Serj Tankian Explains Why He’s Cooled on Idea of Large Scale Touring
Serj Tankian has a new EP to support, but you may not see the System of a Down vocalist and solo artist doing extensive touring for some time. During a chat with Metal Injection, the singer revealed that some recent health concerns combined with bit of disinterest have him cooling on the idea of large scale touring at the moment.
The touring talk came up during a discussion about the possibility of doing something to pay a nod to System of a Down's Toxicity and Steal This Album anniversaries. After initially shutting down the idea of playing Toxicity as a full set because it was too short, Tankian revealed, "Based on my health issues and kind of redundancy in doing the same thing over and over again in terms of touring, it's something I'm not very interested in doing at this time. Not just for System, for my own stuff, for orchestra or solo stuff. I just haven't been touring. I also had back surgery last year."
Speaking about his health, he explained, "I've got certain issues that I'm getting over that are health issues that are affecting my mobility. I mean, I walk fine and I'm able to do stuff and I could perform. But the travel of a tour really, really affects me at this point. That and, to be honest with you, it's not in my creative purview, you know? So a show here and there we've done and might still do. But as far as doing a specific thing, it's not really something where I'm at right now."
The vocalist also spoke of the monotony of a larger scale tour, explaining, "When you're doing a full tour, those first two or three shows are really exciting, you know? Because you haven't toured in a while and you're playing the sets. You're out there and you're moving around and then you got the same set on the fourth show, fifth show, sixth show. By the 10th show, it's fucking, what's that movie? The Bill Murray one? Groundhog Day. You know, it becomes Groundhog Day. And you still have fun because it's a different audience, different city and all that, but it becomes a bit automatic, mechanical, a bit. And to me, that's redundant artistically. Having one show that's in a special place, done in a special way, is more interesting."
So it does not appear that extensive touring is in Tankian's immediate future. That said, while appearing on the Kyle Meredith With… podcast, the System of a Down frontman did tease earlier this week about their 2023 plans, "As of now, we haven't talked about anything. We will be making an announcement about something next year that I can't really tell you about. So there is that. But further than that, I can't really say."
For now though, fans can check out Tankian's latest solo work, the Perplex Cities EP that just arrived. Head here to find out how to pick it up.