Episode 165: System of a Down Aerials Year 2001.- English Version

00:00:00 - Classics rocks all time

00:00:06 - Hello friends from all over the world

00:00:09 - Always faithful to classic rocks all time

00:00:13 - Listen to us in English and Spanish

00:00:17 - Find us on the internet on Google and you go directly to the pod nation page with all the chapters of the songs and their stories

00:00:25 - Today a band from Armenia on this podcast

00:00:30 - Finding classic rocks all time, the most incredible stories and anecdotes.

00:00:41 - Musicians Bruce Dickinson.

00:00:42 - Want to see us.

00:00:43 - What's that?

00:00:44 - And what people want to see us.

00:00:46 - And, you know, I mean, first of all, we love, you know, we love doing it.

00:00:54 - It's really a kind of a privilege to be, you know, 51 years old and being able to go out, just still to have a voice.

00:01:06 - Let me.

00:01:07 - Well, it's felt differently.

00:01:08 - Everything is called orgasmatron.

00:01:11 - Rod Halford.

00:01:12 - I think are useful just because of the fact that with what I try and do, it's important to try and...

00:01:23 - Clappin and Paul Stanley.

00:01:25 - But piano was inconceivable, I mean, you can't, you can't just gotten by a piano or his guitar is much more accessible.

00:01:33 - I think I was very driven period.

00:01:35 - It was to compensate, to make myself feel more worthy.

00:01:44 - Subscribe on the Spotify and Spreaker platforms.

00:01:53 - You

00:02:23 - System of a Down is an American rock band of Armenian descent, formed in Glendale, California, in 1994.

00:02:34 - It is composed of Serge Tankian, Darren Malakian, Chavo Odagian and John Dalmayen.

00:02:42 - When I heard them for the first time they surprised me, since I didn't know in what genre to incorporate the music they made.

00:02:49 - It was a mix of metal, funky, soul was a weird group.

00:02:54 - From the histrionics of its singer, to the choppy rhythms, and the guitar sound.

00:03:00 - Toxicity was the highly anticipated follow-up to System of a Downs 1998 self-title debut album.

00:03:07 - It was released on September 4, 2001 and went straight to number one.

00:03:12 - In America, but then 9-11 happened.

00:03:16 - The title track was issued as the second single in January 2002 and had a huge presence on rock radio.

00:03:23 - ARIELS was released a few months later as the third single.

00:03:29 - It reached number one on the mainstream rock chart on September 28, more than a year after the album's release.

00:03:36 - On October 5, it topped the alternative songs chart, reflecting the wide sample of radio stations that played the song.

00:03:44 - The album ended up selling over 3 million in the US, not bad for an eccentric Armenian metal band.

00:03:51 - The lyrics were written by guitarist Darren Malakian and singer Serge Tankian, Malakian wrote the music.

00:03:58 - They also have producer credits on the album along with their label boss, Rick Rubin, who was a big part of System's success.

00:04:06 - The music video for the song was directed by Shavo O'Dadjian.

begins showing a desolate and desert place. The pan moves to a circus tent. Inside, the band is preparing to perform, and they are observed by a young man with abnormal features.

00:04:25 - His eyes are drawn back and his mouth is very small, giving him a scary appearance. The video was rotated many times on MTV. This song is about how people can lose their identities become like everyone else. I did some research and Serge said that he wrote it following his reading of Zen Mind Beginner's Mind. This is what the song really means. Nirvana, the waterfall, Shunryu Suzuki, Rashi, our life and our death are the same thing. When we realize this fact we are no longer afraid of death and have no real difficulty in life. Rick Rubin the producer of the album tells us I remember seeing going to see them the first time I see them play they played the Viper in LA he was packed and you know 200 people and sold out sold out and I remember watching the show and just laughing I laughed the whole time it was the funniest thing I've ever seen but in a good way it wasn't like laughing like what a joke it was just so over the top and so extreme and like Armenian folk dancing with heavy metal riffs and you know wild political lyrics and screaming it was just it was crazy music and usually heavy music falls a lot of heavy music falls into a similar thing I'm not not going to say it's interchangeable because it's not, but there are certain rules of heavy metal let's say, that everyone sort of follows those rules.

00:06:06 - So the loyal fan base, they like them.

00:06:09 - And System of the Down were a heavy band, you could say a heavy metal band who didn't follow those rules.

00:06:18 - So they didn't have the rhythms that you'd hear in a typical, you know, you wouldn't hear a Metallica rhythm, you'd hear a System of the Down rhythm, which was different like different gallops and different and it's rooted in their Armenian Armenian heritage so they took elements from folk music and brought that into heavy metal and I remember at the time I've never heard anything like it and I and I can remember people while there were those of us who loved them fanatically people hated yeah you know people hated them I can remember the big radio station in in L.A. is K-Rock and Kevin Weatherly is the program director of K-Rock and I remember him saying, system of down is a band we will never play on our station, ever, 100%.

00:07:06 - I don't care what happened, they're not, that doesn't fit on our station.

00:07:10 - And then a year later it was the number, they clearly didn't fit but they were so good that they transcended not fitting.

00:07:20 - And those are the artists that I like the best, those are my favorite artists, the ones that they don't really fit anywhere.

00:07:26 - They're not another in this mold.

00:07:30 - Rage against machine is another great example.

00:07:32 - It's like rage against machine, they don't sound like anyone.

00:07:34 - No one before rage against the machine sounded like rage against the machine.

00:07:38 - And a lot of people didn't like them for that reason.

00:07:40 - But those are the revolutionary bands.

00:07:42 - Those are the ones that changed the world.

00:07:53 - Life is a waterfall, we're one in the river and one again after the fall

00:08:16 - Swimming through the void, we hear the word

00:08:24 - We lose ourselves, but we find it all

00:08:33 - Cause we are the ones that wanna play

00:08:36 - Always wanna go, but you never wanna stay

00:08:40 - We are the ones that want to choose Always want to play, but you never want to lose

00:08:53 - There he is in the sky

00:09:09 - When you lose your mind, you free your life

00:09:15 - Life is a waterfall

00:09:18 - We drink from the river, then we turn around and put up our walls

00:09:27 - Swimming through the void, we hear the word

00:09:30 - We lose ourselves, but we find it all

00:09:39 - Cause we are the ones that want to play

00:09:43 - When you free your eyes, you're the one that's going to die

00:09:48 - When you free your eyes, you're the one that's going to die

00:09:57 - When you free your eyes, you're the one that's going to die

00:10:04 - When you free your eyes eternal prize

00:10:10 - Areals in the sky

00:10:16 - When you lose your mind you free your life

00:10:22 - Areals so up high

00:10:28 - When you free your eyes eternal prize

00:10:33 - Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,