know, one of the
chances that that's gonna happen, and I go in my head,

(38:22):
I was like, this is why my parents moved here. Wow,
that's how That's how my head was saying, this is
why this was like this is all supposed to fucking
happen and and yeah, then then when they would tell me, oh,
you know that's a long shot or your Armenian and

(38:42):
no Armenians ever made it in that kind of thing,
and I was like, just watch, I have this crazy confidence.
Like even in high school. They sent me to a
thing and.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
I was like a prophecy.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
It's it's weird. You know, it happened. And when it happened,
I got like panic attacks because I was like, Jesus,
this fucking happened until this day, till this day. I
get on stage and we just went played South America.
It was like sixty people, and I was still.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Saying those crowds in South America.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
Yeah, but till this day, I'm like, dude, this fucking happened.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
Man, who does that happen for? I mean, do you
know how many people have that dream?

Speaker 3 (39:24):
Yeah? You know what?

Speaker 2 (39:26):
But that's crazy? Like how what was your parents' reaction
to your success?

Speaker 3 (39:31):
They'll tell you the same thing. They'll say, he was
always into this, he was always saying he's gonna do it,
and and they're obviously when you're like fourteen years old
and you're telling and you're dropping out of high school
and you're failing all your classes, and you know, you
run with a crowd that's like you know, fighting and
all this shit your parents and you're telling your mom,

(39:53):
I'm going to be a musician. And these are two
artists that are have been struggling artists their whole lives,
so they know what the artist life is, right. Yeah,
Oh they were worried. And it's funny because me and
my mom talked about this just two or three days ago.
She's like, at some point, she told me, I realized

(40:14):
that this is what you want, this is what this
is what you are. And she said I would be
be like she's you know, she's religious in some ways.
She said, like I felt like I would be like
sinning if if I stood in your way. Yeah, what

(40:36):
you felt like this was your calling in life, you know.
And so she's like, at some point I just let
it go and I and I supported, and she did.
I wouldn't be here today without my mom's support.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
She's a good mom.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
Oh, she's she's amazing. I owe her everything, like she
would give me. I didn't have a job, i'd have shit.
And when I was sixteen, I started playing in bands
that we needed rehearsal studios, you know, and I would
have to ask her and we weren't rich, but she

(41:13):
would give me rehearsal studio rent every month so I
can do what I do She knew that I loved music,
so she would let me take her credit card and
go to the record store and buy me records because
she knows that all I did was sit in my
room and listen to record yeah yeah, And she supported

(41:35):
that man and so so watching my dad as an
artist shape me in one way. But my mother's support
is like priceless, especially their Armenian Armenians, you know. And
then at some point I started painting my hair fucking
pink and when nail and all this fucking shit. These

(41:57):
people are from Iraq, you know, like that.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
Takes guts on your part. Though I was, you know.

Speaker 3 (42:06):
As an Armenian guy. There was and even my friends
they didn't look like that. They did interest yeah that
so yeah, I mean I just it felt natural to me.
It felt right, you know. The music I was listening
to at the time was like, you know, in my
eighteen nineteen twenty twenty, I was like loving a lot
of god like alien sex been and you know, when

(42:30):
you're young, you're kind of looking at people, you know,
I like that style. I like that. So that style
and that style and that style kind of together and
make my own little style. Do the same with the
songs I write, you know, I take you know, I
like that.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
Yeah, yeah, it's like a pastiche.

Speaker 3 (42:46):
I think the bands that do something unique do that.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:53):
Oh, even if you listen to like Van Halen, for example,
you know, you're yeah, it's rock, it's shredding, but like
David Lee Roth's vocals are not your typical fucking rocky
you know. He brought in a lot of different kinds
of things in that style, and.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
That's part of the reason they're so good.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
Yeah. They So you messed this, meshed, that messed it,
and you make this new thing because everything is inspired
by something.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
Yea.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
It's the bands that copy that are kind of like, okay,
I could tell you listen to Tool because sound like Tool,
you know. Yeah. But the bands that kind of bring
their influences in worlds together and create this new thing
and you're like, well that sounds familiar, but that mixed

(43:46):
with that, I never heard that before, and so you
make some new thing with that.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
That's exactly what System was. It was so new and
so different.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
Yeah, and we all are very different people in System,
and I think that also kind of comes out, yeah,
in in this in the dynamic, in the band, Like,
it's the personality and our band are completely not Each
one of us is nothing like the other.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
That first, I'm glad you guys are able to still
tour and still do what you're doing. And I know
fans are so appreciative of it. And you can see
that in those massive crowds in South America. That was
what was that experience for you, Like being on stage
with those crowds.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
The response was going to South America. You're always like, dude,
those are probably the best fans in the world. I
mean the way they are so passionate. Yeah, So before
I went there, I would always tell everyone, like, dude,
I'm going from this quiet life to like that. And
and when it comes to like there is like two

(44:55):
hundred and three hundred people outside the hotel room. Really
like it was the second you stick your head out
of the window, it's like, you know, yeah, it's it's.

Speaker 2 (45:05):
That's like the stuff you see from like Madonna and
Michael Jackson back in the.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
Day, like that. It is it's like that. And uh,
but this time around, because we'd been there before, Yeah,
this time around the crowd so they would bring these
flares and it was a lot of them, so I
posted that and I posted, oh, check out the Pyro.
I wrote something like the Pyromaniacs in Peru or something

(45:29):
like that. But what in every show we did after that,
it was like the crowds started one upping each other
with the players and the fires, and then they started
they started seeing footage of people breathing fire into the thing.
So then I made it a thing where I was like,
because we never have Pyro on stage, So I turned

(45:51):
and said, if you notice that we don't have any
Pyron stage, but our fans they break the fire, you know.
And so by the time we got to that last
show in sal Paulo, it was it was a scene
that I never see that with my band or I
never seen that anyone else's band.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
I've never seen a crowd that big.

Speaker 3 (46:16):
I mean I've seen crowds that big. I just never
seen that much fire.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
Yeah, the fire and then it's smoky too, so it
creates this like really spooky ambiance, like it's like you're
in hell.

Speaker 4 (46:29):
But it's like, yeah, so I don't know, man, I mean,
you know, we haven't put out an album with the
System in so many years and for.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
And it feels like it's in when I go outside
and I meet the fans, I'm not meeting people that
are my age. I'm meeting people that are eighteen wow
for thirty around that age where some of these people
were not even born when our last album came out. Crazy.

(47:05):
So the fact that the music has still you know,
it's it's still lived with people, and some people are
either rediscovering or just or just discovering it, you know,
I means it means a lot to me. Man. Obviously,
as someone like I told you before, like dreamt from
a really age to that you know, was this is

(47:29):
my life, this is what I'm going to do, and
and it's still happening. And I'm this many years in
and I have you know, I got two bands that
seem like you know, when when we get I get
I get a response, and we get a response with
these bands, and uh, it's still something that you know,

(47:51):
sometimes people who do it as long as I've been
doing it kind of be like, oh, yeah, that is
what it is. But it's not like that for me, man.
For me, I'm like, I still can't believe this is happening. Cool.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
So when you do run into people and you have
more time to talk to them beyond like, hey, can
I get a picture? What are people asking you about System?
Like what's the most common thing people ask?

Speaker 3 (48:17):
Well, when I meet them face to face like that,
they don't really ask me anything. There I mean South America,
they were shaking and crying wow. And so I'm like,
I always have to be kind of like, you know,
I try to ask like what's your name? Personal, make
them realize that I'm a human being. Likes I'm like,

(48:38):
this feels like I'm some cartoon character you know that
came in front of their eyes, just you know, try
to put them at ease, show them I appreciate them.
But obviously the question that comes the most when it
comes to System is like, well, you guys going to
make another album and you know all that stuff, And

(49:00):
for now, I'm happy we got those albums. Like I said,
people have just discovered it. People rediscovered it, or people
have lived with it and it's become the fabric of
some of their lives and that's cool, man. And so
I don't really entertain the whole Like if you've talked

(49:22):
to me maybe like ten years ago, I might have
like a little bit more like, oh, I wish wish
it maybe, Yeah, how much time has passed. I'm kind
of like, I don't know. I mean, if it happens,
it happens. I'm not really pushing for it so much. Yeah.
The thing is, we really get along as as friends,

(49:44):
and we always have as friends. But then when banned
politics comes into the thing, that's when the resentments come
in and all this shit comes in, and we're kind
of like hanging out again as a band, which we
hadn't done. You know, Sarah and I hadn't really hung

(50:06):
out that much in the last quite some time. But
the se and I text each other and I see
each other serge and I feel friendly and friends and
have kind of reconnected that And I don't know, I
don't want something. I'm enjoying that.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
So that must feel so good.

Speaker 3 (50:28):
It does because I never hated any one of my
band members. You know, we each had certain issues with
each other within the band, but take the fan out
of the situation, I think we all really like each
other as people and as friends. Yeah, that's why it's
like it call some bands stay together and make records together,

(50:48):
but they can't stand each other through all the years.
We don't have that like, we've never been the guys
that were like, well, I can't be in the same
room with that guy. Yeah, it's never been that way
with System, And I think fans need to hear that,
because fans think that Sarage and I hate each other

(51:09):
and they pick sides. They're like, I'm on team Sarage
and I'm on team Darren, and it's like, you guys
don't realize that we love each other, Like we we
don't hate each other. You guys don't need to get
on teams. You guys like us both.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
Yeah, they love conflict and it.

Speaker 3 (51:29):
Becomes the That's the sad thing for me is because
it becomes clickbait and it becomes all this crap and
I'm like, it's not really showing an accurate picture of
what we're really like and how we really feel about
each other.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
Yeah, well, I'm happy to hear that. I'm happy there's
love there and that you're reconnecting. And I don't know
that sounds like a step in the right direction. Maybe
something will happen. If it doesn't, it doesn't, I mean,
you have your you haven't a whole nother outlet, and
you know you've made do.

Speaker 3 (52:05):
Yeah. And another thing is when there's so much of
a gap between that last record and then something if
we it just for me, I like to see evolution,
and when we stopped, Scars became my new evolution with
my writing, and those albums will be those albums, and

(52:29):
they've lived with people for such a long time that
anything we do it feels like it might even be
criticized and be like, well it's not as good. Well,
different times.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
It's going to be compared, for sure, Like.

Speaker 3 (52:43):
There's something nostalgic about the old stuff, and you can't
fuck with nostalgia at the time.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
No, I know, it means so much to so many people.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
Years have gone by and years of people living with that,
and so you can't just make up years that that's
something that is just organic and the natural way that
things moved, you know.

Speaker 2 (53:11):
Yeah, but you guys have always been so authentic, Like
whatever comes out will be authentic.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
I'm not saying it would suck. Yeah, really fucking good,
it might be. I have so many songs that if
the band wants to do that, yeah, I have music
that I already know would be on that that's not
going to happen. I will take that music and put
it onto a Scars record, and the two songs that

(53:37):
we did a few years ago, protect the Land, well,
Protect the Land was supposed to be on Addicted to
the Violence, but because there was the war in arts off, yeah,
and we wanted to say something because we had a
platform and nobody was talking about it. So we all
out on the phone and we're like, well, maybe we
should release two songs. And I was like, I have

(54:00):
a song that's about that, like and I didn't even
and I wrote that song before the conflict happened. It's
just weird. Yeah, that is weird and so uh out.
And so I was kind of like willing, like, okay,
I'll take that song off the Scars record, And well,
we had it recorded. I had all my vocals on

(54:23):
that song are from my Scars recording. We just had
John play the drums and Shallo play the bass and
Sarah's kind of sang with me. But my vocals from
that track are all from my Scars session. So the
song was pretty pretty much the same, yeah, except we

(54:44):
brought in different people to perform it. Yeah, you know,
I'm proud of that. It's cool that we did that.
But if I didn't take that to System. It would
have been a SCAR song. If Mesmerized and Hypnotize never
became System Records Lost in Hollywood Lonely Day maybe, I
mean by all of that shit would have been Scar stuff.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
I wanted to ask you, speaking of of those albums,
I want to ask you about Soldier Side Yep. Was
there a read that's such a beautiful song? Was there
a reason you put that just thinking about the track list?
Was there a reason you put that as the last song?

Speaker 3 (55:24):
Well, the intro of Soldier Side comes in in the
beginning of Mesmeriz and then the rest of the song
is the last song. We didn't know that it was
gonna be a double album when we were in there
recording the songs. Neither, and I didn't know that when
I was writing the songs. The thing with me is
I always brought in a lot of songs. Yeah, Toxicity

(55:51):
had Toxicity, but then we had steal this album. But
all the steal this album stuff was from Toxicity sessions.
And that's just because I would just bring in so
many songs, because for me, I was like just writing
like crazy focused and here guys, and and uh, let's
pick the best ones. You know. Yeah, And so same

(56:15):
with Mesmerise Hypnotize. I came into like thirty songs or more.
We still have stuff that we hadn't even haven't even
released off Mesmeriz and Hypnotized, and nobody's heard that. We
listen back to and were like, shit, we forgot we
had this. Uh, well there you go.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
You got a little at least an EP. Maybe put
that out.

Speaker 3 (56:38):
That's peak System, We'll see it's some of it. I
felt like just wasn't good enough to be on the record,
you know, yeah, you know. What we did with Steal
this album was those songs we felt like weren't as
good as maybe the ones on Toxicity, but then somebody

(57:01):
leaked them and they were leaked in a way that
we're like, well, we didn't want them that So what
we did was go back in the studio and make
them as good as what should have been on Toxicity.
So we rearranged. We did that, so if we ever
did that with the Mesmerize, and that's something we would
have to do with those songs as well, because there's
something I don't know. I look at him and I'm like, ah,

(57:24):
this could be better. That could be better. So they
need to be redone that's ever gonna happen. But going
back to the Soldier Side thing, so we had the
thought of it making a double album came up along
the way, and so in my head, I was like,

(57:46):
why don't we use the intro portion of Soldier Side
as the intro for Mesmerized and then end the album
with the song and it yeah, yeah, yeah, So if
you've heard both records and then you hypnotize and that
comes back at the end the way it starts already

(58:09):
in the beginning, it just book ended both of the
records and a kind of creative in a very If
I was a listener, I would be like, wow, that
just came back from that, like you know, And and
the records were also not released together. There was months

(58:29):
or I don't remember how Yeah, they were apart. So
I just thought it was just this cool emotional thing
that would happen to the listener. Yes, if they if
it all comes back at the way end of the
second one. You know.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
I love when artists are thoughtful like that, you know,
because there are a lot of listeners who appreciate that, well.

Speaker 3 (58:51):
You're creating a painting at the end of the day,
and once again going back to my dad, and now
I see records and how I see albums. You're creating
this work. It's not just okay, individual songs, but it's this.
It's an album. And I know people nowadays don't have
attention spans on, but I still make albums like I

(59:14):
want the album to flow song into song into song,
and there's a reason why I ended it that way.
Like Addicted to the Violence is the last song, the
final track, but it's the last song on the record,
and it's this really kind of for me. The song
has this epic the keyboards and the mood, but the

(59:35):
way the song ends and it just goes bone and
it reminds me of like the day in the Life
of the Beatles, where it just kind of ends and
it feels like an ending, like duh yeah, And I
wanted the album to end with that vibe it felt.

(59:55):
I don't know that that's just the picture I wanted
to paint, you know.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
Yeah, No, that's cool. Who We've been thinking about this
just at Broken Record, talking to other people I work with,
And this is a random question, but curious where you'll
go with it. Who do you think are the best
Like the five best American bands.

Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
Jesus van Halen. For me, I I love van Halen
and it ain't because like, it ain't because my favorite
part of van Halen is Alex and Dave to me,
and that's weird coming from a guitar player. Yeah, I
love Alex van Halen like I'm a huge fan of

(01:00:38):
his drumming, uh and David Lee Roth as a vocalist.
And it's just to me, it's such a complete It's
what like a great rock band should be. Is that
energy of the first all the David Lee Roth stuff,
you know, pick but then you know Grateful Dead. I

(01:00:59):
love the Grateful Dead. Uh shit. And even people ask
me questions like this, I always walk away and I'm like, shit,
I should have mentioned that guy.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
Yeah, I know. It's it's hard to be put on
the spot. But it's also kind of like, yeah, it's
an interesting thing because a lot of you go to
like British bands usually, but American is a whole different thing.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
Yeah. Fuck man, I didn't expect the questions.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
So I no, no. And then you could think, like,
you know, do the Beach Boys count?

Speaker 3 (01:01:30):
Oh? Yes, thank you, I don't know do they they do? Yes?
They do.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
Okay, so the Beach Boys, and then what about newer bands?
Does Nirvana? Is Nirvana one of the best guns and roses?
You know, there's so many places you can go with it,
Sly in the family Stone, Yeah, Earth Wind and Fire
do they count?

Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
Yeah? All count? Yeah? I mentioned there is good stuff.
It's great. But you know, everyone has their taste on
you know, who they think is the best. Like, you know,
Nirvana was a great band, but yeah, impact me as
much as you know some other people. Man, you know,
I don't know. Did you love great you know?

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
But yeah, do you go to dead shows? Did you
used to go to dead shows?

Speaker 3 (01:02:18):
Not a lot. I wasn't like following them, but I would.
I saw them at the La Sports Arena when Jerry
Garcia was still alive and I was on mushrooms, so
it was really good.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
They're so good. They're just like a good band to
have just playing in the house like throughout the day.

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
American Beauty is one of the just one of my
favorite albums, man. Yeah, from up to Bottom is I
know they're known as a jam band, but yeah, these
songs on those records ripple yeah, Oxa.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
Ray Yeah, Oh I love that you love that. That's
so nice. I wouldn't have expected that.

Speaker 3 (01:03:00):
Great, great songs, some of my favorite songs. But you
said the Beach Boys, you know, early Beach Boys. I
love of the twenty twenty album is such a good
fucking album. I love it. I know Pet Sounds is
the one that everyone talks about, But there's more to

(01:03:21):
the Beach Boys than just Pet Sounds. Man. Yeah, local harmonies, Uh,
I don't know. Great bands. I don't know the Everly
Brothers considered as a band, I don't know. They inspired
so many people like those, you know, Aside from bands,
you have just a lot of individuals in American rock

(01:03:44):
that you know. Obviously Elvis, Neil Neil Young.

Speaker 2 (01:03:48):
He's Canadian though.

Speaker 3 (01:03:49):
Oh okay, But when people ask me about some of
my favorite guitar players, I always bring up Neil Young. Yeah,
he's not a shredder, you know, he does his thing,
but I love that thing. Oh, let's not forget the
Ramones should be.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
Yeah, the Ramones are so awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
Ramos definitely should be mentioned in.

Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
That They're so awesome. I love them.

Speaker 3 (01:04:11):
A lot of great punk bands, the Dead Boys, the Misfits,
all American bands, Bad Brains, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:20):
Were you into like hardcore like New York City hardcore
or the bands coming out of DC. Were you into
that too, sure? Like Minor Threat, Yeah, like Fugazi and
all that. Oh cool? Was there anything else you wanted
to say or talk about with a new album that
we didn't cover?

Speaker 3 (01:04:40):
You know, it's just I don't put out albums a lot,
but when I do, it's something I really believe in. Like,
for example, if ten years down the line people ask me, well,
what are some of the most proudest moments you had
as a songwriter, the song Addicted to the Violence will

(01:05:01):
come up, just like Aerials or just like anything I've
done with System, just like Babylon is one of the
those songs. There's a song called Till the End on
the second Scars record. These songs that I've had, these
moments where I'm very kind of you know, you have

(01:05:24):
a lot of children, but some of your children kind
of you have this pride. I don't have any children,
but I'm saying what I'm saying. People who have a
lot of children, you know, you have some that you
might be a little bit more proud of than So
there's stuff on this record like Shame game or addicted

(01:05:47):
to the violence, or it's just if you ask me
ten years from now, I guarantee I will tell you
that those songs will fall into the group of songs
that I'm very very proud of in my history or
in my you know, discography, or.

Speaker 2 (01:06:09):
That's awesome, it's awesome you can still do it, and
that you still have this band and that you have
you have so much pride in the new music that
you're making.

Speaker 3 (01:06:18):
I wouldn't put it out if I didn't have that.
I second guess myself constantly, and I'm very picky about
what I put out there. Dude. I have a roll
index of songs. I have albums worth of songs that

(01:06:39):
I'm still tinkering with. Yeah, playing with people are like, well,
it takes forever for you to take put out albums,
and I'm like, well, when I put out an album,
that album is forever.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
Yeah, No, that's real.

Speaker 3 (01:06:53):
So I will take forever to make sure that that
song is finished. Or you know, if you're cooking food
is ready to eat, Yeah, you know, it's it's not
half baked, it's ready to god, it's ready to be absorbed.

(01:07:15):
Taking it and and I make that decision. Yeah, I
see it, and I see well, it's finished and it's
ready to record, and if it takes me forever to
do it, I will take forever to do it. To
put out something that's going to be forever out there.

Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
Makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker 3 (01:07:35):
Cool.

Speaker 2 (01:07:36):
Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you talking.

Speaker 3 (01:07:39):
It's yeah good.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
This an episode description, you'll find a link to a
playlist of our favorite Scars on Broadway and System of
a Down tracks, and also some of Darren's favorite black
metal cuts. Be sure to check out YouTube dot com
slash Broken Record podcast to see all our video interviews,
and be sure to follow us on Instagram at the
Broken Record Pod. You can follow us on Twitter at

(01:08:04):
broken Record. Broken Record is produced and edited by Leah Rose,
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(01:08:26):
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app Our theme music's by Kenny Beats. I'm justin Richmond.