Famend producer Rick Rubin not too long ago shared a shocking story about his first time seeing System Of A Down carry out reside, revealing that he “laughed the entire present.” In an interview with Rick Beato, Rubin opened up about what drew him to the band, lengthy earlier than their debut album hit the cabinets.
“I like bizarre issues,” Rubin defined (by way of Steel Hammer) “I like being shocked, I like listening to one thing I have never heard earlier than, I like being challenged by music. When one thing can try this and I prefer it – as a substitute of simply being aggravated or [hating] it, which may occur when one thing is not for you – I needed to nurture it.”
Rubin, who co-produced all of System‘s albums from 1998 to 2005, emphasised that his preliminary curiosity within the band wasn’t primarily based on any predictions of business success. “With System Of A Down, I do not suppose I believed, ‘That is gonna be common.’ With not one of the artists I work with do I believe, ‘That is gonna be common.’ It would not be lifelike.”
Reflecting on that first reside expertise at The Viper Room, a Hollywood venue with simply 200 individuals in attendance, Rubin described how the band’s distinctive mix of metallic and Armenian folks music was so surprising, it made him snort. “When you noticed System Of A Down once I noticed System Of A Down, enjoying at Hollywood nightclub The Viper Room with 200 individuals going loopy, and them doing these Armenian folks dances and enjoying heavy metallic… I laughed the entire present. It was ridiculous! However I liked it.”
Rubin additionally remembered how others initially reacted to System Of A Down. He recalled enjoying their now-iconic music “Chop Suey!” to Rage Towards The Machine guitarist Tom Morello, who described it as “loopy particular person’s music!”
Furthermore, he additionally recounted the challenges System confronted early on, together with resistance from L.A. radio station KROQ, which initially refused to play the band’s music: “I bear in mind once we put out the primary System Of A Down album, the programme director at KROQ, which was the premiere station that might play that type of music on the earth, stated, ‘We are going to by no means play this band on our station. By no means.’ A 12 months later, System had been the number-one requested group on the station.”
Though System Of A Down has not launched a brand new album since Mezmerize and Hypnotize in 2005, and hasn’t toured since 2021, frontman Serj Tankian not too long ago revealed his memoir, Down With The System, guitarist Shavo Odadjian has a brand new band named Seven Hours After Violet, and he had stated that he is all the way down to document new music together with his bandmates. The band seems to have some unreleased materials that rocks fairly laborious, nevertheless it’s unclear if we are going to ever get to take heed to it.
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