System of a Down talk about how Daron Malakian score big feature movie Lost In Hollywood
December 24, 2007
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System of a Down talk about how Daron Malakian score big feature movie Lost In Hollywood
Posted at the band site
Daron Malakian Lost in Hollywood
Posted by ZAk on Monday, December 24, 2007 - 07:54 AM
In the mid-1980s, Daron Malakian was a shy youngster living in an apartment near the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Vine Street, and his parents spent much of their time trying to shield his eyes from the seedy parade of Hollywood’s sidewalks.
"From the playground of my school," Malakian recalled, "we would see prostitutes and transvestites, guys holding hands, the homeless people, all these things my parents really didn’t want me to see."
That playground was at the Rose and Alex Philibos Armenian School, the same campus where two other future members of the metal band System of a Down went to class. There, all of the boys were immersed in the traditions of their shared Armenian heritage, but when they rode their bikes home they passed through that chaotic asphalt theater of Hollywood. "It was only as I got older that I realized that not everybody grows up like that," Malakian said.
His home life, meanwhile, was a study in artistic expression; he is the only child of Vartan Malakian, a highly regarded painter who was also a key choreographer in the 1970s dance community of his native Iraq, and Zepur Malakian, a sculptor born in Iran. By 2005, Hollywood was less scruffy, but those old memories lingered in the mind of Malakian’s mind. By then, he had become famous to metal fans as the guitarist and songwriter in System, the deeply eccentric L.A. band whose sound veers from fever-dream mutter to wailing thunder, often in the same song. "I wanted to write a song," he said, "about the way Hollywood was." The result was the moody "Lost in Hollywood," which he calls "the System song I’m most proud of."
I’ll wait here, you’re crazy Those vicious streets are filled with strays You should have never gone to Hollywood They find you, two-time you Say you’re the best they’ve ever seen You should have never trusted Hollywood.
The lyrics are "about the broken dreams, all the people that come here and don’t make it," he said, and it’s a collage of images regarding the music industry, the vapid people who come to L.A. to exploit others and the beautiful dreamers who are promised fame but end up "out on a street corner, alone, smoking cigarettes."
As a kids, Malakian and his friends would scale a cement wall that took them to a low rooftop with wood planks and a view looking south on a corner of Santa Monica Boulevard. Years later, the shy boy wrote with jagged emotions about that view from the past.
I was standing on the wall Feeling ten feet tall All you maggots smoking fags on Santa Monica Boulevard This is my front page This is my new age
Candice Night answers our interview about Holdays and 2008 stuff
December 24, 2007
Candice Night answers our interview about Holdays and 2008 stuff
For the Holidays:
1. What do you need for Xmas?
CN- Its never material things, I am lucky enough to be surrounded
by a loving family, friends and cats so each day I am thankful for
the blessings I have as you don’t know how long you will have them
for. So my need for Christmas is for others. For those who have no
bed to sleep on, no food to eat, no peace in their lives. I wish
for them what they need throughout the year.
2. What are your party plans for News Years Eve? Going anywhere
special?
CN- We just returned from a trip to Germany. It was partially a
work trip as we had performances to do on their Christmas tv
shows, but we turned the remaining days into a partial vacation,
by travelling with friends who had never been there and we all
went through the Christmas markets of Rothenburg- an amazing
medieval city-, Chemnitz’s medieval Christmas market, and
Nurenburg. We drank the hot spiced wine, walked along the
cobblestone streets and the air smelled like gingerbread. Then we
took some days off in a castle called Schloss Rabenstein and
invited our closest fans and street team members for a private
intimate concert that lasted till 6am. Now that we’re home we have
our annual Holiday party which takes a few days to recover from
and includes inviting everyone into our home to celebrate, and
then Christmas day will be spent with just a handful of close
friends and relatives- a big dinner and finish it all up by
roasting chestnuts on the fire and singing songs together. The
real spirit of the season.
3. What are your New Years Resolutions?
CN- Each year I promise myself that I will take time for me. Even
if its just 1/2 hr of walking through the woods. But I usually
get so bogged down by doing things for others that its hard to
keep that resolution. I have a tendency to place the needs of
others before myself, whether its our work, charity work, home
life…but in retrospect- although its exhausting, I suppose its
a good thing because I get to help others.
For 2008:
1. Any new tours or album details we should know about?
CN- We just released our cd/dvd box set Paris Moon which is in a
beautiful old world style box and shows the band at our 1st gig in
France in 10 years. We shot a video for Village Lanterne which is
only available right now on the internet and involved me being
submerged in a tank of water for about 6 hours! As well as band
shots at a beautiful 12th century castle. Winter Carols is being
rereleased for the holiday season and just entered in at #1 on the
NAR charts. And we have 5 songs recorded for the new album which
will be released summer of next year, 2008. We’ll start touring in
the Spring and the circle begins again!
2. How will your band change over the next year? Any different
outlook?
CN- Our outlooks always tend to reflect where we are at the moment
so its hard to assume what your outlook or direction will be in a
few months time. We are in the process of looking for a bass
player/rhythm guitarist so the line up of the band will change
slightly. But the heart and soul of Blackmore’s Night always stays
true to itself. And the more the band tours the more in synch we
all are. Because we are all such close friends and the
musicianship is excellent we have a great time on stage and off
wherever we are.
3. What do you think illegal music downloaders should know about
for 2008? How is it directly affecting you as an artist? If you
could do something about it, what would it be?
CN-Our music is not usually spread through the normal channels
like radio or MTV so we dont usually get effected by these things
as much as the bands who get radio play all the time and rely on
the usual way to buy music gets effected. Even though the “normal”
channels are so corrupted these days anyway its hard for anyone
who doesn’t have major Sony backing to be heard on radio. I love
the itunes idea that you pay per song- and its $.99 which is
affordable for everyone. If something is to be done, there should
be a geek squad that is hired by the major record lables who have
the funds to have a whole division of people monitoring the
illegal sites that impose viruses on the individual songs when
they are downloaded illegally. That would deter people from doing
illegal downloads for the fear of the virus that they may obtain.
The music world is going through a hard time right now in a lot of
different ways. Somethings going to have to change soon.
4. Out of all the positive things that the Internet can do for
you as an artist, what has it been?
CN- Break down the walls that have kept “different” music out. The
internet is so vast that it is so easy to have your music on sites
so anyone can hear, if they are looking for it. A few years ago,
if you weren’t on the radio or on the tv you would not get heard
period. It made those mediums all important and almost impossible
to get on if you didn’t have millions of dollars behind you. But
it got so corrupt that MTV doesn’t even play music anymore and no
ones listening to the radio because its always the same 5 bands
being pushed hundreds of times a day for a month- then the next 5
fashionable bands gets pushed and so on. It really has nothing to
do with talent or music and there is no variety at all. Most of
the people I know don’t even listen to the radio anymore. But now
with the internet it evens the playing field. It gives everyone a
forum.
5. Are you more optimistic or pessimistic for 2008 compared to 2007?
CN- In what way? Musically? Personally? Politcally? I think you
have to be optimistic each day and always try to be the change you
want to see in the world. If you don’t- you just become one of
those people who complain about everything at the breakfast table-
but the change never makes it out into the world. I try to be
optimistic- I get hurt, I get angry, I get let down, but I get
back up again and fight the good fight on the side of right each
day. If everyone does a little bit of that- the change begins in
your home and then spreads to your neighborhood, then onto the
town and the city. I have hopes and dreams and beliefs that the
good changes will spread the more people are trying to make them
happen. I see things realistically but believe in good and change
for the future for us all.
The happy Dead to Fall interview about the Holidays
December 22, 2007
The happy Dead to Fall interview about the Holidays
Thanks for the interview! I'll be quite honest with you it was actually a fun one to do. It's pretty rare an interview does that for us haha. Appreciate the good questions, keep them coming sir. We're incredably stoked on this record and are excited to do this kinda stuff this time around. I think you'll understand once you are listening! Make sure to let us know if you have any problems getting a copy. Thanks again, happy holidays guys Tim Dead to Fall 1. Would you say your albums are getting more metallic and more ambitious? Absolutely, metal is one of the strongest genres in music in a sense that it is always evolving and growing. It would be worthless and exhausting, like kicking a dead horse, to not take advantage of that and remain the same identity and sound from record to record. Although we would never abandon the roots that brought us to whatever level we may reach, we as musicians have a strong appreciation for creating inspiration out of the work we put into expanding our horizons with each record cycle, and being inspired is key for finding joy in pushing the envelope. 2. Anything conceptual on this upcoming album? Anything epic-like on the last album? The whole record is based on the concept behind the title “Are You Serious?”. The title works in a million different ways. In fact, you can pretty much find a way to relate it to anything and everything happening in each and every one of our lives. One strong example of how it works for us is with all the questions we ask ourselves every day: “How did we get here?”, “What is this whole industry we are involved with…really?”, “What are we going to do next?”, “Why do we exist and why do people care?”. Any question you ask is overwhelming from a broad enough perspective, just like wondering if there is life out there beyond our galaxy. The other main focus of the concept is to capture and make everyone understand exactly the level of seriousness behind our band and our music at this point. We can write songs that surpass our old songs and satisfy us as critics and musicians, but at the same time we are a bunch of goofy dudes that like to party and live life. We’re not Shakespeare and we’re not out to crack the eternal bleeding sky or whatever. We’re doing this because we have a great fucking time doing it, and we’re trying to show that through the music. In conclusion, there is some very epic stuff on the new album, but it’s epic in a completely different manner. It’s epic to the brain, and to the soul, not epic just to the ears because the symphonic orchestra makes it that way. You’ll see. 3. Have you recruited anyone for this new album that we should know about? Actually yea we have a sick new guitar player that accompanies Logan better than we could have imagined. Phil Merriman not only brings a sick Mohawk and a wild entertaining stage presence to the band we’ve always been striving for, but he has a tremendous talent for picking up playing styles and site reading some of the craziest notation and tablature we’ve created as a band. So finally having a dude that is comfortable in that position opens endless possibilities because you don’t need to teach parts for hours and hours. Instead you are allowed time to further the ideas behind the riffs as a band and develop emotion and dynamic to actually create some life to the songs. I think part of the thing missing from The Phoenix Throne was a strong sense of character and identity. Now that we actually have another musician in the band to help us create the picture in our heads, we are comfortable pushing boundaries we haven’t pushed before and it definitely shows on this record.. I honestly don’t think there is a listener or musician out there that won’t be able to fully embrace Phil’s Jimmy Hendrix style aura on stage. We also had this crazy dude Arthur Harrison from the DC band "The Cassettes" come in to jam a theremin on one of the tracks. Theremins were created in 1920 by Leon Theremin and are known as one of the first electronic musical instruments. They are incredible to watch in action, very strange and serial looking, but very fitting for the futuristic theme of the song. Just imagine two robots having a conversation with no words! You can watch Arthur in action in episode 6 of our episodes of "Staying In The Fade" at www.youtube.com/deadtofuckingfall. Also stop by www.harrisoninstruments.com for more information on prices and the history of the theremin. 4. Are you or will you be ready to headline your own tour on a bigger level? I think we have been looking to take that step for quite some time now. Being a band that pulls a lot of weight as a headliner requires a lot of responsibility and respectability as musicians and as people of business. I feel that we have been doing a great job as far as growing together as a unit on and offstage. Yet we've been able to create identities and characteristics as individuals at the same time. This has allowed us to realize how important it is to take advantage of the new technologies each of us is good at working with. We all know now where the music business is at and will continue to go in terms of marketing, promoting, and networking through the internet. But as far as surviving as a live band the one and only thing that matters is selling tickets. I can't stress enough the importance of growing and striving to put on a better show each time you come through town. There will always be a fluctuation in record sales because we are always adapting to a new generation reaching the top of the charts through new technology. But if you use those tools such as live video and lighting to create more of a memorable spectacle than just the 4th or 5th group of sweaty guys running around on stage in jeans and a black tshirt you will always make it worth the ticket price. And that my friends make ticket sales possible. 5. Why drop your own site and let it be just Myspace? Aren't there a lot of Myspace haters out there you could be missing? Actually we are currently in the beginning stages of getting www.partymetal.com up and running. It will serve as our home page because we ran into issues with the ownership of deadtofall.com a little while back. But I really think in this day and age it is very possible to run a band strictly off your myspace page. Sure there are people that haven’t and probably never will bite the myspace trend. But think of the world of possibilities they are missing out on just because they give myspace a bad rap. There are so many bands out there, including ourselves, bigger and smaller that are able to talk to each and every fan personally through such a slick system. It really is a perfect business tool and it’s a shame some people can’t get past their ego and realize that. I’m sure it was the same thing when email became popular and made people uncomfortable that they stopped receiving phone calls and physical letters in the mail because people had started adapting to email. Goes to show changes are not permanent, but change certainly is!
Get private lessons from touring Megadeth guitarist for $60 for an hour
December 21, 2007
Get private lessons from touring Megadeth guitarist for $60 for an hour
This is with Glen Drover
Saturday, January 5
Wednesday, January 9
Saturday, January 12
Note: Both Saturdays are already full.
This happens at the Long & McQuade store in Brampton
Get in touch at:
Long & McQuade Musical Instruments
Music Education Centre - Coordinator
Brampton, Ontario, Canada
370 Main St N Unit #123
905-450-4334 ext 43
Talking Head David Byrne interviews Thom Yorke of Radiohead about their new revolution
December 21, 2007
Talking Head David Byrne interviews Thom Yorke of Radiohead about their new revolution
…the truth is that Radiohead didn’t intend In Rainbows to start a revolution. The experiment simply proves there is plenty of room for innovation in the music business — this is just one of many new paths. Wired asked David Byrne — a legendary innovator himself and the man who wrote the Talking Heads song “Radio Head” from which the group takes its name — to talk with Yorke about the In Rainbows distribution strategy and what others can learn from the experience.
This took place in the lated Wired
