Shavo Odadjian Talks New Project, North Kingsley, And His Optimism For System Of A Down

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Shavo Odadjian, bassist of the band System of a Down, in concert at Firenze Rocks Festival. … [+] Florence, Italy. 25th June 2017 (Photo by Francesco Castaldo/Archivio Francesco Castaldo/Mondadori via Getty Images)

Mondadori Portfolio/Archivio Marco Piraccini/Marco Piraccini/Mondadori via Getty Images

System Of A Down are largely regarded as one of the century’s defining metal bands, without question. And despite not having released any new music in 15 years, the band still performs to packed stadiums and reels in hundreds of millions of streams throughout each year. While the hunger and hope for new System Of A Down music will forever linger, each member of the band has continued to veer off in their own musical direction for the time being.
Vocalist Serj Tankian has seen quite the success with his solo career, guitarist Daron Malakian’s band Scars On Broadway continues to be active, and drummer John Dolmayan recently dropped a record for his new project, These Grey Men, while also grabbing headlines for his outspoken support for President Donald Trump. However, System Of A Down bassist, Shavo Odadjian, happens to be the latest member to debut a new side project, one which boasts a genre-bending twist to both corners of modern rap and rock.
North Kingsley embodies the socially charged and visceral energy of trio Shavo Odadjian, producer Saro Paparian, and lyricist Ray Hawthorne. Together they’ve embarked on a sonic journey that molds the aggression of rap, trap, rock, and metal, but with a modern edge. It’s nothing reminiscent of System Of A Down, nor does Shavo intend it to be, but it brings something new to the table, unlike most side projects do, particularly from members of noteworthy bands.

Similarly, North Kingsley isn’t approaching their debut with the typical LP release format, but instead with four, three-song EPs, each dropping three to four months apart. Their reluctance to conform with the norm seems very much apart of their identity, and just as North Kingsley are kicking things off, their debut single “Like That?” is undoubtedly unlike anything.
Below, Shavo gets into the nitty-gritty of North Kingsley, how the band met, and what they have in store for the future. Additionally, Shavo shares his readiness for new System Of A Down music, should the time come.

So how’d this new musical project of yours come together? 
Well System Of A Down, we’re not working too much and we have a few shows a year here and there, but I’m just a workaholic. Years ago I started writing a lot of music thinking that we were going to make a record and then that didn’t go anywhere, so I needed a place to make music. It started off with me just looking for friends who are musicians to collaborate with, and I ended up meeting this guy, Saro, who was working at the studio with Ray. They had this little hip-hop project going on and to me, Saro was a wizard at Logic Pro X, which is the program that we’re using in North Kingsley.  
I invited him to come through and teach me how to run Logic, and after two times of him coming over a song was born. I had this idea and all of a sudden with his aid we had the beat and I did the guitar, and I was like “bro, we could keep doing this!” So instead of learning we just ended up making beats and making music together. Originally it was hard for me to say that I’m in another band because I come from System Of A Down and I can’t take that word lightly.
But time passed and Ray ended up coming through, and his lyrics and style just grabbed me. I come from the School of Rick Rubin and System Of A Down, so I’ve been in the studio a lot just learning, and after so many albums it has become a part of me. So with my help and with [Ray’s] vocal style, we just developed a sound. I still didn’t want to name it, I still didn’t want to have a band. It felt like I was still married and now I’m seeing this girl and it’s hard to announce the girl, that’s how it felt. But after we had like six songs, I was like “this is working out really cool” because the songs have their own identity. 

North Kingsley full band left to right, Saro Paparian, Shavo Odadjian, and Ray Hawthorne.

Javahn Spill

System Of A Down’s music has always been very politically outspoken. Was North Kingsley for you inherently going to be the same? Or were you ever reluctant about getting political with North Kingsley?
So when we started writing these songs, most of the lyrics that you’re going to hear in the next year were written prior to the pandemic, prior to Black Lives Matter, prior to all the chaos that went down in the last five months. But, our lyrics have become more valid than ever. We were actually hitting the nail on the head prior to them actually becoming a thing, because they were a thing in our head already. We don’t take any sides, and I’ll be honest, before with System Of A Down we were very very far left, and I feel like at the moment, if you’re far anything you’re wrong and you’re a hypocrite, and you’re totally judging everybody and I don’t like any of that. System Of A Down has a lyric off of our first record that says “free thinkers are dangerous,” (from the song “Mind”) which today is so valid because you know what free thinkers are called nowadays? Conspiracy theorists. 
It’s crazy, I mean there are still conspiracy theorists out there that are crazy and think crazy things, but just to have a thought and just to maybe question something doesn’t make you, one, a Trump supporter, doesn’t make you two, crazy, doesn’t make you, three, insensitive, and doesn’t make you, four, a conspiracy theorist. It just makes you a person, a human being who has thoughts about what’s being said around them. It’s just crazy, and we were bringing that to light a year ago. One of the songs coming up, “Shotguns,” the main chorus says “throw your hands in the air where my fist is.” That’s a protest song, and we didn’t know that what happened was going to happen, it’s like the wave was coming and we’re riding it. And I’ve been trying to release this whole thing earlier. Originally it was going to be April 22nd, which is my birthday, but then we moved it to May 22nd, then May 29th, and then that’s the weekend that all hell broke loose with the George Floyd situation. So I just took the music and I said, “halt, let’s regroup ourselves,” and so we did. 
With SOAD, 22Red, and now North Kingsley, you’re essentially operating 3 businesses. How do you plan to allocate your time and attention between the three? 
Well here’s how I look at it, I’ve always been someone that’s liked to have things on my plate, it just keeps me going. When the pandemic hit we kind of slowed down everything, I got comfortable sitting and waking up and not hitting the gym. That’s something I always made a thing out of, like five days a week I was hitting the gym feeling the endorphins going and feeling that high. I need to do that, I need to have things to do throughout the day.
And with System Of A Down, like I said, we’re not writing music and we’re not rehearsing. We’re only rehearsing when we have a tour coming up and that got screwed because of COVID-19. So, we’re not doing anything until May of next year, and hopefully we’ll do that and they let us do those shows. So until then, System is on hold. The only thing I do for System now is we do merch drops, and I help design all the merch with the merch company and approve all that stuff. If there’s any artwork that needs to be done it goes through me, so I still do that but it’s not too much, It’s like a few hours a week. 
As for 22 Red, we started that off two years ago also, and that one I was very hands on to the point where it was like everything was me and had to go through me. I got partners but they totally believed that I could handle it and run with it. So I was doing that and along the last year I hired a CEO and he became the lead. While that’s all happening I can’t not be creative, so that’s where North Kingsley comes in. I got what I wanted, I swear about three years ago I didn’t have any of this. I was always wanting System to tour and make an album, but I wanted to be artistic again and I wanted people to hear the music that I’m writing. I kind of made the wish, I set goals, and two years later I have the company, I have the band, and I’ve still kept my old group going too. 
Are there plans to tour with North Kingsley once live concerts are back and running?
One hundred percent when they let us. The way that music gets born in North Kingsley is it all happens in the studio, but with System, Daron [Malakian] would bring a song in and we’d learn it all four of us together, and then we’d go record that song after we’d been playing it already. [North Kingsley] is the opposite. We record it, then I listen to what the final arrangement is, and then we transcribe that to go live. It’s the opposite, and it’s very interesting to me and it works well.
By the way, I still have a good amount of music that I’m not giving to North Kingsley that one day when System does come back and say, “Hey we’re making a record,” I have the material for that too. I always like to be part of it, and just because Daron does it so well doesn’t mean I can’t bring something in and we do a song together. For example, “Toxicity” was that way. I brought the riffs in, he arranged it, boom there it is. “Sugar,” he had a riff that I had heard a long time ago, and I put the beginning in and I put it together and I said “listen to this,” then boom it became our first single. All these cool songs have been because of a riff I came up with and then the arrangement of Daron.
So I still have an artillery of riffs waiting for when System does come back and says “it’s time.” But I don’t know I’m just hoping, I’m always optimistic about everything. Having said that, I can’t wait for North Kingsley to go live, it will happen, guaranteed. And just because System is up in the air, we’re still always playing live shows a few times a year. I’d like it to be more, of course, I’d like it to be a few months a year every year, that would be amazing, but beggars can’t be choosers. 
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