Serj Tankian – ‘Toxicity’ Release Period Was ‘F–king Stressful’

For a lot of bands, the interval surrounding the discharge of their greatest albums is often considered fondly. However that is not essentially the case for System of a Down, as Serj Tankian reveals in a brand new interview that the interval surrounding the discharge of Toxicity was “actually, actually dicey.”

Admittedly, there was lots happening surrounding the interval wherein the album was launched that added to the stress of the state of affairs. Tankian tells Steel Injection, “Simply being on tour the week after 9/11 for months at a time by itself, even if you happen to weren’t a political band, could be difficult as a result of there’s these day by day type of threats proper, that had been on TV and the orange, the purple threats, all these totally different calibers of terrorism threats and stuff. And but we had been additionally being threatened by many parts due to our outspokenness. So it was a really, very tough time.”

Talking extra to their very own expertise, he additionally remembers, “The discharge of Toxicity itself was a riot in L.A. We unintentionally ended up having a riot in Hollywood due to our launch occasion that, mainly, we had too many individuals. And the hearth marshal closed it down and folks reacted and fights ensued. We misplaced our tools, our crew was punched, after which L.A. riots occurred and we needed to clarify what was happening to the media, and it was a fucking mess.”

He goes on so as to add, “So once I consider Toxicity, everybody thinks, oh, it is your type of greatest report or your greatest promoting report, no matter you need to name it. They usually’re like, ‘How was it? How did it really feel?’ Like they count on some actually optimistic type of reminiscence or response. It was fucking demanding as fuck. That is what I bear in mind. I did not really feel like a musician. I did not really feel like I used to be doing music. It was fucking demanding as fuck. It was actually, actually dicey. That is what I bear in mind, that is the emotion that prevails.”

Toxicity did push the band to new heights, with the report hitting the highest of the Billboard 200 Album Chart and spawning the hit singles “Chop Suey!,” ‘Aerials” and the title monitor.

That stated, Tankian can now look in reflection and see that there have been some issues realized from the expertise. “I believe there’s something to success the place it is not simply monochromatic, no matter your artistic output is. And people different layers, these different prospects is likely to be constructing into what we all know as this profitable time and this profitable report for this band per se. In order that’s actually attention-grabbing to me.”