SYSTEM OF A DOWN bassist Shavo Odadjian has revealed more details about the musicians that will accompany him on his upcoming debut solo album.
Earlier today (Friday, October 13),Shavo took to his Instagram to share photos of the band that he assembled for the recording of the LP — including vocalist Taylor Barber (LEFT TO SUFFER),guitarist Alejandro Aranda and drummer Josh Johnson — and he included the following message: “PROJECT SHAVO is officially underway! 16 songs in, recording vocals now. Very happy, very grateful! Meet the team. @taylorsuffers @morgothbeatz @scarypoolparty @joshstillsux”.
Barber shared the same main photo and he wrote in an accompanying message: “I can’t believe I get to say this on the internet rn… but I am the singer of PROJECT SHAVO! I am so excited to show you this music, and this team is so sick to work with and an absolutely pleasure to be around. Life is amazing I am so pumped!!”
The 49-year-old Armenian-American Shavo, born Shavarsh Odadjian, is working on the LP with WINDS OF PLAGUE guitarist Michael Montoya (a.k.a. MorgothBeatz),a producer and songwriter who has previously collaborated with Travis Barker, JuiceWrld, Lil Xan, Jonathan Davis, ISSUES and many more.
This past April, Odadjian spoke to the 96.7 KCAL-FM program “Wired In The Empire” about his solo LP, saying: “I started this solo project with MorgothBeatz; he’s my producer and he’s also the guitar player for the group. And it’s called SHAVO, but it’s heavy. I’m back to my roots — no hip-hop. I think it’s the heaviest I’ve ever been, and it’s just flowing out of me.
“We have a track with — I’m gonna say it — Jonathan Davis [of KORN],” Shavo revealed. “I’m working on that one right now. We have the choruses and the first verse, and I’m gonna do a little breakdown, and I think we’ve got one. That’s 12 — number 12. So we’re 12 songs into the solo record. I’m very excited about that.”
Regarding the writing and recording process for his solo album, Shavo said: “I’m recording bass and guitar. And then I have the drums being programmed at the moment, but I’m gonna have a live drummer on the record… And it’s sounding crazy. I swear, I wouldn’t even talk about it if I didn’t believe in it so much.
“I go in, [MorgothBeatz] plays a beat, and I just write,” he explained. “And then we record everything I write, and then we put it together and it becomes something. And it’s fucking cool as hell. It’s this cool artistic freedom I’m having in the studio.”
As for a possible release date for his solo LP, Shavo said: “I’m thinking late this year, early next year. I’m gonna shop it and get a label for this one. I’m not doing it on my own. I think it needs a good push, because it’s what you want to hear from me. It really is. If you know what I’ve done in the past, then you know the songs I had a part in writing. It’s a little of [SYSTEM OF A DOWN’s] ‘Toxicity’ all throughout this record — that kind of shit. You wanna bang your head, you wanna run in the pit, you wanna go crazy, but you wanna smile while you’re doing it and not be angry.”
Asked if he is planning on touring with his solo project, Odadjian said: “For sure. I’m gonna take this on the road… The SHAVO project is something that I wanna tour with for as long as I can and blow up, because I feel like it’s something that can. And like I said, it’s my DNA — it’s what you’d expect from me.”
SYSTEM OF A DOWN has toured intermittently since ending its hiatus in 2011, but has only managed to record two songs in the last 17 years, “Protect The Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz”. Released in November 2020, the tracks were motivated by the conflict between Artsakh and Azerbaijan, with all proceeds supporting humanitarian efforts in SYSTEM OF A DOWN’s ancestral homeland of Armenia. Along with other donations from fans on their social pages, they have raised over $600,000.
In 2018, SYSTEM OF A DOWN guitarist Daron Malakian publicly accused singer Serj Tankian of not wanting to record, with Tankian responding that creative and financial issues with Malakian led to the stalemate. In a message on Facebook, Tankian wrote that Malakian wanted to control SYSTEM’s creative process, take more of the publishing money and be the only bandmember to speak to the press.
