Serj Tankian – ‘Toxicity’ Release Period Was ‘F–king Stressful’

For a lot of bands, the interval surrounding the discharge of their largest albums is often considered fondly. However that is not essentially the case for System of a Down, as Serj Tankian reveals in a brand new interview that the interval surrounding the discharge of Toxicity was “actually, actually dicey.”

Admittedly, there was rather a lot occurring surrounding the interval wherein the album was launched that added to the stress of the scenario. Tankian tells Metal Injection, “Simply being on tour the week after 9/11 for months at a time by itself, even if you happen to weren’t a political band, can be difficult as a result of there’s these each day type of threats proper, that had been on TV and the orange, the purple threats, all these totally different calibers of terrorism threats and stuff. And but we had been additionally being threatened by many parts due to our outspokenness. So it was a really, very tough time.”

Talking extra to their very own expertise, he additionally recollects, “The discharge of Toxicity itself was a riot in L.A. We unintentionally ended up having a riot in Hollywood due to our launch occasion that, mainly, we had too many individuals. And the fireplace marshal closed it down and other people reacted and fights ensued. We misplaced our gear, our crew was punched, after which L.A. riots occurred and we needed to clarify what was occurring to the media, and it was a fucking mess.”

He goes on so as to add, “So once I consider Toxicity, everybody thinks, oh, it is your type of greatest file or your greatest promoting file, no matter you need to name it. And so they’re like, ‘How was it? How did it really feel?’ Like they count on some actually constructive type of reminiscence or response. It was fucking annoying as fuck. That is what I bear in mind. I did not really feel like a musician. I did not really feel like I used to be doing music. It was fucking annoying as fuck. It was actually, actually dicey. That is what I bear in mind, that is the emotion that prevails.”

Toxicity did push the band to new heights, with the file hitting the highest of the Billboard 200 Album Chart and spawning the hit singles “Chop Suey!,” ‘Aerials” and the title observe.

That stated, Tankian can now look in reflection and see that there have been some issues discovered from the expertise. “I feel there’s something to success the place it is not simply monochromatic, no matter your inventive output is. And people different layers, these different prospects may be constructing into what we all know as this profitable time and this profitable file for this band per se. In order that’s actually attention-grabbing to me.”