System Of A Down's Serj Tankian says he respects bandmate John Dolmayan, but not his political views

(Image credit: Armen Keleshian)

System Of A Down frontman Serj Tankian has opened up about the differences of political opinion between him and the band's drummer John Dolmayan.

Tankian and Dolmayan are brothers-in-law as well as bandmates, and while Tankian's views are on the left, Dolmayan's are on the right, particularly in regard to American politics. The drummer has spoken about his support of former US president Donald Trump, calling him “the greatest friend to minorities", and has also criticised the Democratic Party and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Tankian admitted in an interview with Forbes last year that his bandmate's support of Trump was "frustrating". Speaking recently to Consequence Of Sound, he opened up further about their political differences.

“We’re very good friends, we’re family, and he’s my drummer in my band, so of course we’ve talked about many, many different things, including political views. When you don’t agree with someone after a while about a certain topic … look, it doesn’t mean that we don’t agree about other stuff.

"We agree a lot about Armenian stuff, for example, a lot about family stuff, a lot of other things, a lot of personal stuff. But when it comes to American politics, we happen to be on the polar opposite ends of it, and we’re both very passionate and vehement about our views, which is fine.

“I love and respect John very much, but I don’t love and respect his American political views. And that’s fine. And I can live with that and he can live with that because we respect and care for each other. And it’s really just that. Have we talked about it? Yeah. But do we talk about it often? No, because there comes a point where when you don’t see eye to eye on something, you just rather talk about something else.”

System Of A Down launched a music video for new song Genocidal Humanoidz in January. The track was released last November with another song Protect The Land, the band's first new material in 15 years.

Serj Tankian will release his new solo EP Elasticity on March 19.

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