The bassist in the band that evolved into System Of A Down says that he was let go from the lineup for not being “angry enough”.
Talking in the current issue of Metal Hammer, David Hakopyan, who played alongside Tankian and Malakian in Hollywood rockers Soil during the early 90s, likens the expulsion to being “being a kid and your friends ask you to stop coming to the clubhouse”.
“I was asked to leave,” he remembers. “I remember them telling me, ‘You aren’t angry enough, you don’t play angry.’ I was like, ‘I’m sorry, I’m not that angry a person.”’
He adds that he was “sad” over being let go from the fledgling band, which also featured drummer Domingo Laranio, but not bitter. As Soil regrouped and re-branded themselves as System Of A Down, Hakopyan urged fellow bassist and Soil’s unofficial manager Shavo Odadjian to try out for the job. Odadjian would be a member of System from their 1995 founding through to the present day.
“I called Shavo and said, ‘I think you could step in as bass player – you’re incredibly excited about the project as well as just managing it,” recalls Hakopyan. “He thought it was a cool idea.”
As for Laranio, he left at roughly the same time. He tells Hammer that the 1994 San Francisco Valley earthquake, which killed approximately 60 people, “scared the shit” out of his then-pregnant wife and led to them moving to Hawaii.
“She wanted out of L.A.,” he remembers. “I had to prioritise my family. Serj was like, ‘What do I need to do to keep you here? Find you a place to live?’ It wasn’t a matter of not wanting to stay. It was either leave the band or get divorced.”
Soil lasted between eight months and a year (depending on which member you ask) and only played one concert, which took place at a blues club called Fais Do-Do in Mid-City, Los Angeles in 1994. Malakian fell off the stage during the calamitous performance.
Hakopyan says: “Right as we started, I’m holding this big bass chord and I realise, ‘Shit, there’s no guitar!’ I look over, and Daron has fallen off the stage and was on the ground. He had completely lost himself in the intensity of the performance, and hadn’t realised the stage rug ended where it did. He finally climbed back up, and we went straight back in it.”
After disbanding Soil and forming System, the members signed a deal with Rick Rubin’s American Recordings and got the legendary producer to oversee the recording of their 1998 self-titled debut album. System Of A Down topped the US Heatseekers chart and has now been certified two-times Platinum in the United States.
Alongside releases by such peers as Korn, Limp Bizkit and Deftones, System… helped to usher in the nu metal age (even though System did not associate with the term). Their second album, 2001’s Toxicity, catapulted them to even greater success, topping the Billboard 200 before being certified six-times Platinum in the US.
The four-piece, who released three additional albums before splitting in 2006 then reuniting in 2011, are now on the cusp of a European tour. The shows kick off at Strawberry Arena in Stockholm, Sweden on June 29, and the band will play two dates at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, UK on July 13 and 15. Queens Of The Stone Age and Acid Bath will support.
As well as an interview with Hakopyan and Laranio about the early days of System, the new Hammer features a conversation with Bruce Dickinson and Steve Harris of Iron Maiden as the band prepare to headline their own festival at Knebworth House. Order your copy now and have it delivered directly to your door.
