System of a Down kicked off a brief North American summer tour with Deftones last night (Aug. 2) in Camden, N.J. We recently caught up with System singer Serj Tankian to discuss his new solo album ‘Harakiri,’ but we were also able to squeeze in a few questions about System of a Down. Check out our quick Q&A with Tankian concerning the latest on System of a Down below:

What has the chemistry been like since reuniting after the lengthy hiatus?

We’ve had a f—in’ blast playing all of these shows. I think we’ve played better because of it, there was new excitement in playing together and all of the shows have been really great. Everyone’s told us that we sound better than we did in 2006 when we left off so I think it’s great, we’re having a great time doing it – we got two weeks on the East Coast in August that we’re gonna do with Deftones and it’s gonna be exciting and Deftones are great, they’re friends of our obviously. It’s going to be a fun tour.

Can you talk more about your relationship with Deftones?

Gosh, I think we met the guys from Deftones years back when there was a cross between Ozzfest – there’s one city in Minnesota, probably Minneapolis, where every year when Ozzfest was going on every year, the Warped Tour and Ozzfest would have one day where it would be Warped Ozzfest. Both tours would meet at one giant venue and so both tours would co-exist at that thing and I think that’s where we met Deftones if I’m not mistaken and became friends years ago. I’ve kept in touch and done a song on their record and they’re good friends — love their music, appreciate their music and so excited about touring with them.

One of the big questions from our Loudwire readers is: When is the next System of a Down album coming?

[Laughs] It’s a good question and the answer is the same – we haven’t made plans of recording the new record as of yet. When we do everyone will know. We haven’t really discussed another record as of now with any of the guys really, it’s something that when it’s the right time we’ll do it. Right now I’m busy with my own stuff and that’s gonna take me a bit but when it’s the right time everyone will know. I don’t even want to say there’s [a new System of a Down album] coming because we haven’t really talked about it. I just assume when it’s the right time, it’ll materialize like everything else in the universe.

System of a Down’s current tour with Deftones runs through an Aug. 15 stop in Chicago. Check out our lengthier interview with Serj Tankian about his new solo album by clicking the button below:


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