System of a Down guitarist Daron Malakian has reflected on his brief stint deputizing for James Hetfield in Metallica – which began after he saved one of the band's shows at the last minute.

In 2000, Malakian’s nu-metallers were the new the kids on the block. They only had one album and a few commendable Ozzfest showings to their name at that point, but they were making serious waves.

So, when James Hetfield was sidelined after a water skiing accident, Malakian was promptly sworn into the band. He and some ad hoc vocalists helped fill the void left by the band’s co-founder across a handful of shows, after Malakian put himself in the frame.

“When I was 12 or 13, I had been playing the guitar for a year. I was with these guys in my school and, in their dad's garage, we would play Metallica covers,” he says on Rick Rubin’s Tetragrammaton podcast (via Blabbermouth).

“That's pretty much all we'd play,” he adds. “[It was] a big part of how I learned how to play the guitar, so I knew all the Metallica covers.”

Aside from Malakian’s in-depth knowledge of the material, his hiring was also practical as System of a Down were supporting Metallica on their Stadium Sanitarium tour that summer. But there was no time for a bedding-in process.

"I met Metallica on stage playing with them,” he reveals. “I never met them before. We're the first band. Nobody knows us. It was like, five bands on the bill [including Kid Rock and Korn].

“Jason Newsted was singing, and then they brought [Jonathan Davis from] Korn on, and they played this Cheech & Chong cover song or something. They didn't know what to do because James [Hetfield] wasn't there.

“So I turned to my tech, and I say, ‘Go tell their tech that I know a lot of their shit.’ Then my tech comes back to me. He's, like, ‘All right, come with me.’

“Next thing you know, I go on the other side of the stage. I get handed a Les Paul – I think it was one of Kirk Hammett's. I'm in my after-show [clothes], wearing Lakers sweats. I'm not even ready to get on stage.”

But on stage he went, in front of 60,000 people, many of whom may not have caught SOAD’s set.

“You gotta understand that [at the time] our band's not big yet. I'm still a kid. I'm 22 years old,” Malakian continues. “I can't even believe that we're even allowed to open up for Metallica, and they put me out there! They're, like, ‘What do you know?’ I go, ‘I don't know; Master Of Puppets,' ‘Okay. Count it in.’

“And then there's this thing that happened where, in the middle of Master Of Puppets, instead of going into that slow part, they went into Welcome Home (Sanitarium), and I didn't know they were gonna do that. You would think we rehearsed it – I didn't even know it was gonna happen.”

Malakian clearly made a good impression. He continues, “Next thing you know, Kirk Hammett's in front of me with a guitar trying to teach me stuff off Load, and they're like, ‘Hey, get your shit from your bus, because you're flying on the private jet with us now.’”

After a few shows, Hetfield was back in the saddle, while Malakian was left with lifelong memories.

In related news, Malakian stumbled across a SOAD cover band while on tour last year and proceeded to play with them.

Founded in Japan all the way back in 1957, with roots stretching to the Hoshino Gakki company in 1908, Ibanez stands today as one of the key players in the guitar market.

The brand has always been synonymous with high quality – so much so, in fact, that there’s even a now-collectable ‘lawsuit’ period of instruments from a time when American brands felt threatened by their Eastern imitators.

And while it’s easy to think of Ibanez as a company that’s at the cutting edge of metal machines for the modern age, it's also innovated much further afield: producing timeless acoustics, semi-hollows, and hollowbody instruments – not forgetting, of course, some of the world’s best-selling overdrive pedals in the Tube Screamer series. Which is exactly why this list of the 25 most important Ibanez players crosses through various genres and styles.

It's become the go-to brand for all kinds of players, from original jazz cats like George Benson and fusion pioneers like Pat Metheny to acoustic renegades like Jon Gomm and Marcin and modern trailblazers like Nita Strauss and Yvette Young.

Steve Vai

Could Steve Vai be the most quintessential Ibanez player of them all?

After all, it was his first JEM signature in 1987 that inspired the RG series, which quickly became a bestseller for the company. And then just a few years later, his Universe signatures made history as the world’s first mass-produced seven-string electric.

More importantly, however, Vai ended up cementing his name as one of the greatest guitarists of all time, from his stints with Frank Zappa, Whitesnake, and David Lee Roth and game-changing solo records like Passion And Warfare, Real Illusions: Reflections, and his latest instrumental masterpiece, Inviolate.

Joe Satriani

How many guitarists can say they taught the likes of Steve Vai, Kirk Hammett, and Alex Skolnick? Joe Satriani is truly one of a kind in that sense, but more significantly, he took rock guitar to new heights with the double Grammy-nominated album, Surfing With The Alien, and continued to innovate on the releases that followed, most notably Flying In A Blue Dream and The Extremist.

The legato-loving legend has also been prolific as a collaborator, having conquered arenas as part of Mick Jagger’s band and Deep Purple, as well as starting the G3 supergroup alongside Steve Vai. More recently, he’s been busy working with ex-Van Halen members on the Best Of All Worlds tour.

Paul Gilbert

Alongside Vai and Satch, Paul Gilbert completes what many would consider to be ‘The Big Three’ of Ibanez shredders.

His work in Racer X and Mr. Big sets him apart as one of the most advanced minds to pick up a guitar, as well as one of the most ferocious alternate pickers the world has ever seen, fusing the neoclassical edge of Yngwie Malmsteen with the impromptu bluesiness of Edward Van Halen.

He’s had all kinds of Ibanez signatures through the years, from the PGM series to the Fireman models he’s usually seen with today, having designed the latter, reversed-body model himself.

Pat Metheny

Since the release of his debut album in 1975, Pat Metheny has continually proven himself to be one of the most revolutionary minds to ever work in jazz, cross-pollinating elements of the traditional with more worldly and experimental meditations.

He currently has two Ibanez signature models, the PM200 and PM3C, and his most famous works include Still Life (Talking), Letter From Home, and Bright Size Life.

As well as these sizeable contributions to the world of electric guitar, he’s also recorded unaccompanied acoustic albums like 2003’s One Quiet Night and last year’s MoonDial release, which saw him wielding a custom-built baritone guitar made by the luthier Linda Manzer.

Tim Henson and Scott LePage

The genre-smashing guitarists from Polyphia could very well be two of the most ground-breaking names in the company’s roster of signature artists, at least in terms of recent additions.

Their most recent album, 2022’s Remember That You Will Die, was voted as the best guitar album of that year by GW readers and was also notable for featuring fellow Ibanez endorsee Steve Vai on its mind-melting closing track, Ego Death.

By that point, both guitarists already had their own signature electrics, but what really got the industry talking was Henson’s TOD10N nylon-string electric, as prominently featured on the album’s lead single, Playing God.

Ichika Nito

As the very first Japanese guitarist to become an Ibanez signature artist, you could say Ichika Nito is making history for all the right reasons.

Much like Tim Henson and Scott LePage, his take on guitar is an incredibly contemporary one – combining the sounds of tech-metal with spanky and funky cleans while dazzling listeners with an array of legato and two-handed techniques.

He currently has two Ibanez models, the Talman-inspired ICHI00 and the headless Q Series-style ICHI10.

John Scofield

Having worked with everyone from Miles Davis and Charles Mingus to Herbie Hancock and Weather Report, John Scofield’s jazz credentials are as impressive as they come.

His most famous works include 1986’s Still Warm, 1994’s Hand Jive, and 1997’s A Go Go, as well as 1994’s I Can See Your House From Here – which saw him team up with fellow Ibanez signature artist Pat Metheny for an absolute tour-de-force of modern jazz. He’s also ventured into bluesier sonic pastures, having collaborated with John Mayer and Gov't Mule.

Josh Smith

Continually featured in lists of the best blues guitarists in the world today, it’s no wonder that Josh Smith ended up being recruited by Joe Bonamassa and has become a regular face in the blues giant’s backing band. The pair also work together regularly as producers, lending their expertise to fellow blues powerhouses like Eric Gales and Larry McCray.

The guitarist/singer currently has two T-style signatures, the FlATV1 and FlATV2, and is also highly regarded for his informative tutorials, some of which he has authored for this very publication.

Manuel Gardner Fernandes

As the driving force behind progressive metal band Unprocessed, German guitarist Manuel Gardner Fernandes is someone who knows how to blend the power of gargantuan riffs with blistering lead work.

Last year he was awarded his own signature guitar, the MGFM10 – a stunning headless model in Obsidian Black Low Gloss, boasting the same advanced switching system he uses to make his guitar go from apocalyptic roars to spanky cleans.

This year’s latest Unprocessed album, titled Angel, served as yet another firm reminder of his all-encompassing talents.

George Benson

Now at 82 years old, George Benson is one of the dyed-in-the-wool veterans of jazz guitar – a multiple Grammy-winning master who influenced the sound of an entire genre and ended up inspiring countless players that came after him.

Over the years, as well as releasing an extensive solo discography, he’s worked with mainstream greats such as Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, and Frank Sinatra, making him one of the most prolific jazz artists of all time. He currently has six Ibanez signature models, all of them hollowbody designs.

Yvette Young

There’s a wonderfully abstract quality to Yvette Young’s sound – of course, there’s plenty of dexterity and technicality, but the real magic lies in the sheer amount of personality the Covet guitarist throws into every note she plays.

Part of this comes down to her alternate tunings, which she has often cited as a secret weapon for yielding interesting results, as well as her experimental approach to tone, but then there’s also her piano background – which has led to her unique sense of phrasing and ear for melody.

Marcin

Having just turned 25, it would be fair to say Polish wunderkind Marcin Patrzałek is spearheading a new generation of daredevil acoustic guitarists.

He rose to fame partly thanks to his viral videos that shocked listeners in how they were able to blur the lines between classical and contemporary music. This all led to the release of his first signature in 2022, the Ibanez MRC10, and a major label deal that started with last year’s debut full-length, Dragon In Harmony.

Nita Strauss

In 2018, Nita Strauss made history as the first woman to have her own Ibanez signature model, which she named the JIVA. It was certainly well-warranted, given her background playing in Alice Cooper’s band, as well as the all-female tribute band The Iron Maidens.

Since then she’s worked with pop sensation Demi Lovato and has also released two solo albums, the latter of which featured an array of high profile guest stars, including Marty Friedman, David Draiman, and Lzzy Hale.

Andy Timmons

When it comes to tasteful shredding, Andy Timmons is up there with the likes of gold-standard legends like Eric Johnson and Steve Lukather.

He knows how to impress people, but more importantly, he knows when to focus on the melody. Which is exactly why he’s worked with high profile names like Olivia Newton-John, Paula Abdul, and fellow Ibanez endorsee Paul Stanley.

He currently has three Strat-style Ibanez signatures, which come fitted with three DiMarzio humbuckers, including his own AT-1 pickup in the bridge.

Jon Gomm

English guitarist Jon Gomm became one of the early standouts in the modern percussive acoustic scene thanks to the 2011 track Passionflower going viral, which led to both national and international coverage.

In 2020, he announced he’d joined the Ibanez roster, and two years later he unveiled a pair of signature models – the JGM5 and the JGM10 – tailor-made for wanting to implement two-handed ideas based on open tunings, while also using the body of the guitar for drum beats.

Lari Basilio

Over the last decade or so, Brazilian virtuoso Lari Basilio has established herself as one of the most tasteful players of her generation – striking that perfect balance between technical wizardry, emotional phrasing, and an inimitable sense of feel.

Her Seymour Duncan-equipped LB1 signature was debuted in 2021, making her the third female signature artist for Ibanez, with the latest update being this year’s version in black.

Her latest album, Redemption, was also released earlier this year, with no shortage of dazzling fretwork and earworm melodies.

James ‘Munky’ Shaffer and Brian ‘Head’ Welch

Steve Vai may have helped invent the world’s first mass-produced electric seven-string with Ibanez, but it was Korn who took that extended range to new (or nu) metallic heights, inventing a whole subgenre in the process.

For guitarists Munky and Head, the extra low-end only intensified the heaviness and helped them reinvent guitar music in the mid-90s.

Head left Ibanez for ESP back in 2016 but made his official return to the fold earlier this year with the launch of the K7 series.

Fredrik Thordendal and Mårten Hagström

Much like Munky and Head from Korn, Meshuggah guitarists Fredrik Thordendal and Mårten Hagström were early adopters of the seven-string, as demonstrated on the 1995 tech-metal landmark, Destroy Erase Improve.

Other releases like Chaosphere, Nothing, and Obzen would also become hugely influential on the tech-metal scene, with bands like Animals As Leaders, Periphery, and Tesseract taking metric modulations and polyrhythmic concepts to new sonic horizons.

The Swedish pair would later move onto eight-strings, leading to signature models like the M8M, M80M, and FTM33.

Paul Stanley

It’s easy to think of Kiss as a Gibson band, given the kind of instruments usually seen in the hands of lead guitarists like Ace Frehley and Tommy Thayer.

Singer and rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley, however, has been using Ibanez guitars on and off since 1977 – most notably the company's Iceman offset – which led to the five signature models that currently bear his name, including the striking Cracked Mirror PS1CM.

Kiko Loureiro

There’s a golden rule for anyone who plays lead guitar in Megadeth – you have to be, without question, one of the best shredders on the planet.

Brazilian virtuoso Kiko Loureiro had already proven his merits in Angra and was a perfect fit for the thrash titans when he joined in 2015. He recorded two albums with the band, 2016’s Dystopia and 2022’s The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!, before announcing his departure in 2023.

He currently has three Ibanez signature models, all of which feature his custom DiMarzio pickups and a double-locking tremolo system.

Dexter Holland and Noodles

As the two guitar players in The Offspring, Dexter Holland and Noodles are well-known for dialing in tones that are guaranteed to cut through any mix.

The pair were at the very forefront of the 90s punk rock scene, with key albums like Smash and Ixnay On The Hombre setting them up for the mainstream success that followed with the 1998 bestseller Americana, which yielded hit singles like Pretty Fly (For A White Guy), Why Don’t You Get A Job?, and The Kids Aren’t Alright.

Holland sticks with ARZ and RG models while Noodles has had several signatures, the latest being 2020’s NDM5.

Daron Malakian

Joining Paul Stanley, Fredrik Thordendal, and Tom G. Warrior in our list of Iceman devotees, System Of A Down guitarist Daron Malakian is someone deeply connected to the striking offset shape.

“I went to Guitar Center, and I saw this Iceman sitting there, and I was like, ‘You know, that’s a guitar that not too many people use’,” he once explained.

The Armenian-American group became one of the biggest bands of their generation thanks to the world-conquering success of tracks like Chop Suey!, Toxicity, and Aerials.

Nili Brosh

Well-renowned for being one of the most versatile musicians in the Ibanez roster, Israeli-American shredder Nili Brosh has performed with Danny Elfman, Cirque Du Soleil, Dethklok, The Iron Maidens, and Tony MacAlpine – a list which perfectly demonstrates just how well-rounded her skillset is.

Her third solo album, titled Spectrum, was released in 2019 and her main guitars include an Ibanez LA Custom RG770 and a Desert Yellow RG550.

Jake Bowen

The sole Ibanez endorsee in Periphery’s trio of hotshot guitarists, Jake Bowen is also their longest-serving member after founder Misha Mansoor.

Over the course of seven full-length albums, they’ve become torchbearers for the modern tech-metal scene and in many ways typify the ‘djent’ wave of bands that arrived roughly 10 years after the new millennium.

He currently has three signature models: the JBM9999 and JBM10FX six-strings as well as the JBM27 seven-string.

Martin Miller

Martin Miller is a man of many talents. The German musician is a highly respected educator, with books and video courses to help rock guitarists expand into fusion.

He also writes, records, and tours original music, but his biggest calling card has been a series of live studio performances that find him enrolling guitar heroes old and new to cover hits of every kind. Hey Jude with Paul Gilbert, Kiss from a Rose with Lari Basilio, and Get Lucky with Kirk Fletcher are just three prominent examples.

He has a pair of Ibanez signatures to his name, the most recent being the MMN1, which was released in 2023.

It's been 24 years since the release of Toxicity, System of a Down's seminal sophomore album, which spawned the career-defining hits Chop Suey!, Toxicity, and Aerials.

For guitarist Daron Malakian, looking back at that life-changing period brings back a specific memory: writing the record at his parents' house.

“I wrote all of the Toxicity record while I was still living with my parents,” he tells Metal Hammer. “They would hear me playing my guitar in my room, and when Toxicity came out, they would hear Aerials or Chop Suey! on the radio or MTV, and they’d be like, ‘Oh that’s the one we heard you playing in your room all the time!’ So I think they knew more than me.”

And, in true rock ‘n’ roll fashion, certain tracks saw their inception at the back of a tour bus.

“Chop Suey! for example, I wrote that on tour in the back of the bus. I had a guitar, an acoustic guitar, and I just wrote that arrangement. I don’t write riffs, I write songs. Chop Suey! I brought in with the vocals.

He continues, “Sometimes Serj would use that melody and write different lyrics – for example, the original lyrics for Chop Suey! were: ‘Wake up / Tell me what you think about tomorrow / Is there gonna be a pain in sorrow? / Tell me what you think about the people / Is there going to be another sequel?’ That was my line. But then it’s Serj saying ‘Wake up, grab a brush…’.

“We would collaborate in that way, but I’d say 85 to 90% of the time it was me bringing in the whole thing.”

Speaking of System of a Down's immense legacy – on a night off from tour, Malakian recently stumbled across a SOAD tribute band and surprised them with an impromptu performance.

System of a Down guitarist Daron Malakian’s recent night off from tour took an unexpected turn when he stumbled across a SOAD tribute band and surprised them with an impromptu performance.

It continues a recent trend of big-name players shredding with tribute bands, after Nuno Bettencourt jammed Hot For Teacher with a Van Halen covers band, and Krist Novoselic joined FooVana for three Nirvana classics.

However, while those instances may have been staged, Malakian says his link-up was a complete coincidence.

“Let me start by saying none of this was planned,” he writes on Instagram. “We had a day off before our show in Chicago, I went out to dinner, and after I decided to go take some pictures around town with [photographer] Greg Watermann. We didn’t plan on going to Wrigley Field, but we ended up there.

“While we were taking photos in front of the stadium, I heard the intro to Needles from a bar across the street. My cousin, who was with me said that he thought it was karaoke. I decided to walk across the street and go into the bar, and found that it was a SOAD cover band called Peepholes. I walked right to the front of the stage and surprised the band and the audience.

“The look on everyone’s faces was priceless,” he continues. “To be honest, I was just as surprised as anyone else was that this was happening.”

Watermann's presence on Daron's excursion meant the impromptu performance was documented in 4K, and the band's reaction to Malakian planting himself in the front row is hugely entertaining.

“I don't even know what to say right now,” one of the members of the band is heard saying down the mic. “I am freaking out.”

The video also shows that it was Malakian's suggestion to play Cigaro as they quickly talked things over. And the scenes as they stampede through the song’s X-rated lyrics are a joy to see.

“I joined the band and sang Cigaro, shook their hands, took some pictures with the fans in the audience, and walked out of the place,” Malakian reflects. “I can only imagine what a shock it was for everyone there after I left. It all happened so fast.

“The odds of this happening were so slim. I probably had a better chance of getting struck by lightning. So many stars had to align for me to end up at the right place, and right time. One of the coolest moments I’ve ever had!”

Speaking of coincidences, the guitarist has explained how a chance sighting in a Guitar Center saw the Ibanez Iceman become his go-to guitar – although he initially didn’t play it live.

His SOAD bandmate, Serj Tankian, meanwhile, has revealed he has a signature Gibson Les Paul in the works, believing it to be the perfect six-string for heavy metal.

Daron Malakian's on-stage image has become inextricably linked to the Ibanez Iceman throughout the years, with the System of a Down guitarist also releasing his own limited-edition signature guitar version – the DMM1 – in 2004.

As he explains in a new interview, that long-standing relationship with the Iceman can be traced all the way back to when the band first got signed.

“I've been using Gibsons as well live, but the Iceman is always in the mix,” he tells Ultimate Guitar . “The Iceman came in the mix when we first got signed for the first album. They gave us money to go buy equipment, and I went to Guitar Center. At that time, I was using Fenders on stage.

“If you ever look at old pictures of me from the first record, you'll see me playing Fender Strats, humbucker Strats – at that time, the one that I was using was called a Big Apple Strat.”

He continues, “So I went to Guitar Center, and I saw this Iceman sitting there, and I was like, ‘You know, that's a guitar that not too many people use.’ It was unique. I never thought of using one before that.”

Intrigued by its uniqueness, Malakian bought it and took it on tour with him, although he admits that, initially, he “left it on the rack”, until one day his tech persuaded him otherwise.

“One of my techs was like, ‘Dude, you should use this thing.’ And one day on stage, I used it, and I was like, ‘This is really even. It's shaped weird, but it sits on your body really comfortably.’ It feels just right and that's it. I just kept playing that guitar on stage more than the Fenders at that point.

“And then I started a relationship with Ibanez, and they started making them for me,” he recounts. “I remember, in the early days, I'd have my dad paint them. Now I just have them in black and gold. That's my thing.”

His bandmate, Serj Tankian, has previously spoken about how, despite the fact he was the vocalist and Malakian was the guitarist, the latter was using his guitar – the Big Apple Strat – for the first couple of years.

15 years is a long time in rock and roll. That’s how long it’s been since System Of A Down last released new music, though the Grammy-winning Armenian-American quartet have been still headlining festivals and arenas around the world to a loyal fanbase itching for more of their alternative metal anthems.

The two new tracks, Protect The Land and Genocidal Humanoidz, would never have materialized under the SOAD banner if were not for the recently erupted conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan/Turkey– unleashing the greatest violence the Artsakh region has seen in almost three decades.

Though they’ve managed to raise over $600,000 in donations for the Armenia Fund, in the hours leading up to this interview with guitarist Daron Malakian it was announced that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had signed a statement with the presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia to end the war in Artsakh, handing over certain districts to the Azerbaijani authorities...

“I don’t have all the details, but we were kinda forced into some kind of agreement that means we’re giving up land,” SOAD’s founding guitarist tells Guitar World. “It’s such a bad situation now – there are 100,000 to 150,000 people that will be displaced and become refugees. Things have gotten even worse over the last couple of days…

“We’ve tried to raise awareness because there is a human catastrophe going on in the world right now and people aren’t paying attention. Some people don’t even know where Armenia is! So of course they’re not going to pay attention to some country they haven’t even heard of. 

“We’re lucky enough to be in a band that can spread the message for our people this way. I’m not sure how much we’ve helped the situation judging by the last couple of days, but there’s a lot of people who now know about what’s happening that probably wouldn’t have otherwise.”

Here Malakian explains how the tragedies brought SOAD back together – at least for two new tracks – in aid of a cause very close to their hearts…

We heard it was your drummer, John Dolmayan, who got the ball rolling by suggesting a reunion of sorts in the group chat…

“Yeah, he sent a message to the band in a group chat saying we should do something to raise awareness. I had a song I had already recorded and was ready to release with my own album with my other band Scars On Broadway, but the song fit so perfectly for the situation that I had to bring up to the band. So I did that and told them I had this song called Protect The Land…”

Which, despite having been written prior, sounds like it was written specifically for the situation in your ancestral home…

“Yeah, I feel like the lyrics were tailor-made for the situation. I’d actually written the song a year and a half ago, before there was any huge conflict… Well, there’s always been some kind of conflict over the last 20 or 30 years, but not like this. So I had the song ready and everyone told me to send it over, which I did. And it resonated.”

So how did it all get pieced together?

“I sent Serj [Tankian, vocals] the song with all the original tracks done, he was still in New Zealand at the time and he put down some of his vocals. There was a bit of back and forth over text, I would say, ‘Well, maybe try to sing it like this…’ which was kinda different, because I usually work face to face in the same studio with people when sharing ideas. 

“He would send things back, I send something back, and so on. Then I got John and Shavo [Odadjian, bass] to get in the studio to track their parts – like I said, I already had the song tracked but we re-tracked everything except for my vocals which remained the same as on the Scars version.”

The other new song – Genocidal Humanoidz – is brilliantly unpredictable, even including some black-metal riffing about 90 seconds in…

“I know! But I do try to keep our music in some sort of song format. I try a lot of progressive things, sure, but always keep it as a song. Sometimes when you get too progressive you lose the song and you lose the hook. 

“With my writing I usually like to keep it some sort of traditional song structure or format. It might be arranged in a traditional way, but I do have a traditional approach to some degree!”

You’ve mainly used Marshall amps and Gibson and Ibanez guitars over the years. What are we hearing on the new recordings?

“There were no pedals, but I went through a 100-Watt Friedman amplifier that’s very close to a Marshall JMP. I mixed that with a Marshall, which is the bulk of the tone for these two songs. 

“And yeah, pretty much all my guitars since Mezmerize and Hypnotize have been recorded with a 1962 LP SG Standard I have. This time I mixed it with an early '80s Gibson Korina Flying V, so it was an SG and Flying V mixed and doubled…”

You were one of the campaign artists for the Marshall Mode Four series – one of the loudest amps to bear their name at a whopping 350 watts. We remember seeing this advert with you lying on two stacks like a bed…

“I actually have the prototype for that amp, they probably forgot they gave me it [laughs]! It doesn’t say Marshall, instead it has sharpie writing on it, so it’s totally the prototype. I’m not sure if they’re aware I still have it [laughs]…

“I’ve always loved Marshall, but I really do like these Friedman amplifiers. The guy that makes them actually used to mod my Marshalls… so when I heard his, I felt they sounded like my modded Marshalls. Which explains why I started using those. 

“Aside from that, I’m not much of a gear guy. I pretty much plug my guitar straight into the amp. That’s how I get my sound. I don’t use any compressors or anything like that, it’s really straightforward – guitar, amp and just me playing I guess. It’s never complicated.”

What are the main secrets to the Daron Malakian school of shred – as seen on live renditions of tracks like Psycho, Streamline, Highway Song, Lonely Day, Mr. Jack?

“You know, a lot of my guitar heroes aren’t really the shredder guys. I’m a really big fan of Jerry Garcia. Dudes who aren’t necessarily fast with shredding and sweeping, but more melody-led. When I solo, I like my parts to sing a melody rather than play a bunch of notes really fast over and over again. 

“It’s the more simplistic, feel-based players that have influenced me most – and I have so many different influences. A lot of the things I write come from all the things I like meshed in with each other. That’s what creates the style of my songwriting and guitar playing. 

“I’m sure a lot of people don’t hear The Grateful Dead in what I do… but I listen to them a lot. In my head, that’s kind what I’m emulating – stuff like that and Neil Young. A lot of people listen to him and think, ‘Oh, he makes his guitar sound like a cat crying!’ But I actually love the feel and fight he puts in with the guitars. It’s like he’s fighting the guitar and I really like that. It’s raw emotion. 

“I’ve never been a guy to sit there and learn. I’ve never practiced a day in my life. I’ve just played. I won’t sit there and do scales over and over again. I don’t care much for muscle memory when I’m listening to musicians. You hear a lot of muscle memory and not enough feel. I’m way more on the feel side than the muscle memory side, I guess…”

That said, there’s no shortage of footage of you alternate picking hard and fast…

“Well, I’ve been playing for a long time. I’ve never practiced but I’ve always played and growing up I would play eight or nine hours in my room a day. I never considered it practicing because I was just playing what I wanted to play. 

“Practice sounds like homework to me. I play when I want to play and when I want to play… I play for hours! That helps you build skill and technique. I’m not saying I don’t have any technique, of course I have developed some technique, but it’s not what I’m focused on. It just comes along with playing as much as I have over the years.”

So what’s your main approach to writing the metal anthems SOAD are famous for?

“I guess I’m more focused on writing arrangements and vocals. I don’t write a riff and bring it to the band saying, ‘Hey check out this, what do you guys think?’ and everyone goes and plays whatever they want over it. Most of the songs you’ve heard in SOAD are songs I had already structured on my own and then brought into the band…

“Song arrangement and song writing are where my strengths are, rather than my guitar playing or shredding. It’s how I mix my vocal ideas with my riffs and with the drumbeat. Those are things I plan before I bring songs to the band.”

Well, you and Serj have very different voices, which is perhaps why they blend together so well…

“Yeah! We sound great together and the fans obviously think so too, which is why we’ve been so successful through the years – even considering how long it’s been without putting music out, it still amazes me that we go out there and play shows and our fans are still interested in the band. It’s very flattering and I’m very grateful for that. 

“Especially when I was writing Mezmerize and Hypnotize, I was writing parts knowing this is where Serj would sing, this is where I would sing and here’s where we will sing together. I really have a lot of that stuff planned out before I even bring it to the band.”

What do you remember about writing the song many would call your biggest hit, Chop Suey!?

“I started writing that one when we were still in an RV, before we even had our first tour bus. I had this little bed in the back and was jamming on a guitar as we were driving down the road while on tour. That’s where I remember I came up with the intro. 

“It’s one where I pretty much arranged it all before presenting to the band. I remember there was a different set of lyrics that we changed… it was the exact same phrasing but different words during the verses. The choruses we kept the same, all the ‘Self-righteous suicide’ stuff. 

“So yeah, I don’t remember what city or state we were in, but I was in the back of an RV. Toxicity wasn’t out yet, so obviously we were still an up-and-coming band at the time.”

So do you have an idea as to what kind of rig was used for the actual recording?

“No idea… that was a long time ago [laughs]! I have no clue. Probably some rental stuff, but I’m sure there was a Marshall in the mix. I did a lot more layering in those days, way more than I do now. 

“So when you hear that song you hear all these acoustics and mandolin-sounding parts under those acoustics. But I don’t remember the exact gear I used.”

Players like you and Adam Jones from Tool took Drop-D riffing to new heights in the '90s and early noughties. What do you think is the trick to getting the most out of that tuning?

“As in how to write? I don’t know if I could teach anybody how to write [laughs] but I would say just be honest. It’s way easier how to explain how to play guitar. I would never know how to approach explaining how to write. 

“You have to take some influence out of things you are listening to at the time or things that have happened. For me, I find the most important part of what I do is not playing or practicing… it’s listening. 

“I’m a connoisseur of music – I love so many different styles and kinds. It’s not just heavy metal, it goes all across the board. You think of a genre and I will have dug into it, studied it and absorbed it. But just because I’m listening to the blues right now doesn’t mean I’m going to write a blues song. Two years later, however, something I was listening to back then will bleed out of me as I play. 

“It all happens in a real organic and natural way. I don’t force anything, it just accidentally comes out of me a couple of years after going through some gothic phase or electronic phase. You know what I mean? 

“Listening to music and being interested in other people’s music is probably the most important part of what I do. It affects me in the sense that it brings out things in my writing and style.”

We have to ask – what do you think are the chances of more new music from SOAD in the near future?

“Look, I never say never. We didn’t even know this was going to happen. I was on my way to releasing these songs with my other band Scars On Broadway. Then the situation in Armenia happened and put our differences aside. And our differences are only within the band. 

“Personally and outside of the band, everybody gets along reasonably well. There is no hate for each other in SOAD. We’re like a family. A lot of people think, ‘Oh, Serj and Daron don’t get along!’ and no, that’s not true. Serj and Daron get along just fine. 

“But Serj and Daron, or Shavo and Serj, different people in the band will have a different idea of how they want the band to move forward. That’s kinda where our disagreements are at.” 

So there’s definitely a chance it could happen…

“I never say never but at the same time I’m not expecting to do any more with SOAD right away or immediately after this. It really does seem like our fans like these new songs. That’s important to me. 

“We’ve added two new songs to the System catalog that are on the level with everything else that we’ve put out and our fans have accepted it that way, which means a lot to me.

“That’s kinda where we’re gonna leave it for now. If more happens later on, then we’ll talk about that, but for now I will continue doing what I’m doing and everyone else will just continue what they’re doing. It’s all cool though, I’m really pleased with the response we got.”

My first rock show was SOAD at London Astoria in 1999 as a young teenager. It was a life-changing experience in so many ways…

“That’s what it’s all about, Amit. If what we’re doing changes your life to the point where you are doing something now with music and enjoying a life working in music, that’s amazing. If me and my band contributed to that… well that’s great to hear, man. That’s awesome. 

“And that’s what it’s all about – inspiring people and future generations to continue the art, the spirit and the evolution of rock and roll. I remember those early shows at the Astoria well. 

“We played there once with Slayer and then came back to headline not long after. It was very cool for us to go from the opening band to headline band in such a short space of time!”

Protect The Land and Genocidal Humanoidz are available to buy from Bandcamp – all band royalties will be donated to the Armenia Fund.

Daron Malakian and Scars On Broadway have released the official video for “Guns Are Loaded,” from their most recent album, Dictator. The video, which was directed by Greg Watermann, can be seen above.

About the meaning of “Guns Are Loaded,” Malakian told Rolling Stone, “the song is about a feeling of anger, a feeling of a breaking point, or times when the world is coming down on you.”

Talking about the Dictator album in general, the System of a Down guitarist told Guitar World: “I had the songs done, but I held onto them because I wasn’t sure what was going on with System, if we were making a record or not. We were trying to get on the same page, but then I got to the point where I was like, ‘I’m not just gonna sit here and hold onto this album forever. So I decided to release it and do some shows and get Scars back up and rolling again.”

Daron Malakian and Scars On Broadway 2019 tour dates:

Mar. 03 - San Diego, CA - The Observatory North Park

Mar. 04 - Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom

Mar. 06 - San Francisco, CA – Slim's

Mar. 07 - Santa Ana, CA - The Observatory

Mar. 08 - Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern

System of a Down and Scars on Broadway guitarist/vocalist Daron Malakian recently sat down for a taping of Ernie Ball’s String Theory.

The episode sees Malakian discussing his love of music and his approach to songwriting and guitar. Malakian also plays pieces of System of a Down songs “Aerials,” “Toxicity,” “Lost in Hollywood,” “Suite-Pee” and “Chop Suey!” as well as Scars on Broadway’s “Guns are Loaded,” “Universe” and “Angry Guru.”

Throughout the 19-minute video Malakian discusses his relationship with the guitar. Looking back on how he first started playing, he recalls that he initially planned on being a drummer. “We went to the music store on my 12th birthday to go get me my drum set,” he says. “And my parents kind of had a discussion amongst themselves and said, ‘You know, you can’t turn off the drums.’ So they decided to get me a little amplifier, it was an amp by a company called Gorilla. And they bought me a guitar, it was an Arbor guitar. And so that’s how I became a guitar player. Because my parents couldn’t turn off the drums.”

Evaluating his own playing, he says, “I never considered myself to be a technical guitar player. When I play the guitar I’m kinda hearing the whole song vocals everything that’s going on in my head. So it’s the tool that I use to structure songs, to write songs. It’s also a way for me to just kind of get away from my world and go in my little room.”

As for his practice regimen, Malakian reveals he doesn’t have one. “I’ve never practiced guitar a day in my life, actually,” he says. “I never felt like I was practicing. I was just playing. And I only played when I felt the itch to play, and it was calling me. And it’s still that way now.”

Watch the full interview above, and also check out recent String Theory episodes with Dave Navarro and Mick Mars.

It's been 10 years since Daron Malakian released the first—and only—album from his Scars on Broadway project. Which is not to say that Malakian, best known as the guitarist and co-vocalist in System of a Down, hasn’t been working on new music since then. Case in point is the new Dictator. Credited to Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway, it’s an album that, while just seeing release, was actually recorded six years ago.

“I had the songs done, but I held onto them because I wasn’t sure what was going on with System, if we were making a record or not,” Malakian says, alluding to the fact that, while System of a Down have been playing some live dates as of late, they haven’t recorded any new music since 2005’s Mesmerize and Hypnotize albums. “We were trying to get on the same page,” he continues, “but then I got to the point where I was like, ‘I’m not just gonna sit here and hold onto this album forever. So I decided to release it and do some shows and get Scars back up and rolling again.”

For Scars and System fans who have been anxiously awaiting new music, Dictator will give them the fix they’ve been craving. From the opening blast of “Lives,” to the frantic and furious “Angry Guru” to the slashing chords of the title track, the album is a hard-charging statement of purpose that also recalls the distinctive alt-metal sound that led System of a Down to become one of the most unique—and biggest-selling—acts in heavy music in the early 2000s. The stylistic resemblances are unsurprising, of course, given Malakian’s position as the primary songwriter for both bands.

“I always tell people that there are songs on Mesmerize and Hypnotize that could have very well been Scars songs, and there are Scars songs that could have very well been System songs,” he says. “Because I just write the way I write. I don’t know how I decide what song goes to what band. I just pick and choose.” He laughs. “And since System hasn’t done anything for more than 10 years, I guess it’s not that hard to pick and choose!”

That said, Dictator, on which Malakian plays all the instruments, also shows him pushing out beyond the sound most people have come to expect from the guitarist. The most obvious example would be the instrumental track “Gie Mou,” Malakian’s interpretation of a Greek folk song that showcases his cleanly picked, intensely melodic lead playing. “It was nice to have that kind of outlet where I do a guitar solo that was not necessarily shredding,” Malakian says. As for why he chose to record that particular song? “I grew up with Armenian music, and my parents came from Iraq. But my uncle went to Greece, and when he came to America he brought a lot of Greek music with him. ‘Gie Mou’ was one of those songs that I’ve always loved. When I went in to record this album, I decided to do it.”

Now that Dictator is finally out, Malakian says he’s happy to split his time between playing live with Scars on Broadway and System of a Down. “Both worlds can exist together,” he says. “It’s fun for me to go out and play the System songs, but since that band isn’t really working on new music, Scars is my creative outlet at the moment. And that’s cool with me.”

As for what the future holds, “I can tell you there will not be a six-year wait for another Scars album,” Malakian says. “I’ll probably be putting out something hopefully in the next year or so. Because there’s still a lot of material just waiting to be recorded and played.”

• Guitars: 1962 Gibson SG, late-Sixties Gibson ES-335 • Amps: 100-watt Marshall plexi, 1960s Watkins Joker • Effects: MXR Phase 90

A quarter-century had past since Guitar World first hit newsstands.

Celebrating in style, the February 2005 issue included a gatefold cover featuring a cast of legendary axemen -- including Zakk Wylde, John Frusciante, Tom Morello, Joe Perry and Slash -- with the most celebrated of guitar heroes, Jimmy Page, seated front and center.

Of course, we didn't limit all the good stuff to just February. All of 2005 was jam-packed with guitar awesomeness -- it didn't hurt that 12 rock albums reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 that year. Newcomers Alexi Laiho and Daron Malakian made their cover debuts, alongside classic guitar stalwarts like Steve Vai, The Edge and Keith Richards.

Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain were also recognized, but it was the recently departed Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott who got two tribute issues in '05.

It wasn't too long ago, but hey, it's fun to reminisce. Here is this week's gallery of Guitar World issues past.

It's a Cinderella story: A come-from-behind winner took the top honors in last week's Best Guitar Album poll (OK, actually, it was two weeks ago).

In what started as a duke-out between the definitive alternative metal quartet and a thrash metal titan -- who finished second and third, respectively -- the No. 1 spot for Best Guitar Album of 2001 was usurped by one of progressive metal's most underrated bands.

It is, however, a fitting victory as it was that band's last full-length studio recording in more than years. Perhaps it's a message: Fans are waiting, guys.

The runners-up were all worthy contenders and raked in a respectable number of votes, but your No. 1 pick was the clear-cut winner, with nearly double the votes of the No. 2 record.

Check out the photo gallery below to see all the albums that made the 2001 top 10.

Orginally printed in Guitar World, July 2005.

Visionary songwriter. Mad lyricist. Genius guitarist. Obsessive shut-in. There are so many sides to System of a Down's prolific guitarist Daron Malakian that it took two albums to contain them.

It's never been easy to describe System of a Down’s music. Its contradictory mix of styles is by turns abrasive and dissonant, gentle and melodic, often within the same song. For those who ponder such things, Daron Malakian, the group’s guitarist, has a candid explanation. “People sometimes say our music is kind of ‘schizophrenic,’ ” says Malakian. “And, yeah, it is kind of schizophrenic. That’s because we live in a crazy fucking society.” The notion could be extended to Malakian and his presence in an extreme metal band like System of a Down. Slightly built, with thinning long brown hair and large searching eyes, Malakian has a quietly friendly manner and a highpitched laugh that would suit a cartoon chipmunk. These aren’t the qualities one would assume of a guitarist whose band was responsible for Toxicity, the multi-Platinum 2001 album whose psycho-dramatic metal and militant political stance left a nasty scar on the slick surface of U.S. popular culture. In fact, Malakian contributed heavily to the album’s vitriolic music and message, serving as the principal composer of the songs performed by him and his bandmates, singer Serj Tankian, bassist Shavo Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayan.

On System’s newest album, Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Sony), Malakian plays an even greater role as a lyricist, singer and multiinstrumentalist, and the result is an album that surpasses its ambitious predecessor. For one thing, Mezmerize/Hypnotize is a double album, albeit one whose two discs will be released half a year apart: Mezmerize drops first, to be followed by Hypnotize in late fall of this year. “People’s attention spans don’t run too long these days,” Malakian says, explaining the unusual release schedule. “I want to release this in a way that will do each song justice. You put too many songs on your record and it ends up like a family with too many kids: some of them get neglected.”

In addition, the double-album format gives the band ample room to push every conceivable envelope. Mezmerize alone contains some of the most aggressive, gloriously ugly bursts of pure-black bitter bile System have ever generated, as well as their most melodic and vulnerable music.

The album opens with “Soldiercide,” an achingly sad song that brings war’s insanity unnervingly close to home. From there, the listener is sucked into the centrifugal slipstream of “B.Y.O.B. (Bring Your Own Bombs),” a full-scale emotional meltdown. Tempos shift and lurch with seismographic unpredictability, and shards of crazy Greek wedding music fly by. Malakian’s dry, tortured guitar tones slice through the mix, while Tankian spews rapid-fire streams of eloquent anger, like a man suffering a Tourette’s seizure. The net result is scary, theatrical, funny, weird and cathartic—an ominous, ironic bash: “Everybody’s goin’ to the party, have a real good time,” goes the song’s chorus. “Dancin’ in the desert. Blowin’ up the sunshine.”

As Malakian explains, the song (the album’s first single) combines the gilded optimism of army recruitment ads with the egocentric lifestyle depicted in hip-hop videos. “A lot of MTV’s programming is hip-hop based, and the messages are usually all about blingbling,” he says. “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.’ ”

Likewise, he says, the army beckons to the same audience with its promise of money, career and a social life. “Seventeen-, 18- and 19-year-old kids are getting prepared to go and fight in a war and they don’t even know why they’re fighting. Army recruitment ads always say things like, ‘Start a career! Make new friends!’ They never talk about how you’re going over there to kill people.”

In other words, it’s important to look beyond the superficial details. As much is true when it comes to Malakian. Consider his home, nestled in a comfortable L.A. suburb. From the street, the place looks much like any of the other well-maintained residences in the neighborhood, its bubblegum-pink façade notwithstanding. Approaching the entrance, though, one notices twin wooden skulls carved into the double front doors and a disturbingly cadaverous iron sculpture lurking in the courtyard. This imposing piece is the work of artist Vartan Malakian, his father and the creator of the album art for Mezmerize/Hypnotize.

Inside, the place feels like a household after mom and dad have gone off on a long vacation, leaving their teenage son to run amok. The family room is littered with guitars, amps, keyboards, turntables and DJ gear, video-game consoles and a big-screen TV, with cables running helter-skelter across the luminous black tile floor. Skulls fashioned of colored glass, chrome, plastic and who knows what else adorn every horizontal surface. There are photos of Malakian’s heroes John Lennon and schizophrenic cult leader Charles Manson and, near the black leather sofa, a four-foot-high bong that Malakian repeatedly refills and relights with the casual nonchalance of a confirmed pothead.

It was in this smoky, technology-littered lair that much of Mezmerize/Hypnotize was written and conceived. “I haven’t been out of the house in two weeks,” confesses Malakian, who’s a bit of a homebody and a workaholic. “I don’t go to parties. I don’t drink, so I don’t go out and buy the gang beers. I basically stay home and work on music. 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.”

In addition to assuming a larger share of the vocal and lyric-writing duties, Malakian played 90 percent of the bass parts, as well as guitars and keyboards.

“I’ve always written lyrics,” he says, “like ‘Prison Song’ and ‘Deer Dance,’ to name a couple. I’ve written almost every System chorus, but I wrote more verses this time, too. I’ve always considered myself a songwriter, but this time I really focused on being the best songwriter I can possibly be. Sometimes you do it by getting into a character. Sometimes you just drive around town. Songwriting to me is just as mysterious as serial killing.”

Malakian has a highly personal stake in Mezmerize/Hypnotize’s antiwar songs. Though he is of Armenian descent, many of his relatives live in Iraq. “My [maternal] grandmother lives there,” he says, “and my aunts, uncles and cousins.”

Asked what word he hears from his relatives in that war-torn country, Malakian answers tersely: “They’re alive. They’re not dead. They don’t say ‘We’re great,’ ’cause they’re not. But at least they’re not dead. It’s funny: Our family is in danger now, but nobody in my family is anti-American. So I don’t understand Americans who are so against the other side. It’s been a really strange couple of years for me. It’s brought up a lot of emotions, a lot of songs. I’ve had moments of waking up in the middle of the night with crazy pictures in my head of really bad things happening to my family there.”

The experience made Malakian think of his parents’ own history in Iraq and delve into his earliest memories of growing up in Los Angeles, which in turn shaped many of the new songs’ lyrics. “Before my parents moved to America, they were successful artists in Iraq, before the Saddam era,” he explains. “They left when all that stuff started. But before that, my dad was a very well-respected painter and dance choreographer; he wasn’t just chump change. And my mom was a college sculpture teacher. Then, when they came to America, my mom worked at a bank and my dad worked as a presser for Neiman Marcus.”

An only child, Malakian grew up in one of Hollywood’s dicier neighborhoods, near the intersection of Vine Street and Santa Monica Boulevard. Across the street from the family’s apartment was a hotel where local prostitutes conducted their business. Memories like these are reflected in “Lost in Hollywood,” Mezmerize’s rumination on the “city of broken dreams,” a latter-day successor to songs like the Kinks’ “Celluloid Heroes” and the Eagles’ “Hotel California.”

“In the early Eighties, all you’d see on Sunset Boulevard were prostitutes,” Malakian recalls. “That was before it got cleaned up. So that’s how I think of Hollywood. People who don’t live here see it as a fantasy land. But I see people giving up their morals, giving up their lives, giving up everything for this town. All the girls who came here to be actresses and ended up as porn stars; all the girls who came here to be models and ended up strippers… You talk to six or seven out of 10 porn stars and they’d probably rather be doing something else. Strippers, too.”

Reminded of all the guys who come to Hollywood to be rock stars only to end up working in music stores, Malakian replies, “They can end up on the street selling their asses too. It doesn’t have to be in a physical way, either; you can actually feel like you made it and still be selling your ass. I sold my ass before.”

At times Malakian seems to have conflicting emotions about his success: on the new song “Radio Video,” he contrasts vivid memories of his fifth birthday party—at a So-Cal Shakey’s Pizza—with a bittersweet image of hearing himself on the radio later in life. “It’s almost like someone saying, ‘Hey, I’m on the radio,’ but they’re not happy about it,” he explains. “So it’s another song with that party mood, but not happy to be partying.”

Still, Malakian’s childhood wasn’t an unhappy one. He remembers being taken to museums every weekend and participating in political discussions with his parents’ bohemian friends at a very early age. “My dad is my biggest inspiration when it comes to what I do,” he says. “I don’t look at music through the eyes of a musician; I look at songs and music through the eyes of a visual artist, ’cause that’s what I grew up with. The way I saw it, I really had to focus on music, because I feel like my parents had to give up a lot of shit. And I’ve always believed, since I was a kid, that my destiny was to play music.”

His fate was sealed at the age of four when a cousin played him a Kiss record. “I was a little heavy metal kid when I was five and six. I had Van Halen, Ozzy and Judas Priest albums. I played with toys like a normal kid, but I’d drag my mom to the local record store, Wherehouse Records, more often than I’d drag her to the toy store. I also liked stuff like Depeche Mode—a lot of the popular music of the Eighties—but once I was 12 or 13 years old I started getting into what was then more underground metal, like Slayer…all this heavy, dark stuff. My friends used to hate the bands I liked, ’cause they were into Yngwie Malmsteen and stuff like that.

“Then when I was 17 or 18 years old, my life completely changed, and I attribute that to the Beatles. As a kid, the Beatles were just some band that older people listened to, and they sang stuff like ‘Twist and Shout,’ which I wasn’t interested in because I was into metal. But later on I bought a Beatles greatest-hits CD and heard shit like ‘Strawberry Fields Forever,’ and it really changed my life. That’s some of the most progressive music ever made. I became completely infatuated with it. And that’s where I got more in touch with writing songs. I was always writing songs but never realized I was doing it until the Beatles came into my life. It made me realize that I was interested in songs rather than riffs. Some guys relate to Jimmy Page or Eric Clapton. I happen to relate more to a songwriter like John Lennon.”

By then, Malakian had been through a series of bands, some of them with the future members of System of a Down, whom he’d met while attending a neighborhood Armenian school. “Me, Serj and Shavo were in the same elementary school together. So we all go pretty far back together. Serj is a little older than I am, so we never really hung out until we started playing music together. I was the lead singer for a band, and we shared a rehearsal studio with the band that Serj was the keyboard player for. We decided to form a new band [named Soil, a System of a Down forerunner] and trade places; he became the lead singer. So this latest mutation, where I’m singing more on the new album, feels very natural for us. It wasn’t like me and Serj got into fights because he wanted to sing it all.”

One style of music that left Malakian cold was Nineties alternative rock. In fact, System of a Down first coalesced as a reaction against that particular genre. “I remember sitting in Shavo’s Honda Civic and talking about how we were frustrated with the times,” Malakian recalls. “That kind of pulled us together. There were some good bands to come out of that era, but I also think it was kind of a bland era. System was starting at that time, and a big part of it for me was to find a sound that wasn’t that.”

From the start, System of a Down were hard to categorize, even within the metal community. “When we were still a club band,” Malakian recalls, “record label people would tell us, ‘The heavy metal fans are gonna think you’re too different, and the rap fans aren’t gonna get you. We can’t sell you to white people because you’re Armenian, and they’re never gonna buy you down south.’ So many stupid things we heard: ‘Get a new singer.’ The people from MCA used to call us and say, ‘You know your songs are good, but you gotta write more catches.’ I told them I don’t write catches. But they never caught on.”

One guy who did was producer and allaround record-biz wiz Rick Rubin, who signed System of a Down and has guided them through their entire career, from their attention-grabbing, self-titled 1998 debut album throughout Toxicity’s mainstream breakthrough and 2002’s Steal this Album! Over that time, Malakian’s relationship with the producer has evolved into a comfortable partnership.

“When we were making the first album,” says Malakian, “I was afraid to open my mouth in the studio, because it was like, Wow, we got the legendary Rick Rubin! That was never Rick’s trip; it was more my take. As a 23-year-old making my first album, I was very overwhelmed. But on the second record, getting to know Rick better, I felt more comfortable coming in as a producer. It’s funny: when we first worked with Rick, a lot of people said, ‘Oh, he doesn’t even show up.’ But with System, he’s very hands-on. He cares. But he’s also hands off enough to let me see my vision through. I had the guitar and drum sounds in my mind for this new album. I paved that direction.”

Mezmerize/Hypnotize was recorded at Rubin’s famed “haunted mansion” in the Hollywood Hills. “Some weird stuff did happen,” Malakian confirms. “Every day around five o’clock my amps would take a shit. Same time every day, this weird noise came out of my amp. We’d check the tubes and everything, and it would all be fine. So it was a little strange there, especially when you went downstairs into the laundry room. You go down these small, winding steps, and it was kinda dark and cold down there. Creepy. But I like creepy. I have skulls all over my house.”

The spirits didn’t prevent Malakian from achieving the guitar sound he had in mind. “I really wanted the strings on the guitar to be heard,” he says. “That was important. The guitar should sound like a string instrument. Some people want their guitar to sound like a keyboard, or they put a lot of effects on it.”

Malakian’s main guitar for distorted tones was a 1962 Gibson SG through a 100-watt Marshall JMP100 amp and a single 4x12 cab. One channel of the Marshall is stock, but the second has been modified for extra gain. This very basic rig was recorded via an unusual room-miking technique.

“I got to thinking, when you play an acoustic guitar, the sound comes out of the guitar,” Malakian explains. “So why in recording rooms does the sound always have to bounce off the walls? Why don’t we bounce it off more guitars? So I basically covered a whole wall with acoustic guitars, from ceiling to floor. We pointed the speaker cabinet toward this wall of guitars and set up a room mic. The resonance came out of the guitars and back into the microphone. In most cases we muted the strings of the guitars on the wall, so we got the resonance from the body but not actual notes from the strings. And that gave us a very cutting sound, which is what I wanted.”

Along with the 1962 SG, Malakian also used a Jackson Randy Rhoads Flying V retrofitted with humbuckers and two early Eighties Gibson Korina Flying Vs for distorted tones. But the SG was his favorite by far, in part because the guitar’s distinctive “sideways” tremolo arm system endows the tone with some of the trebly cut that was so important to Malakian on this project. “I like that tremolo system, not for the tremolo but for the way it makes the guitar resonate,” he says. “It makes it sound more metallic, which helps the sound of the guitar, in my opinion.”

High-end definition was so important this time, Malakian explains, “because some of the music on the album is faster and more intricate than anything we’ve done in the past. So I really wanted the attack of the notes to be heard. We even tuned the guitars a little higher than we have in the past. Usually we would tune down a whole step, to D, with the low string down an additional whole step to C [low to high: C, G, C, F, A, D]. But for this album we’re in D sharp with a dropped C sharp [low to high: C#, G#, C#, F# A#, D#], and even that half-step-higher tuning makes a big difference. A lot of people want the guitar to sound muddier. On Toxicity I was more into a bottomy type of sound. But not this time. As time goes on I find I’m getting closer to 440 [i.e., standard tuning]. Lately I’ve been playing a lot in 440.”

Malakian’s string gauges have changed accordingly: “In the early days of System I used very heavy-gauge strings. But for this album I went to .50 or .48 sets. I’ve used Ernie Ball strings ever since I was about 12 years old, because that’s what they sold at the local record store when I was a kid.”

For many of the heavy rhythm parts on the album, Malakian doubled one of his humbucker-equipped guitars (the 1962 SG or any of the Flying Vs) with a single-coil pickup guitar. His P-90-equipped 1964 Gibson SG Special was often chosen for the task, and it’s a guitar that is especially close to his heart. “The P-90s really filled up a lot of sonic real estate. The humbucker gives you a very pointed attack, and the P-90s are much more wild and open. So both of them together did something really cool.”

While Malakian’s distorted tone is formidable, his many-and-varied clean tones are among the most interesting on the disc. He has a gift for placing small, delicate sounds amid roaring chunk-metal mixes and somehow ensuring that the tiny sound claims the listener’s attention. Mezmerize/Hypnotize is particularly rich in multitracked, harmonized, Greek bouzouki-like timbres, many of which were achieved on a Fender Jazzmaster through a Divided by 13 model FTR-37 amp. “My uncle lived in Greece for a long time,” Malakian recalls. “He came to America when I was seven or eight years old and he brought a lot of Greek music with him. Maybe that’s where I get those harmonized solo bouzouki things I do on guitar.”

For these passages, Malakian facilitates his bouzouki-style double-picking technique with large triangular-shaped picks. “I used smaller picks in System’s early days, but when we started playing live, the fingers of my picking hand would get all bloody. My whole guitar would be covered in blood. At first it was like, ‘That’s so cool!’ but after a few shows you get over it. So I made myself get used to a bigger pick. Those big triangular picks are just bass picks. Or they used to be bass picks until bass players stopped using them.”

Malakian started out with the “tortoiseshell” Fender triangular picks but has since moved on to the Dunlop’s Tortex version of the same plectrum. He even sharpens the edges for extra “cut.” “I’m waiting for them to make me some already sharpened,” he notes.

The distinctive clean guitar intro to the song “Hypnotized” was created on a red Sixties Hagstrom through a small Watkins (W.E.M.) Dominator also of swinging-Sixties vintage. “I tried two or three different guitars for that part to see which one would cut,” he says. “The Hagstrom had just the right tone. And the Watkins gives a very punchy sound. It’s cool for arpeggiated parts or even little solo stuff. I also used the tremolo channel on the Watkins for the tremolo sections in some songs.”

The drone behind the “Hypnotized” intro riff was generated by means of a technique Malakian has used on every System album thus far. “I have a double-neck Gibson SG. And I play the bottom [12-string] neck but leave the top pickups open and also mic the strings, as if it were an acoustic guitar. So you get the resonance from there, which adds this mystical type of thing to the cleaner guitars. Also, for some of those drone parts we unmuted the strings of the acoustic guitars hanging on the wall to get even more drones.”

As the arrangements took shape, Malakian found himself recording most of the bass parts himself, using a Fender P-Bass through an Ampeg SVT rig. “The new songs are more technical than anything we’ve done in the past,” he says. “There was just a certain way I wanted to hear everything come together with the bass. It was a matter of touch, of feel. Since I wrote it all, I thought it would work out better if I played it with my own touch. But Shavo plays on two or three tracks on the album, where I thought his feel was right. And they’re three of the best tracks on the record, in my opinion.

“It’s not that Shavo couldn’t play the other songs, ’cause he can. He’s already started developing the right feel for them and he’ll be playing them on the road. To be honest with you, there’s no drama or hard feelings about it. In System, there’s plenty for everyone to do. Shavo directs videos for the band. So he’s not trippin’ on it if I want to play some bass. He understands where I’m going with the record. He gives me that respect and I appreciate that.”

Respect is also key to the yin-yang dynamic between Malakian and Tanakian, and their relationship is the main engine that drives System of a Down. Where Malakian is introverted to the point of being a recluse, Tankian is a consummate extrovert—an outspoken political activist who has spearheaded projects like Axis of Justice, the advocacy group he started with Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello.

“I’m no activist; I drive a Hummer,” Malakian says, and laughs. “Serj flew all the way to New York to protest the Republican National Convention. I don’t do that kind of thing; I’m more stuck on staying at home and writing songs. Anyone in my life—my mother, father, girlfriend—knows that I stay home and work on music almost all the time. Serj commends me for that, and I commend him for what he does. There’s a very big mutual respect there. I’m very aware of what’s going on politically, but I chose to make the focus of my work a lot broader than that. I don’t want to be known as a political guy. I’m focused more on art. I admire someone like Bob Marley; he was a threat to the warmongers. He would say a lot of insightful things about the world situation, but at the same time he’d say, ‘Forget your troubles and dance.’ He connected to a more personal emotion. That’s what I try to do.”

At times, Malakian’s reclusiveness seems to border on agoraphobia. “I’m scared as fuck to go out on tour for this new album,” he confides. “I’m so scared of leaving my house. I’m not kidding. I just like having all my stuff right here around me. I like the way I live, although some people might not see it as healthy.”

Malakian’s world very much revolves around weed, junk food, video games, his collection of macabre artifacts, his extensive CD collection—Neil Young and the Reverend Gary Davis are two current favorites—and professional sports. “If you sit me on a beach, I’m just going to think about music,” he says. “But when I go to a sporting event, I think about the game. It’s one of the few things that kinda zones me out and takes my mind off music. So I go to baseball and hockey games. Me and my girl, we watch movies and do all sorts of stuff. I’m more the cozy chillin’ type.”

Malakian’s main strategy for surviving on the road is to “transform the back of the bus into my living room. The TV would be in the same place. I play a lot of video games, just kick it with a bong…the same as when I’m home.”

If Mezmerize/Hypnotize does anywhere near as well as its predecessor, Malakian is going to be spending a lot of time in back of that bus over the next few years. “I believe this is where hard rock has evolved,” he says of the disc. “In the beginning, very few people understood. Now all the labels are looking for the next System of a Down. But I don’t want to see any band clone us. I’d like to see bands that we’ve inspired do different things. But I don’t wanna see five or six System of a Downs. That would make me sad.”

Originally printed in Guitar World, July 2008

With System of a Down on life support, Daron Malakian takes his act to the next stage with Scars on Broadway, his new rock-inspired band.

Kicking back at Steakhouse Studio in North Hollywood, California, Daron Malakian bobs his Los Angeles Dodgers–capped head while “Funny” tumbles out of the control room speakers. A deliciously hooky pop song with a minor-key melody worthy of the Kinks or the Zombies, “Funny” is one of the tracks featured on the forthcoming selftitled debut from Scars on Broadway, Malakian’s new band with fellow System of a Down-er John Dolmayan. “I think my Sixties influence is bleeding through on this record,” Malakian says.

But anyone who has followed System’s decade-plus career knows that Malakian is capable of changing musical directions and influences multiple times, often in the same song, and Scars on Broadway’s music is as cheerfully eclectic as anything he’s done with his “other” band. On the hard-hitting, politically charged “3005,” he rages like Arthur Lee mixed with Alice Cooper. Over the giddy disco sequencer groove of “Chemicals,” he tries to lure a love interest to “eat some chemicals with me.” Other songs recall System (“Universe,” “Kill Each Other”), the Dead Kennedys (“I Like Suicide”) and the Sex Pistols on a garage-rock holiday (“They Say”). Overall, System’s herky-jerky time signatures and chugging guitars are largely absent, replaced by a more swaggering and straightforward musical attack.

“I’ve tried at times to get away from the System sound with this record,” explains Malakian, who handles the album’s vocals and performs guitar and bass. “But I didn’t want to completely get away, because that’s a part of me. And I don’t think I can. But I’m definitely more into the rock vibe right now, much more than I’m into metal.”

GUITAR WORLD Were these songs written specifically for Scars on Broadway, or are these just the songs that you happened to come up with at the time?

DARON MALAKIAN This is just where I’ve evolved as a writer. Since it’s a new band, it’s made me feel even more free to go in different directions. But I think that even if this were going to be a System of a Down album, these songs would be my contribution. Whatever I write has to evolve around my taste in music at that moment, because that always changes.

GW There are several tracks that sound as if you’ve been listening to a lot of Sixties garage and psych lately.

MALAKIAN Yeah, I’ve been listening to the Nuggets boxes and a lot of weird Japanese psych. A lot of that stuff came out in what I did with System, but since there is less metal in Scars on Broadway, I think you can hear those influences more.

GW There’s also a classic Seventies punk vibe coming across on this record.

MALAKIAN I’ve always been into Seventies punk, whether it’s the Dead Boys or the Damned. That’s my favorite kind of punk rock. I like [San Francisco post-punk group] Chrome; they go into these synthy types of moments, and it doesn’t really fit in the song! [laughs] I like what they did a lot, but I also like Fleetwood Mac, I like Yes. I’m just all over the place.

GW The guitar tones definitely have more of an organic, Seventies rock sound than anything you’ve recorded previously. There’s not a lot of processing or effects.

MALAKIAN Effects-wise, I’ve never really used anything. I’ve always gone right through the amp.

GW Were you using more amp distortion in the past?

MALAKIAN No, I think it’s what I’m playing on guitar, the kind of chords and the kind of riffs. If I played more in that ku-chunk-chunk style in the past, I think it’s the songs making the guitars sound like that, rather than the guitars.

GW Do you see Scars on Broadway as a new band or as a System side project?

MALAKIAN The creative force and the drive and everything that goes on with the band is me and John, and we take this pretty seriously. This is not my side project—this is my band right now. I’m not doing anything with System, we don’t have any plans on doing anything with System, and I would expect another Scars album before another System album.

GW Is the way you and John work together in Scars similar to the way you’ve worked in System?

MALAKIAN It’s the same, especially on the last System records, Mesmerize and Hypnotize. On those records I played bass, guitar, some of the keyboards, and I did a lot of the vocals. Aside from Serj [Tankian, System singer and keyboardist], everything you hear on those records is me and John. A lot of the vocals that you hear on System songs, whether they’re sung by me or not, were written by me. So you’ll hear those links. But at the same time, I didn’t want to repeat myself. This record is just where I was at the time I wrote it. I think I felt more free to go into the rock world with this project. Whenever I’m writing and I have Serj in mind, I can never picture him singing some of the more rock-oriented stuff.

GW Why, because his voice doesn’t lend itself to straight-up rock and roll?

MALAKIAN It’s more about the attitude behind rock. I think he’s more eclectic, more experimental and complex. But when it comes to singing “Whole Lotta Rosie,” it’s just not him, you know? [laughs] And I felt more free to be that, because that’s more me. Knowing that he wasn’t going to be singing these songs, it kind of put me in a direction that’s more suited to my voice, my mood and my character as a singer.

GW What’s the story behind the name of the band?

MALAKIAN In Glendale, where I live, there’s a street called Broadway. The bottoms of the light posts have swastikas on them. They were made that way [in the Twenties]; it’s not like skinheads carved them in, or anything like that. The symbols aren’t tilted, like Nazi swastikas are, but it’s obvious what they are. And I always thought it was a trip, like, “What’s up with that?” There was always something a little mysterious about it. So one day I was talking to my friend—we were on our way to a hockey game—and he said something about, “Yeah, those swastikas on Broadway.” And I said, “Wait a second…” I didn’t think I wanted to call the band Swastikas on Broadway [laughs], but Scars on Broadway came to me right after that, because of the way that the swastikas are like scars on the light posts. [A 1995 study by the city of Glendale determined that the lampposts were acquired from the Union Metal Company of Canton, Ohio, and that the swastika design—in use for centuries by numerous cultures as a sign of good luck—was based on a pattern commonly found on Greek garments and Navajo rugs.]

GW Do you have any sense of when the album’s going to come out?

MALAKIAN No. [laughs] But I’d hope the end of summer, at latest. I think before we put out the album we’re going to put a few songs out on the net, just to give the fans a taste of what’s going on. I would love for them to hear it tomorrow, but it’s just not ready. I’m excited for people to hear it. And I’m kinda nervous, too. But I believe in it; I believe in the songs. I believe that they keep up with anything else I’ve written in my life, and I feel really good about it.

Scars on Broadway, the collaboration between guitarist-frontman Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan, both best known for their work in System of a Down, has signed with Interscope Records and will see their self-titled debut released on July 29.

With Malakian sitting in the Scars' producer chair, he and Dolmayan entered the studio last September, recorded nearly two-dozen songs for the album, and then whittled down the final track listing to 14 songs.

Many of the Scars on Broadway songs had their genesis years ago. "I like to let my songs marinate over time, that helps determine which ones speak to me the loudest," explained Malakian. Malakian, who penned or co-penned SOAD classics such as "Aerials," "Chop Suey!," "Hypnotize," and "B.Y.O.B.", wrote the Scars songs mostly on keyboards and a drum machine. On the new scars material Malakian injects more rock than metal, citing influences from Iggy Pop to David Bowie to Neil Young.

Scars on Broadway has already played a handful of live shows, including Coachella 2008. They also opened for Metallica at an L.A. benefit gig. Scars plans to tour extensively to support the new album.

Whether or not this means the end of System of a Down, frontman Serj Tankian is currently in the studio mixing his debut solo album while SOAD guitarist Daron Malakian has announced the formation of his new band, Scars on Broadway, which also features System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan. Tankian's debut album, hElect the Dead, will be released on Serjical Strike/Reprise Records this fall.

Tankian says he had no clue he was about to make a rock record when he began to record at his home studio in Los Angeles last summer. “I was writing more traditional type songs on my piano and acoustic guitar, with a classical, almost operatic flavor; and lo and behold, it ended up being a rock record. Funny what happens when you add distorted guitars and drums. There are political songs, funny songs, love songs, songs about painful experiences, vanity, and the environment. It has a deep melancholy that runs from the personal to the global, with a glimmer of hope in the solidarity of spirit.”

Tankian produced Elect the Dead himself and played most of the instruments, though the album does feature guest drummers John Dolmayan (SOAD) and Brian “Brain” Mantia (Guns N' Roses, Primus). “The singularity of vision is strong when you work alone,” he says. “I was a bit skeptical about producing it myself, but I knew how I wanted it to sound. And as I kept going, I realized it was coming together really well so I just finished it on my own. But I had to be careful to push myself like an outside producer would until it was great. I had the same energy and enthusiasm making this album as I did making the first System record.”

For more information on these projects, visit serjtankian.com and scarsonbroadway.com