Let’s first clear the air of any System of a Down news: they will not be playing or recording together any time soon. This isn’t to say that the band is broken up either. On the contrary all four members are still friendly and they still talk, Serj Tankian explained to Billboard.com in a recent interview. “We always have offers to play, from festivals and stuff, but we have not decided to do anything as of yet”. Right now S.O.A.D. is on what they call an “indefinite hiatus”.
So while Shavo is tweeting rumors of a reunion and Daron is perfecting his high notes, Serj is busy at work. Among his ambitious plans for 2010 are a follow up to his pleasantly surprising 2007 solo debut, Elect The Dead.
Tentatively titled Music Without Borders, Tankian is hoping to release his sophomore LP this summer. What will it sound like? “It’s electro orchestra jazz-rock. It’s basically a full orchestra, full, heavy electronic beats, live instrumentation and resampling…You name it, it’s there. It’s a huge wall of sound,” he says. Ooh la la!
Already set for a March 9th release is his live Elect The Dead Symphony CD/DVD, performed with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. The track listing contains all original songs from his solo debut plus two previously unreleased songs, including “Charades,” which was originally written for S.O.A.D.
Building off his new-found affection for full orchestra arrangements is a musical adaptation of the Greek classic “Prometheus Unbound“. What he is really after though is not to just play with orchestras, but write music for them. “Doing the symphony thing just made me feel a lot more confident as a composer…Whatever I want to do, whatever I want to use, any color I want to use…I’m more proficient in it. When you write for an orchestra, you can write for anything, you know?”
Serj plans on taking his symphonic show on the road this summer to Europe. He is also talking with North American orchestras about possible collaborations stateside. It’s just a good thing this idea didn’t pan out while Serj was singing about cocks walking through doors.