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Modern Drummer Magazine - September 2001
John Dolmayan Action Man
Modern Drummer Magazine - September 2001
It's a hot Friday afternoon at Frank & Son's Collectors in City Of Industry, California, and John Dolmayan is busy unloading a truck, box by box, crate by crate. No, the twenty-eight-year-old drummer for the gold-selling band System Of A Down hasn't been abandoned by his roadies. Today, Dolmayan is appeasing the other beast that resides in his soul--the comic book and action-figure jones he has indulged since childhood. Before Slayer, Maynard Ferguson, Billy Idol, and The Dickies, Dolmayan's obsessions were dominated by The Dukes Of Hazzard, Lord Of The Rings, Saint Of Killers, and Tron.
If Dolmayan had to choose one action figure to return as, he would be the invincible Wolverine. "He ages slower than normal men," explains Dolmayan, while assembling the booth where monthly he displays his comic and action wares. "Wolverine is impervious to disease, and he has an Aeamanathium skeleton, which is unbreakable. And he's invulnerable. I have many experiences ahead of me and things I want to achieve. I want to live a long time--like Wolverine."
If immortality can be found through a rock band, Dolmayan may yet attain his goals. As of this writing, System Of A Down's debut has sold 750,000 copies. A diverse, bruising, brawling epic of thirteen songs, System's first record reflects not only influences like Frank Zappa, Tool, and freakish polka-rock, but a serious observance of the band's collective Armenian heritage. Songs like the swing-infested "Sugar," the Zeppelin-at-the-circus metal spree of "Suggestions," the zippy march shuffle of "D-Devil," the odd-time mayhem of "Soil," and the pummeling blast of "P.L.U.C.K." relay more than simple musical muscle.
System Of A Down was originally called Victims Of A Down, but these musicians are victims no more. All System songs are rants against injustice and ignorance. Their main focus, however, is exposing the holocaust that the Armenian people suffered early in the twentieth century.
Born in Lebanon, Dolmayan has seen his fair share of bloodshed and battle, and that, along with his rather serious demeanor and mighty drumming, make him the perfect fit for System Of A Down's tried-by-fire metal marauding. With outrageous singer Serj Tankian, guitarist Daron Malakian, and bassist Shavo Odadjian, Dolmayan rounds out System as the sober straight man to their extreme faces of fury. His playing is inspired. It's no wonder that hoards of young drummers are naming him as a major influence.
On their debut, Dolmayan's drumming replicated the band member's drastic rhythms and hairpin-turn tempos. But with their latest release, System and Dolmayan create something closer to Quadrophenia than Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath. With no fewer than thirty-two songs to choose from, System's new album is one dizzying, delirious ride. It seems that each song has numerous, ear-bending rhythm changes, all navigated by Dolmayan with the ease and power of a welterweight.
Or would that be Spiderman?
"Version 7.0" recalls the brawn of Rage Against The Machine. Dolmayan's frenzied 16th-note rolls lift "X" from Rush-like prog sections to beat-it-with-your-fist blast ballistics. He rips out convincing double bass opportunities on the hardcore "Prison Song." The monosyllabic grunts of "Fuck The System" are matched by yet more furious blast drumming. Following that is the mellow extravaganza of "Atwa," accompanied by Dolmayan's luxurious groove of ghost notes and somersaulting tom and bass drum combinations. "Science" displays the band's "rock 'n' roll roots," says Dolmayan, while "Aerials" recalls "the power ballads of Journey." And even Zappa gets his due in the nutty time tussles of "Johnny" and "Chicken Stu."
But the most beautiful song on the album features percussionist Arto Tuncaboyacian in an Armenian folk song accompanied by Indian flutes, hand drums, a dark melody, and a full vocal choir. This "Intro To PJ's" reveals the heart of System Of A Down.
Back at the drummer's impressive North Hills home, Dolmayan shows off his incredible collection, which includes classic video arcade games like Tron and Terminator 2, as well as a closet full of Japanese Manga, original comic art and cells, and valuable action figures such as The Thing, Punisher, God, Doctor Doom, and Iron Man. A battered set of '70s Ludwigs sits out in the garage like broken-down warriors.
As we are discussing his latest find, a beautiful young woman exits the bathroom, smiles at John, and takes her leave. John doesn't miss a beat, leading her to the door with gentlemanly grace. He may be serious, but Dolmayan is no brute. Above his bed is a large lithograph of four illustrations with the words "Discipline, Work, Faith, Solitude" outlined below. These are core to the Dolmayan creed.
"Discipline is important because in order to achieve anything you have to have a work ethic," he relates. "Anything you're going to do in life will take work. If something's handed to you, you won't appreciate it. Faith is faith in yourself. In order to accomplish your goals, no matter how lofty they may seem, you have to have faith in yourself. And solitude is one of my basic needs. You need to be tranquil in yourself to accomplish anything in life. You need solitude, peace, and harmony within yourself."
The interview:
John Dolmayan Action Man
Modern Drummer Magazine - September 2001
MD: In all of your band photos, you look like a very serious character.
John: I just look like a serious guy - some people think I look like a character from American History X. I just look mean; people have been saying that to me since I shaved my head. I always get grief for that. I may look serious, but I'm not. Look, I'm into toys and comics. I'm always in a good mood - well, most of the time.
MD: Do you have a serious, determined approach to being a musician and drummer?
John: Yeah, ever since I was two years old. I've always been a drummer. My father was gigging both Lebanon and Canada when I was a kid, and I'D go on stage and mimic his drummer. I would find my way to the front of the stage and they would perform around me.
MD: Your dad played Armenian and Arabic music as well as jazz?
John: Yeah, I heard al kinds of music growing up. My mom listened to classical music. Then when I was about twelve, I was introduced to rock 'n' roll. But my parents wouldn't let me play drums until I was fifteen. They knew that was what I wanted to do. Every year for my birthday I wanted a drumset. They knew I'd become a musician, but my dad wanted me to do some-thing else, to be able to raise a family. Being a musician is a hard life. How many great jazz drummers in New York City are driving cabs?
MD: You were born in Lebanon. Do you remember the war there?
John: I remember Lebanon being very beautiful. I also remember the battles, running round in the streets afterwards and picking up bullets. Back then the weren't that scary because I had experienced them from birth. If you hear bombs coming down and bullets firing all the time it becomes normal.
MD: What made you leave?
John: One night in 1976 I was crying and my folks put me in their bed to comfort me. two minutes later a bullet came through the wall and landed in my bed right where my head would have been. My dad was like, 'We're outa here." Two weeks later we were in Cyprus , and then Canada. But even then I wanted to be a drummer. My dad had already put out three albums under his own name. It was international music. My dad still plays a lot of Armenian events.
MD: You are Armenian but born in Lebanon?
John: Yes. If you're Jewish and the holocaust was denied you, you'd be upset. Well, we're not Jewish, but our genocide did occur at the hands of the Turks, and the world doesn't acknowledge it. A million and a half of our people were brutally killed. This holocaust hasn't been admitted to by the Turkish government, because the US backs them up. We need their oil and military bases over there. But France has recently passed resolutions recognizing our holocaust and we continue to work on it.
MD: And that influences the bands music?
John: There are a lot of elements being addressed in our lyrics. We're not afraid to attack topics of political or social interest or bring light to wrongs that are happening today, like East Timor or Africa. People are being massacred and it's all over money.
MD: See, you are very serious.
John: I have to put my energy into the band to make us as successful as possible. I don't mean driving a Bentley and making millions. I'll take it, but that's not our goal. The goal is to make music that people will still listen to when we're gone.
MD: How has being such a serious and driven person impacted your drumming?
John: I treat it with great respect and I am humbled by other drummers' abilities, which always makes me strive to be better.
MD: The band's material really features you. How do you all write the tunes?
John: The bulk of the material is written by our guitarist, Daron Malakian. Serj Tankian and Shavo Odadjian also write. I don't really write, not yet at least.
MD: But the music is very rhythmic, with many tempo changes, and you, the bassist, and the guitarist often play rhythms in unison. Are you trying to match their parts rhythmically?
John: Most of the time I'm trying to match up with them and be very precise. My main goal as a drummer is to make the songs as good as possible, not necessarily make the drums as good as possible. Whatever the song needs is what I'm going to do. Ten years ago I was into having the drums shine more than anything else, but that's selfish. if you want that, become a soloist.
MD: With the new album, the band has progressed on many levels. the musicianship is even more powerful than it was
John: We know each other better, and we've been on tour for three years. We slept in the same beds when we began. When the RV broke down, all we had was each other. Two things can happen when you're on tour: you'll either learn to hate each other or you'll learn to love each other. Well we've done both! [laughs]
MD: Getting back to your background, you mentioned your first real drumset at age fifteen.
John: Yeah, my dad finally got me a used Rogers kit. Then I got my Ludwigs, which I played for ten years. great Drumset.
MD: What were the first records you played along to?
John: I only had a couple of lessons, my real teachers were albums. I learned my timing from Billy Idol's Vital idol [a greatest hits collection]. I would also put the radio on and play to any song, not knowing what it was. I've always had a knack for that. I would put on whatever I could find and play it from beginning to end - the Dickies, Iron Maiden, Rush, Slyer.
The I found my dads jazz albums, Who's This, Stan Getz, Miles, Davis, Maynard Ferguson, Al DiMeola? This music blew my mind. 'Lets try that.' Whatever my dad had, I would sit down and learn how to play it, and that's really how I learned to play drums.
MD: Being a musician himself, what advice did your dad give you?
John: "Practise, practise, practise." I played by myself constantly for two years. I gave it everything I had. I would put on The Who and play 'Baba O'Riley' ten times. Then Guns N' Roses. The Police, and Peter Erskine on Maynard Ferguson's Carnival Album. He's one of my favourite drummers ever. And I loved Dave Brubeck and Charlie Parker. I played along to everything and tried to carefully listen to exactly what the drummer was doing. I couldn't catch everything, but I came up with my own way of doing things.
MD: But you took a couple of lessons.
John: The most important thing I learned from private lessons was the bossa nova. I was also shown the proper way to play single- and double-stroke rolls. I had this teacher named Dmitri, a fusion drummer who played with my dad. One day he showed me a bosa nova, and I was like, What is that? It was tricky at first. I watched him do it for five minutes, then I sat down and got it in another five minutes.
Armenian music has a similar vibe to some Latin thing. It sounds easy to play, but it's deceptive. It's not in 4/4. But I went from that to bosa nova and began listening to a lot of Latin music. That was a big influence on my playing.
MD: What led to System Of A Down?
John: My first band was an instrumental fusion, but not very good. The second band had a singer, but these guys were hippies from North Hollywood, which is where my family had moved to. All that band played was Hendrix. I wasn't too into it until I heard stuff Mitch Mitchell played with Hendrix. Great drummer. Then it was a different story.
MD: Did you play jazz?
John: I've always basically done this, but System is just a heavier version of that. I don't know how to define what we do.
I did that Hendrix gig for two years. That led to a few other bands, but I was improving fast. I was practising all the time then. I worked a day job, practised every day, and rehearsed with bands every night.
MD: What was your day job?
John: Pepsi, UPS - thirty different jobs. I worked hard. But I had my musical goals and there was nothing else in the world for me. There was no other option for me. And the guys in System are the same way. Daron especially. He's the most driven person I know. He lives and breathes music.
MD: So you were playing LA clubs.....
John: Yeah, and I developed good time then, playing with two different bands and practising on my own. I learned a lot about music. If you play five hours a day you'll learn something.
Then I played in a band called Middle Earth for three years, and I thought this was the band that was gonna make it. Our last bass player had played in Soil, which was Serj and Daron's band. That was how I met System, around 1995. System wasn't happy with their drummer, and Middle Earth wanted to play more pop music. I can't play Mariah Carey music - that would be an insult to whatever talent I have.
I got along with the guys from System, and we shared rehearsal space. Well, when they fired their drummer they asked me to fill in. The first time I played with them, it just worked. I had never experienced that kind of magic before.
MD: How many years did System play LA before you were signed?
John: I was with them a year before we got signed in '97. At that point all of our shows were sold out. We were creating havoc. We really meant what we were doing. It wasn't contrived. The music was strong and the people felt it.
There's nothing else like our band out there. We're influenced by Slayer, The Beatles, and even Zappa. Plus we're all very into hip-hop and early NWA. That makes for a pretty interesting combination.
MD: You have to play hard in this band.
John: Very hard. I play a lot of rim shots. I also have a couple of different techniques I use to get louder or different sounds out of the drums, like playing close to the rim of the snare of the toms - getting them to 'bark'. Sometimes I'll play the drums dead center. Tight ghost notes sound good in the center of the head. But I like to move the sticks around.
MD: What do the guys want to hear from you?
John: They expect a lot, but I don't have a problem with that. Sometimes it'll just be a vibe, a heaviness to a certain section, or something wacky and unexpected. We did thirty-two songs for the new album, and they're not traditional songs. I couldn't play traditional parts.
MD: What were you considerations for the drum sound after the experience of the first album?
John: I wanted the toms to stand out a little bit more and resonate more. I wanted the snare to be tighter and the kick to have more bottom in it. I'm basically using the same tools to achieve this, but we're using a different tuning technique.
On the last album I used clear Ambassadors on top, but this time they were coated. That gives you a warmer sound. I always use coated Ambassadors on the top of the snare. I wanted the toms to have almost a Pink Floyd type of resonance, but it's hard to get that when you're playing fast.
MD: Going back to the first album, were you happy with the drumming on it?
John: No, I wish we'd recorded that album after touring for a couple of months. But I'm never happy with any recordings I've done. I'm not totally happy with the new album. But at a certain point you have to let it go.
MD: But the new record shows a lot of growth. It's in-your-face and much tighter.
John: I was more comfortable in the studio this time. We did a good job. I don't have many regrets. After hearing some of the songs completed, I think a couple of them are too fast. But overall things came more easily, and I wasn't self conscious. We joked a lot with [producer] Rick Rubin. It was a good vibe.
MD: What did Rubin say to you about your drumming?
John: He made me feel at ease and confident. He did feel that some of my fills weren't necessary, so I cut back a little bit. But then 'Version 7.0,' where I played quite a bit, he loved what I was doing and didn't change a thing.
MD: Did he ask you to use a click?
John: We don't use a click. To me, your timing shouldn't be perfect all the time. I am not a robot or drum machine. I'm a human being with emotions. I don't have perfect time. Besides, clicks dehumanize the music.
MD: Would you ever get into electronics or loops?
John: I would, as long as they're only enhancing what we're doing and not taking over. You're gonna hear drums from me, not from a computer.
MD: I've heard that a lot of drummers come to you asking questions about what you do.
John: I get a lot of questions about how I play so fast. But I don't feel that I play that fast. I try to be accurate. Drummers also ask me about my feel, but that's a hard one to answer. I think it all comes from the music you've been exposed to.
I tell drummers to limit themselves to only listening only to drummers for inspiration. You can learn a lot about rhythm from a bass player - or listening to the wind. You should be open to anything that will inspire you to do something different on your drums. I also try to make the point to drummers that they have to do all they can to make the songs they play sound great, not just the drum parts. There are a million amazing drummers who have come and gone, and few people remember them. But people will always remember a great song.
MD: How would you say your playing has progressed since you've been in System?
John: My timing is a lot better and I am more relaxed. I want it to get to a point where I don't think of anything. Instead of trying to come up with an impressive part, I should be thinking about playing from the heart.
MD: In 'Prison Song,' you play fast rolls and double bass patterns. Did you work those up for that song?
John: It came naturally. My double bass is not as strong as I'd like it to be. That's what I'm working on right now. I practise it by playing along to Slayer albums. I practise it by playing singles, and recently I began focusing on paradiddles with my feet. Sometimes I play heel up, sometimes heel down. It depends on how hard I hit.
MD: Where does your snare drum sit in relation to your waist?
John: I always have a bruise on my thigh from hitting the snare, if that tells you something. I sit up high. It keeps my back straight and gives me more control. Plus my legs have more gravity on their side. I have the weight of my body working with my leg instead of against it.
MD: What are your goals beyond System Of A Down?
John: I want to make a fusion album, something without vocals. I want to invite different drummers and other musicians to play on it with me. I have a long 'wish-list' of players, guys System has shared bills with.
MD: What's the best thing about success?
John: Getting to play shows every night. Just being able to play all the time, whether in front of a hundred people or ten thousand people. Just being able to play.
MD: And having one beautiful girl exiting the back door while another comes in the front door...
John: No, it's not about that. But it is amazing how good-looking you become the bigger your band gets.
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