System Of A Down bassist Shavo Odadjian has released the first song by his new band North Kingsley.
The woozy, hip hop-influenced banger Like That? sees Shavo collaborating with producer Saro Paparian and frontman/lyricist Ray Hawthorne, and also finds him playing guitar as well as bass.
“I’m known for playing metal but you can’t say it’s just metal - it has a lot of other influences in there,” says Odadjian of the politcally-charged new song. “I did [2008 collaboration] Achozen with [the Wu Tang Clan’s] RZA and that was straight hip-hop. North Kingsley is right in the middle.”
Like That? is taken from North Kingsley’s upcoming debut EP, Vol.1, out August 14. It’s the first in a planned series of staggered EPs.
“We’re giving you songs you can marinade on, instead of 12 songs all at once,” says Shavo. “There’s going to be a clip for every song, something visually for you to vibe on. I directed videos for System, I do stage production visuals for the band so that’s important to me. Saro has an incredible eye for creating new things visually and I act almost how a producer would on that and we are going to drop merch with every release, so it’s more than just music.”
While there’s no sign of a new System Of A Down album, the band were recently confirmed as Download 2021 headliners alongside Kiss and Biffy Clyro.
