If I was money-motivated, I wouldn't have joined a rock band with three other Armenian guys.

System of a Down are one of the most misunderstood bands around. I mean, Armenian rock? What the fuck is that? Political? I could name so many more of our songs that aren't about politics than ones that are. And for a long time, everyone thought Serj wrote all of our tunes. Until this album came out, people thought he wrote all the lyrics. So there are so many different misunderstandings of System of a Down that I don't even let it bother me anymore. I'm just kind of used to it. Our first bio said something like 'four guys based out of LA who are Armenian and political,' and, well, it wasn't really right at all. I mean, we are all Armenian, but we didn't plan that.

I joke that we're not dissimilar to a rock band in the '70s.

Def Leppard is a rock band that can sing.

I was in a vintage pub rock band called Clover in the 1970s.

When we were a club band, we always used to say, 'Man, if we ever see success, we'd like to open doors for other people, to push the boundaries and fully contribute something to art, to music, that is going to help it evolve instead of doing stuff for the sake of money or doing stuff for the sake of being popular.