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Hear/Say Interview with drummer John Dolmayan
Hear/Say Interview with drummer John Dolmayan
By Anastasia Pantsios - November 2001
Hear/Say: This is Anastasia from Hear/Say. I'm glad they found you. They seemed confused by your pseudonym at the front desk.
John Dolmayan: What? Notch Johnson?
Yes. Do people try to track you down to your hotel?
Well, some people found me last night but I don't really care.
Are most of the people who track you down obnoxious fans or are they just people who really want to talk to you?
They're usually kind of young and they're just so happy that you're there. They don't really look at you as a normal person so to them it's a big deal. Whereas we know it's no big deal at all.
When you say young, how old do you mean?
Like 15-18 years old. Young kids. The only thing they want is to take a picture and get your autograph anyway so I don't see that as being that big of a deal.
What attracts kids that age to your band?
What is it about any band that attracts anyone? I guess when you hear something you like, you like it. When it comes to art, it's going to be totally open to your interpretation and your taste. We have 40-year-old fans; we have 7-year-old fans. It's all a matter of personal taste. I don't know what kind of music you're into, but you like it because you like it and you can't really explain why. I think the most important aspect of music is for pleasure. It should be something that's pleasurable and you enjoy it and you move on with your life. And yeah, it can affect you and your mood and whatnot, but you should let it have its special place, not let it take over your life.
By special place, what do you mean?
I just enjoy listening to music and watching music being played and most of the music I listen to is really mellow actually even though I'm in a fairly heavy band
What kind of music would that be?
I listen to a lot of Radiohead, that genre. That's pretty mellow. What's mellower than Radiohead?
Kenny G?
I don't listen to Kenny G.
That's what I think of as mellow.
That's what I think of as boring. There's a difference. But then again that's my personal taste because millions of people enjoy Kenny G and they're not wrong for enjoying Kenny G. because it's their taste. If I'm going to listen to somebody play sax, it's going to be Stan Getz. Maybe they just like it and maybe it's just background music for them, or maybe they really get into it and get emotional about it but everything doesn't have to be emotional. There are certain things that are just there. If we overanalyze everything we take all the enjoyment out of it.
Tell me a little bit about recording the new album. What do you feel was the greatest advance the band made over the first album?
I'm very proud of the first album and the second album. I think that we've made incredible leaps and bounds in that we're a tighter unit than we were. We've been on tour for three years so we understand each other's playing a lot better. In general when you're touring, you become very close to the person you're touring with. And you're expanding your horizons when you're on tour, because playing the same songs night after night you're going to experiment a little bit with sounds, and just the way you play, technique and you grow, hopefully. As a musician and as an artist, you always want to grow. I don't think you can just stay the same. You're either going forwards or backwards in my opinion.
Have some of the songs from the first album changed as you have played them live? Are their certain things you find in them that maybe you didn't see when you fist recorded them?
Absolutely, I think that's clear with every album that we've made so far. Personally I'd rather tour for about six months and then make the album but that's not the way life works. Play the songs for six months live. You learn so much about the songs after you play them night after night in different cities that you don't learn when you are writing or in the studio recording. Because at that time your focus is on getting them on tape the best that it can be done and getting it over with. Whereas when you're playing them live you're like, 'well, what can I do to enhance this part' and you don't discover that in one day. Some things take a little bit of time to create.
Are you already finding that with some of the new songs?
Yeah, definitely.
Which ones do you find are unfolding the most for you performing them?
It's not any one in particular. It's like a small little fill here and there and a guitar lick that I'll hear. It's really small things, nothing super noticeable unless you're the person playing it. I think it's just always like that. After you're done with an album, it's like, oh we could have done this. But at some point you have to let it go, you have to say, 'ok it's done.' And I'm very proud of what we've done personally. Now if we sold zero copies I'd still be just as proud because I believe in what we've done.
If you believe in it, it's going to come across better to other people, don't you think?
Yeah, but that's not a concern of mine whether it comes across to people or not. I believe in it and that's what's important.
You don't feel that there's an element of communication in it?
I'm sure there is but that's not why we're creating this music. It's for self-gratification ultimately. If we didn't enjoy what we did, we wouldn't do it. As much as we want people to appreciate it and enjoy it, to me if you love the album, great. If you hate the album, I don't really care. I'm not going to let it upset the way I create my music. Nothing pompous. It's for us to make first and then for you to enjoy it. If I'm not happy with what I'm doing how can I possibly expect you to be happy with it. I would prefer to make two albums with total artistic purity that will last lifetimes - past the time I'm here on earth - than to make millions and millions of dollars on pre-fabricated corporate crap that you put out because it's happening right now. I will not play in a band like that. I have had many opportunities to my life and I always took the harder road. Our music is not something that even should be popular in a lot of people's opinions.
Why do they think that?
They think that because they don't necessarily understand it. It's hard to categorize. It's not typical. Sometimes when you're not fully understanding something, you're afraid of that because it's different, wildly different. Why don't you understand it? So your own insecurities come out and you judge something because of that. A lot of people have done that. And then there's countless hundreds of thousands of people who have gotten it right away and they're like, 'wow, this is different and I like it because it's different. It moves me in a different way than other things and that's kind of like why I like it.' Then we've had people on the other side that have like hated it right away. This guy came up to me in L.A. He said, 'I've seen seven of your shows and I hate your band. I hate your music. And I go, why are you coming to the shows? And he goes, you sons of bitches, I don't know why but there's something about you that I have to see and I have to hear it.' If you hate us, why do you listen? He goes, 'I don't know.' The look on my face must have been totally puzzling but that's just the reality of the situation. He hated us yet he came to see us play. Makes no sense to me, because if I hated someone I'm not going to go watch them play. I wouldn't waste my time. Maybe he's a masochist. I don't know. This kid was spending money to come to shows of a band he did not like. Does that make sense to you? It doesn't make sense to me.
Have you ever found difficulties getting across to audiences because most of the bands you've played with are quite a bit easier to categorize than you guys are?
Our first tour was with Slayer. You can imagine. I love Slayer but you can imagine how unrelenting their audience is and they're not really open to a lot of different kinds of music. They like Slayer. They're not there to see System of a Down. They're there to see Slayer and they couldn't give a fuck. We're wasting their time in their opinion. But we got a really good reaction from them. People were coming up to us after the show and going, 'man, I never heard anything like that before and Slayer's really the only band I came to see but you guys did okay.' If they say you're okay, from a Slayer audience you should be jumping up and down. You're lucky they didn't throw shit at you on stage. And actually the guys from Slayer came up to us and went, 'out of all the years we've been touring and out of all the bands that opened for us, you got one of the best reactions.' And this is something that was cool, not expected once again. We didn't expect to be selling a million albums. We didn't expect to #1 on Billboard. We didn't expect our music to be on radio or on TV. But for some reason people like it. I don't know why. We like it. But other people are digging it and as long as we enjoy what we're doing, we're going to keep doing it basically.
Doesn't it make you feel good to have people react to it?
It makes me feel good but I try not to let it cloud my judgment. Because if you let other people's opinions enter into yours too much, then you're going to be trying to appease everybody and that's not possible. You have to please yourself. As it is, we have four people in the band. We have enough people to please.
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