SYSTEM OF A DOWN's JOHN DOLMAYAN: 'Every Show We Play Is Always Special For Us, Cause There's So Few Of Them'

In a new interview with Strefa Music Art, SYSTEM OF A DOWN drummer John Dolmayan talked about the band's massive summer 2026 European stadium tour, which included two shows in Poland, on July 18 and July 19 at PGE Narodowy in Warsaw. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Every show we play is always special for us, cause there's so few of them. It's by design though. We like to tour very limited. We like to be home most of the time. But when we tour, what's interesting is how big the venues have become, especially on this last tour in Europe. Like last time we came [to Poland], it was probably — I don't know, 15 [thousand], 20 thousand people — and now it's... What does that stadium [in Warsaw] hold? 50 [thousand]? [And we are playing] two shows.

"But the fans are amazing here," John continued. "And what I've noticed on this tour is so many people travel. So there were people from Poland at other shows. And then other people are coming from different countries to the Poland show. Which is interesting. I hadn't seen that much of that in the past. But people are doing it. And we're ready to play."

Speaking about his early years when he first became a musician, John said: "It was a huge effort to learn how to play drums, but to also get the wealth of musical influences. It was a lot of work to get my body to understand the physics of drumming, like the muscle memory and just the rudimentary stuff. But really, it was about listening to as much different music as possible and taking influence from as many different places as possible so that I had the advantage of having a lot of different spices to be able to pull from when I was creating the beats for the songs. So, I pulled from everything from ethnic music to bossa nova to straightforward rock to jazz. And fortunately, I was lucky enough to get in a band where that was not only something that I could exploit but it was also necessary for the music."

Asked how often he practices right now, John said: "Never. Right now, my focus art-wise... 'Cause we don't make records. And I know how to play these songs just fine. So I've refocused my artistic abilities to writing. So that's what I'm practicing every day and getting better at, and that's kinda like my artistic focus. Should we wanna make another record at some point, then I would have to redirect my efforts and enter that world again mentally… It's a little bit of a different... They're both art and they're both expressive, but in different ways."

Support at SYSTEM OF A DOWN's European stadium shows came from QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE and recently reunited Louisiana sludge metal legends ACID BATH.

SYSTEM OF A DOWN went on hiatus in 2006, with all four bandmembers pursuing side projects before reforming in 2011 for a run of European festival dates, followed a a series of festival and occasional headline gigs over the next decade and a half.

SYSTEM OF A DOWN has only managed to record two songs in the last 20 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 raised over $600,000.

SYSTEM OF A DOWN hasn't made a full-length of new material since the arrival of the band's 2005 double release, "Mezmerize" and "Hypnotize".

Over 500,000 tickets were sold for SYSTEM OF A DOWN's nine-date spring 2025 South American "Wake Up!" tour, including 70,000 sold for the band's May 14, 2025 show at Autódromo de Interlagos in São Paulo, Brazil, which grossed $6,536,040, according to the box office report submitted to Pollstar. SYSTEM OF A DOWN also sold 100,000 tickets across two nights at São Paulo's Allianz Parque, May 10-11, 2025, grossing $11,561,914.

Each of SYSTEM OF A DOWN's albums debuted in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, with 2001's "Toxicity" and "Mezmerize" hitting No. 1.

Photo credit: Clemente Ruiz