Bassist Shavo Odadjian says he has plenty of ideas for new material should he and his System Of A Down bandmates ever get back into the studio.
While the band have continued to tour – they’ll headline next year’s Download festival in the UK – they haven’t released new material since 2005's Mezmerize and Hypnotize albums.
While the gap has allowed Odadjian, Serj Tankian, Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan to work on their own projects, with the bassist recently unveiling North Kingsley, Shavo isn’t giving up hope of a new SOAD album.
Metal Hammer asked Odadjian: "It sounds like you had a lot of ideas and nowhere to let them out because of the System Of A Down situation. Is this you leaving the idea of doing a new System album behind and moving on from that?"
Odadjian replies: “No. No way. This is new and it's great and I can't wait to take it over the top, and my heart is in this because System is not working. But my heart is always with System as well.
“I’ll take the time off and work with System any time they’re ready. I have about 25 different things that I could still bring to System. I know Daron’s got tons of music. We are always writing music.
“I’m not closing the book on System because I'm doing this. I know a lot of people are like, ‘Oh no, it's the final guy, the one who was always System Of A Down, always pushing for System, the cheerleader – now he’s doing this.’
“Yeah, I’m doing my own thing because I need to. And when the time is right, I'll be doing that other thing. I'm not going to close any doors to anything ever.”
North Kingsley released their debut track Like That? last week, which saw Shavo collaborating with producer Saro Paparian and frontman/lyricist Ray Hawthorne.
The song will feature on North Kingsley’s debut EP, Vol. 1, which will launch this coming Friday (August 14).
