Serj Tankian details how back surgery impacted System Of A Down touring schedule

System Of A Down singer Serj Tankian has discussed how his 2021 back surgery fed into the nu metal-era band’s decision to play standalone shows rather than tours for several years.

Tankian looks back on the period during a new interview with Eddie Trunk, ahead of the Armenian-American four-piece kicking off a string of North American co-headline stadium shows next week. They hosted their first full-length tour in seven years back in April and May, when they performed seven shows in South America.

“For years, personally, I didn’t wanna tour at all,” Tankian tells Trunk (via Blabbermouth). “I had back surgery. I had a lot of issues, so I was not, health-wise, in a place where I could travel a lot.”

The singer also reveals that he’d grown sick of the repetition of the touring lifestyle.

“And the idea of the groundhog, the idea of repetition also artistically got to me in terms of continuous long touring,” he continues. “And so it wasn’t really by design. It was kind of by force. That was the only way we could do stuff, is just do one show here, one show there.”

He adds that headlining Las Vegas festival Sick New World in 2023 and 2024 fed into the band’s then-desire to only do standalone performances.

“And it’s kind of funny: I didn’t wanna do any tours, and then we did one Sick New World show in Las Vegas. Because it was just one show, we all had a blast.

“It wasn’t a tour. We didn’t have 20 shows and all this stuff to plan. And it was just one show: go out on a weekend, take your families and have a good time. And that made us step back and go, ‘This is what we need to be doing. If we’re gonna be doing it, this is the right way of doing it for us.’”

Explaining how the band got back into the mindset of doing tours again, Tankian first says he’s “a lot healthier” and “physically stronger” now, following a “couple of years” of physical training. He also reveals that System’s members are “really enjoying each other and each other’s company, having a great time”.

“So it’s a unique time in our band’s history, I think,” he says. “And I guess it was meant to be this way.”

In an interview with Metal Injection in 2022, Tankian spoke about the physical effects of his surgery, saying that while he could walk and perform, the extensive travel necessitated by touring “really, really affects me at this point”.

He also said that there was a “redundancy in doing the same thing over and over again in terms of touring”.

Earlier this year, Metal Hammer interviewed System bassist Shavo Odadjian, who said that the band’s members are enjoying being together more now than they have in some time.

“We’re older now, and we respect each other, and we’ve talked,” he told us. “We’ve noticed how social media, and the media in general, has swayed us. We’ve just turned everything off and… we’re grateful for each other. We love each other. Anything that has happened between us is minuscule.”

System haven’t released a new album since 2005 double album Mezmerize and Hypnotize, and despite the members’ healthy relationship, there’s still no sign of more music. Trunk asks Tankian if there are any plans for a new album, to which he replies, “Not at this time.”

System’s North American stadium tour kicks off with two sold-out shows with Korn at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on August 27 and 28. They’ll play at Soldier Field in Chicago with Avenged Sevenfold on August 31 and September 1, then appear at Rogers Stadium in Toronto with Deftones on September 3 and 5.

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.

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