Daron Malakian

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

Pushkin Industries

Music, Society & Culture

4.5 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2025

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Daron Malakian first made his name as the enigmatic guitarist and songwriter behind System of a Down. Between 1998 and 2005, the band released five albums—three of which debuted at number one on the Billboard charts. In 2006, System announced an indefinite hiatus.

Eager to keep creating, Daron launched a new project: Scars on Broadway. Their debut album arrived in 2008 to critical acclaim.

Since then, he’s reunited with System for a series of live performances—including a recent South American tour that drew massive crowds. Their final stop in São Paulo, Brazil, attracted an estimated 75,000 fans.

Now, after seven years in the making, Daron is releasing Addicted to the Violence, the third Scars on Broadway album—featuring what he considers some of the best songs he’s ever written.

On today’s episode, Leah Rose sits down with Daron to talk about why he believes he was destined to be a rock star, and how his parents’ journey from Baghdad to Hollywood helped make that dream possible. He also explains what people often misunderstand about his relationship with System frontman Serj Tankian—and reveals the surprising contrast between his outrageous onstage persona and who he really is offstage.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite Daron Malakian songs HERE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Puskin
0:07.0	Darren Malachian first made his name as the enigmatic guitarist and songwriter behind System of a Down.
0:17.0	Between 1998 and 2005, the band released five albums, three of which debuted at number one on the
0:23.3	Billboard charts. In 2006, System announced an indefinite hiatus.
0:28.7	Eager to keep creating, Darren launched a new project, Scars on Broadway. Their debut album arrived in
0:34.5	2008 to critical acclaim.
0:41.9	Since then, he's reunited with System for a series of live performances, including a recent South American tour that drew massive crowds.
0:45.2	Their final stop in Sao Paulo, Brazil, attracted an estimated 75,000 fans.
0:51.6	Now, after seven years in the making, Darren is releasing Addicted to the Violence, their third
0:56.7	scars on Broadway album, featuring what he considers some of the best songs he's ever written.
1:02.3	On today's episode, Leah Rose sits down with Darren to talk about why he believes he was destined to be a rock star,
1:08.3	and how his parents' journey from Baghdad to Hollywood helped make that dream
1:11.8	possible. He also explains what people often misunderstand about his relationship with system frontman
1:17.6	Serge Tonkian and reveals the surprising contrast between his outrageous onstage persona and who he
1:23.9	really is offstage.
1:29.3	This is Broken Record.
1:32.0	Real musicians, real conversations.
1:37.2	This is an I-Heart podcast.
1:41.1	Hey, it's Justin.
1:43.8	Did you know you can listen to Broken Record on Amazon Music?
2:02.4	And you can listen to your favorite podcasts in the app so you can do all your listening in one place. Plus, Amazon Prime members get access to the largest catalog of ad-free top podcasts. Start listening. Download the Amazon Music app, search for Broken Record, and click follow to keep up with the new episodes. You can also ask Alexa to play Broken Record on Amazon Music. Here's Leah Rose with Darren Malakian.
2:10.1	Let's talk about this new album. So, Scars on Broadway album, it's called Addicted to the Violence.
	...

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