System of a Down’s Shavo Odadjian: ‘I’m Having Fun Again’ With My New Band
System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian is having fun again with his new project North Kingsley. After Shavo proved and disproved what’s written about him on Wikipedia, the musician spoke about making experimental hip-hop and an upcoming collab with Wu-Tang legend RZA.
North Kingsley recently dropped their debut EP, Vol. 1, with their second planned for October. Instead of releasing a full-length album, the group will hit fans with a new three-song EP every few months, keeping a steady stream of new music coming.
“I want to do a clip for every song, because I think every song deserves a visual,” says Shavo. “RZA’s on the new volume, so we’re gonna get him on one video too. It’s cool as fuck, man. I’m having fun again.”
Odadjian also shares how North Kingsley is avoiding rap-rock, aiming to make experimental hip-hop instead. “I come from the ‘90s where there was rap-rock and I was never a huge fan of it. I loved Rage, I loved some of the other stuff that was going on, but it got really oversaturated and it got kind of cheesy at some point — we can all say that. I never wanted to touch that. If a song ever sounded rap-rocky, we squashed it.”
As for balancing North Kingsley with System of a Down, Odadjian explains, “System is always System for me. If System’s touring or making a record, I’m there. System doesn’t work as much, we’re not working enough for me. We’d be working a lot more if I was all of System, but since I’m not, I have to take what I can get, right? [North Kingsley] will 100-percent have live shows.”
Click here to grab North Kingsley’s Vol. 1 EP and watch our full chat with Shavo Odadjian in the video below.
SOAD's Shavo Odadjian: 'I'm Having Fun Again' With My New Band
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