Tankian: “It’s the best time of our life as a band”

In an interview with Kerrang! magazine, the singer of system of a Down, Serj Tankianspoke about his current relationship with his bandmates, the guitarist/vocalist Daron Malakianthe drummer John Dolmayan and the bass player Shavarsh “Shavo” Odajian.

This is what the 58-year-old Tankian said: “We’re having the time of our lives as a band right now. We’re having a lot of fun on tour. It’s really, really friendly: we’re deeply involved in each other’s lives, on a personal level. It’s what I’ve always wanted the band to be. We’ve had to go back to our corners, evaluate things and come together to really appreciate what we have, in every way.”

Referring to last month’s announcement that the group would embark on a ten-date European stadium tour in the summer of 2026, Serj said: “We don’t do a lot of concerts. We choose what we want to do and we talk about it openly. We don’t do tours. We say, ‘Hey, where do you want to go?’ For example, we’ll start in Stockholm, and it wasn’t something we were planning to do initially, but Daron recommended it to us because he wanted to go there. And I told him: ‘Dude, do you want to go there?’ He was like, ‘Really?’, and I was like, ‘Yes! Because my friend wants to go!’ That was our attitude, and it was great for the rest of the guys, because they admitted it too.”

Serj Tankian he continued, “We don’t sell gadgets. We’re artists and we want to stay that way. We want to be careful and not expose ourselves too much, so we’re demanding. We play ten to fifteen concerts a year and we perform in stadiums instead of arenas, which is incredible for us. We never thought this would happen in our career… For us, it’s crazy. And it says a lot about the people, their children coming to the concerts and the generational power of music, and System’s music in particular. It really touches a nerve, we don’t know exactly why, but we are very grateful for it. We disappeared for many years for personal reasons, then we reappeared, there is this huge demand and we just want to be careful and make people happy with our performances, but without exaggerating.”

The tour of system of a Down it will also touch Italy. The American band of Armenian origins will return to perform in our country after nine years 6 July 2026 at the Snai La Maura racecourse in Milan.