411 Interview: John Dolmayan of Scars On Broadway

Posted by Brittany on 08.22.2008

411 sits down with John from Scars On Broadway to talk illegal downloading, touring, earthquakes and the new album...

This was my first interview for 411mania. Ok, to be completely honest this was my first interview ever. Being my first interview, I was very nervous seeing as how I had to interview a pretty big name like John Dolmayan from Scars on Broadway and System of a Down. I wasn't sure if I wanted to make this like the Esquire "What I‘ve Learned" , or an Enquirer interview but then I decided, "Fuck it, this is my interview and I will transcribe it how I feel is understandable."

So here I go.

John and I both live in southern California and I just so happened to interview him the day of the earthquake you all probably heard about a few weeks ago.

So I give John a call and he tells me to hold on because his dad called. Then when he returns I ask him if he felt the earthquake. He replies as if he forgot about it and says, "Ya, it was no big deal, earthquakes don't bother me"

I thought this was funny because the interview was postponed a couple of hours due to the earthquake
"If you're gonna die, you're gonna die" exactly.

When I ask him what the inspiration for the album was he explains that that question could end up in a three hour conversation. But I waited to hear the answer.

"Life I guess, life in general is the inspiration for the album. All the things that you go through kinda mold you into who you are, and the environment that you live in also has a lot to do with it. And in the end you have the music that comes out, ya know, I don't write the music but I imagine that is what Daron (Malakian) goes through channeling whatever he channels to create this stuff. Part of it has to do with his life experiences."

Prior to the interview I talked to some die hard System of a Down and Scars on Broadway fans because, I knew they would have some good questions for John that they were just dying to get the answers to. One of them was about their new self-titled album leaking out on the net before its release date where John stated, "I don't care. As long as they like the album, I think that the true fans are going to go out and buy it anyway. You know there are people that can't afford it, what can I say? It's tough times. But we put a lot of work into this and dedicated our lives to it for the last year and a half so it'd be nice if people extended the courtesy and actually went out and bought it and if they cant or don't choose to, that's ok with me. You gotta live within your means and however you get through life is up to you."

Scars on Broadway have been touring all over Europe so I was curious as to how the fans over there were reacting to the new material and also if they would be touring the rest of the world.

"They've been pretty into it. With the advent of you tube they know a lot of the lyrics already from the previous shows that we've played which is great for them to take that kinda time and go ya know, its pretty crappy quality recordings on you tube I was impressed by how many of the lyrics they actually knew. I don't know half of the lyrics! I know very little, when I listen to music, I don't listen to the lyrics I listen to the music."

As for touring,

"Well we will be touring the United States, then we are going to Europe in august. When we get back we are going to be doing the united states , that's what we have planned so far of course we will be doing more than that but that takes us all the way into November and that's as far ahead as I want to think about right now."

Scars on Broadway has a very distinct and different sound then a lot of music that is on the radio. Some of their songs can be quite controversial as well with some raunchy lyrics. For example in the song "Chemicals":

"MADNESS! I'm feeling scared/Looking around and nobody there/When I say ‘Fuck the world!'/As we're ready to rock/Piss on your face while you suck on my cock."

So I asked John if they try to find a gap in the music scene by pursuing a certain sound or if they create music that just comes natural at a certain point of his life.

"I think that the less you think about music scene the better off you are as a musician and an artist, we don't really take into consideration what might be happening in the music scene today I guess in a lot of ways we want to be a part of the trend that is about to come not the one that is about to go out, so its more a matter of just playing where you are in life, playing the type of music you're listening to or that has inspired you or was uninspiring sometimes, sometimes it's the stuff that kinda irritates you that inspires you to write something else because maybe you want something different out there. so I don't really know too many new bands out there to be honest with you. I generally listen to a lot of older music occasionally if someone suggests something I'll listen to it but I generally find a lot more time spent on specific music that is 25 to 30 years old. Lately I have been listening to a lot of Mozart. I go through phases a lot, I'm a phase type of person, I remember I listened to Pink Floyd's The Wall for a year straight every day when I was 18 years old I can definitely lose myself in music. To me music is like a warm bath, you just immerse yourself in it and forget about what's going on."

I was curious as to what they were going to do with all the extra songs that didn't make the cut of their new album. I hate looking for all the lost recordings on the internet so I was hoping there would be a B-side compilation album in the near future.

"Some will be on B-sides for singles some will be used for soundtracks or some will never be used at all! One or to might make the next album but I doubt it, they usually don't. For example, Systems (of a down) first album we had "X" recorded so we weren't happy with it and "X" ended up on Toxicity and it was completely rerecorded, a new structure for it and everything. So sometimes songs can reemerge but hopefully they are better and better suited for the album that your gonna put them on. But its no necessarily guaranteed. I kind of like not having songs that aren't anywhere."

I agreed and told him it keeps things personal. Then he agreed and lifted the hopes of fans by hinting towards that B-side compilation album,

"Keep it personal or maybe later on one day you'll do like a compilation or something and put them all together."

"They Say" is the first single off of the new Scars on Broadway album but it was an unexpected move.

"We released ‘They Say' not expecting it to become a single we just wanted people to have a taste of the album and it ended up becoming a single completely out of our mindset of what it was going to be. We intended it to be just for the fans, something to have just to feed them something so they wouldn't be hungry for it..and be sorry. Then we put ‘Chemicals' just to give them another taste ya know I don't expect ‘Chemicals' to be a radio song but we wanted them to have a completely different example of what is on the album."

Yeah, I don't think "Chemicals" would be able to be on the radio either.

Then I started to go simple and ask easy questions that aren't boring for the readers, like what he likes to do in his free time,

"What most people do, spend time with our friends and family. I know Daron goes to Disneyland a lot and when hockey seasons are out he goes to hockey games and baseball season he goes to baseball games. I like to play poker I like to read an collect and sell comic books and go have a drink occasionally."

I got really excited when he said he was into comic books so I had to ask what his favorite one was, and he said Fantastic Four which I thought was pretty interesting because most people say Batman or Superman.
I asked him if there was any place in the world that he would want to tour that he hasn't yet, and again to my surprise he said South America and expects to tour there in the future. Being of Armenian descent, John also explained that he would like to and has thought about playing a show in Armenia.

I thank him for his time and tell him to be safe in case of an earthquake, he tells me he will and asks if I will come save him if he is going to get killed. I tell him I will do what I can.

Go check out the new Scars on Broadway self-titled debut album and do not miss them on tour!

OCTOBER
19 Masquerade, Atlanta, GA
20 House of Blues, Myrtle Beach, SC
22 TLA, Philadelphia, PA
23 Ram's Head Live, Baltimore, MD
25 The Fillmore, New York, NY
26 Paradise, Boston, MA
28 Le Medley, Montreal, QC CANADA
29 Phoenix, Toronto, ONT CANADA
31 St. Andrews, Detroit, MI

NOVEMBER
1 Metro, Chicago, IL
2 The Eagles Club, Milwaukee, WI
4 First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
5 Beaumont, Kansas City, MO
7 Ogden, Denver, CO
8 Murray Theatre, Salt Lake City, UT
11 Edmonton Events Center, Edmonton, AB CANADA
12 MacEwan Ballroom, Calgary, AB CANADA
14 Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC CANADA
15 Showbox SODO, Seattle, WA
16 Roseland, Portland, OR
22 Marquee, Phoenix, AZ
24 White Rabbit, San Antonio, TX
25 Emo's, Austin, TX
26 House of Blues, Houston, TX