In a new interview with Kyle Meredith, SYSTEM OF A DOWN frontman Serj Tankian was asked if he has any plans to record and release more solo rock music following the arrival of his “Elasticity” EP this past March. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “‘Elasticity’ was really fun to put out, actually, because it was very full of life; it was very moving. Something like the song ‘Your Mom’, which people were just, like… it was blowing their minds, which was fucking awesome. And I enjoy doing the rock stuff, and I still have more rock songs, and they’ll probably come to me at a particular time. But mostly I’ve been focusing on scoring, art, putting out a lot of releases. By the end of this year, I counted, I will have had a dozen releases of things. That includes two films, two soundtracks. We’re putting out two live records in November and December with F.C.C. on tour, my backup band, from 2008 and 2009. And we’re doing the NFT thing. We had a live gallery exhibit in July. We did ‘Elasticity’. ‘Truth To Power’ and ‘I Am Not Alone’, both films came out, both soundtracks came out. Two cinematic records, a piano concerto called ‘Disarming Time’. It’s this 24-minute incredible modern piano concerto I did that I love. And also I put out my poetry collection — my poetry suite, which is a whole record of poetry with cinematic music that we released later this summer. So it’s kind of wild, man. It’s been a year of probably the most releases I’ve had. And it’s just whatever comes. If rock comes, I do rock.
“Right now, I literally right now, right before we connected, I was working on… I just created a concept for a — I don’t wanna say ‘opera’, but it’s more of a very unique choral world with classical instruments,” he revealed. “I’m thinking of calling it ‘Invocations’. And this is the first time I’m even talking about it, ’cause I literally just figured this out.
“I have these incredible, incredible tracks that I’ve done over time, a couple of which I’ve released on cinematic stuff or soundtracks, but they are in that world where they just pull your spirit out of your body with the sounds and the instruments and the vocals. And so I’m thinking about operatic singers, death metal singers, everything in between, full choir, full orchestra, and just a really wild concept to do live. And maybe record it or maybe replicate it in different areas of the world.
“So that’s where I am this week,” Serj added. “But by the end of December, I might be writing more rock songs. So I don’t know. The answer to your question is it all comes. And when it comes, it comes in a uniform. When it comes in a rock uniform, I fucking rock it. When comes in a classical uniform, I ‘classic’ it.’ [Laughs]”
“Elasticity” was the SYSTEM OF A DOWN singer’s first solo release since 2013’s “Orca”. Upon its arrival, “Elasticity” received widespread accolades, with New York Magazine saying the collection sees Tankian‘s “rock-and-roll impulses return in vibrant, mischievous form,” Loudwire dubbing it “an exercise in eccentricity,” and The Ringer praising the five-song EP, saying Tankian‘s “full range of … writing talents are on full display.”
The Los Angeles- and New Zealand-based musician previously stated about how the idea for “Elasticity” came about: “When I conceived possibly doing another record with the guys from SYSTEM OF A DOWN a few years back, I started working on a set of songs that I arranged in rock format for that purpose. As we weren’t able to see eye to eye on the vision going forward with an SOAD album, I decided to release these songs under my moniker.”
SYSTEM OF A DOWN hasn’t released a full-length album since the “Mezmerize” and “Hypnotize” LPs, which came out in 2005.
