"Fuck yeah. Of course it's frustrating." laments SYSTEM OF A DOWN's antecedent frontman Serj Tankian on the political views of former SOAD drummer, John Dolmayan.
Dolmayan has been a vocal supporter of the Donald Trump in recent months, praising the republican candidate for his work, and chastising the "true bigot" democrats who Dolmayan claims, "fought to maintain slavery" and were "directly responsible for 70 plus million abortions, a large majority of whom were black."
Serj Tankian, in an interview conducted by Forbes, while talking about the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflicts, brought up the singers relationship and views on John Dolmayan, asking how he felt about the latter's support of the nations 45th president:
"He's my brother-in-law and my drummer. Is it frustrating being politically opposite to your own drummer and brother-in-law? Fuck yeah. Of course it's frustrating. But that's having to do with American politics. When it comes to Armenian issues, we're on the same exact page. We know what injustice is happening, we work together. We're doing different auction activities and working together on many fronts.
Tankian continued: "The Armenian nation is united, whether you voted for Republican, Democrat or neither. But I was a Bernie [Sanders] supporter, I still am. I feel like he still would've been the best choice going forward. But I'm okay with [Joe] Biden. The elections are coming up and normally I'm very vocal, but this war and the daily death toll [in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh] has really taken up my full spectrum of focus."
Dolmayan, on an episode of the "Deviant Gentlemen" podcast, stated last month: There's four individuals in the band. I don't speak for any of the individuals except for myself, and neither does Serj. But because he had that platform of writing lyrics, the perception was out there that that's how the band felt at all times, where I don't even think Serj necessarily felt those ways at all times. You're supposed to have diversity of opinion even within your own mind, and you should judge things based on information that's presented to you." Speaking about the bands music, and its "perceived messages": ""If you're a SYSTEM fan and you gravitate towards the music, you enjoy the music, but you don't necessarily agree with the perceived message, well, where do you go?" he continued. "If you think that Serj is the mouthpiece of the band, which he is, as far as vocally, but not necessarily for ideology, then you have nowhere to go. So I wanted to present a different view and to give kids out there who think differently and who are critical thinkers, not necessarily following the norm, that there is a different option, you can think differently, it's okay to have diversity of opinion, as long as it's done peaceably."
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Written by Steve Knudsen
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