The band started writing and rehearsing in North Hollywood in January of 2004, then decamped to the famous Houdini Mansion in the Laurel Canyon hills of Hollywood where producer Rick Rubin had recorded Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magik and would later work with acts like Audioslave, Slipknot, Linkin Park and more.Īs the process continued, the band realized they had more than enough material to go beyond the traditional album format and while initially expected to have a new album by the end of 2004, they pushed the timeline into 2005 with not one, but two discs. 'We're going to give everybody the System of a Down roller coaster, but don't expect it to sound like it has before.' 'We mixed a lot of styles together without making them seem like they don't belong together,' said the guitarist. It brought out a lot of good material - not necessarily political music, just emotional music, you know?'Īnd while System had a certain style and sound that put them on top, the band was open to not so obvious influences such as Kraftwerk, the Beach Boys and the Zombies. For one month I didn't know if a bomb dropped on my grandmother's house or, you know what I mean? I didn't know. And we get a phone call and they're OK and we can breathe a little bit. Because it was like not knowing what's going on until we got a phone call. He elaborated to Launch that war back home factored into the process, adding, 'The last two or three months or whenever that happened was probably the toughest time of my whole life.

System of a down hypnotize album