When System Of A Down announced their hiatus in 2006, it didn't take long for its members to leap headfirst into other projects. For guitarist Daron Malakian, one of the band's chief songwriters, that took the form of Scars On Broadway, a group that continued the anthemic metal stylings Malakian had ridden to massive success with SOAD in the decade prior.
Although Scars On Broadway's activity has been sporadic - their self-titled debut came out in 2008, while a second record didn't materialise until 2018 - Daron's group recently burst back into life playing alongside Korn as part of that band's 30th anniversary celebrations. Ahead of their appearance at this weekend's Aftershock Festival, Hammer caught up with Daron to find out what's happening with the band.
You’ve just played your first show with Scars On Broadway in five years – how was that?
“It was good! I live a very slow paced life, so aside from these shows things have been really good and I’m just hanging out and playing. Actually getting back on stage [with Scars] is exciting, the crowd was great in LA the other day. It’s nice to see people really into these songs – especially because Scars don’t play very much. The response we got from the crowd was way more than I expected.”
Were there any nerves about getting back onstage?
“I get way more nervous for Scars shows than I do for System shows. We’ve played quite a few System shows in the past five years and you know, I do have nerves for that, but with Scars I don’t know what to expect as much. There’s more of a surprise; you’re out there working the audience, whereas with System we’re usually headlining the festival, show, whatever and I know how many of our fans are going to show up. With Scars I don’t have that same assurance – there’s a different bunch of songs that people might not even know, so there are a lot of extra nerves because of that.”
The show itself was as part of the Korn 30th anniversary – do you remember hearing them for the first time?
“We did the Summer Sanitarium tour together [in 2000], with Metallica. That’s when I first met those guys, so through the years we’ve crossed paths even if I can’t say we’ve toured much together. We share managers though and since that I’ve gotten to know Jonathan [Davis] better and so while I can’t say we’ve always been close friends I have gotten to know them.”
Korn and System Of A Down both arose as part of the nu metal movement – did you feel connected to that at the time?
“I’m proud of that scene. There’s always been a lot going on in LA, going right back to the 60s with The Doors, up to bands like The Eagles in the 70s, the glam rock era… There’s been an LA music scene almost constantly across that time and I’m happy to have contributed to that. I feel like there hasn’t been too much out of LA since [System Of A Down] so it feels like nu metal was the last bunch of bands to really come up out of that.
There might be particular things within the way I write or even the way System Of A Down are as a band that you can certainly mix into that [nu metal] category, but I’ve always had huge respect for the bands who were doing their own thing within that movement. I hate categorising music in general though; I don’t think System Of A Down sound like Korn, we all just came up at the same time.”
Did the nu metal era feel like an exciting time to operate as a band, at least?
“I’ll be honest, we came up at a time where metal wasn’t doing so well. When we first toured with Slayer, they weren’t playing arenas – they were playing theatres in the US. We’d gone from metal being this huge thing in the 80s to the Seattle thing coming in and kinda killed off a lot of metal, like the speed metal bands of that time. That includes a lot of the bands I really loved. Even in the late 90s, it felt like it was more alternative rock that was popular, so this group of bands that you’d possibly call nu metal, or alternative metal and events like Ozzfest really brought metal back to the mainstream.
All these bands like us, Korn and whoever were getting played on mainstream radio and really helped put metal back in a good place. But then you had these bands that came along that all sounded similar and I think that’s when it started to lose respect. It became cookie cutter and every label wanted their own version of whatever band was big at that time. Good luck finding four Armenian guys! The bands that came up in that scene to start with like us, Korn and Deftones were just trying to do something original and take metal to a whole other level, mesh in different things.”
Is it strange to play somewhere like Sick New World and see all these young bands who might’ve been inspired by what you do?
“If anyone is inspired to pick up an instrument and become a musician because of what you do, it’s an honour. I can’t say I’ve listened to a lot of these bands – when I listen to metal I tend to go for the classics.”
Where are things at for Scars On Broadway now – are there plans for a third record?
“I have the third record. I’m just sitting on it! I’ve had it [done] for a while now and things just keep coming up. I made these [Scars] shows happen because I thought the record would have happened by now, but things just didn’t work out. I’m still waiting to put the record out and crossing my fingers that we’ll have something out early to mid-next year.
We do Aftershock in a few days, so it’s pretty exciting. I’m a very different person on-stage to who I am off, too though. I’m not someone who posts something on Instagram every day and as much as I’m loud on stage, I like to be quiet when I’m off.”
It’d be great to see you on the road next year, then.
“We’ll definitely make it over [to the UK] at some point with Scars, but I’m really a homebody. I’ve never really enjoyed touring and so I will play live shows with Scars, I just can’t promise anyone how much touring I’d do with them. Scars are the kind of band that if you see us, just know you’re watching a band who don’t play live often. They’re very special to me, these shows, because they’re rare and for the people who really enjoy Scars I’m always like ‘get it while you can’ ha ha. I like to do things at my own pace, with no pressure.”
15 years ago, that kind of statement would seem weird but it seems we see a lot more musicians taking that approach and not running themselves into the ground.
“You get all these festivals and fans definitely want you to be everywhere, but I don’t know. The Beatles are one of the greatest bands that’s ever been, and like half their careers they didn’t play live, they just put out records. It seemed like some people used to think you weren’t even really a band if you weren’t busting your ass touring.
But me and the guys in Scars, we play every week… just in my house! We love to play, so we just do it for us. We do love to play live too, but for me it’s something I’ve done a lot of and I’ve never really enjoyed leaving home. But hey, some guys love it! Not everyone is made up to tour until they’re 85 years old, you know?”
Scars On Broadway play Aftershock Festival Friday October 11. For the full line-up, visit the official website.
