System Of A Down guitarist likes to keep busy

Being in a band that had two Number One albums in a year would be enough for many musicians, but not System Of A Down guitarist Daron Malakian. He maintains a variety of outside projects, including running his own label and producing groups such as Bad Acid Trip for System singer Serj Tankian's label. Malakian told us that those endeavors are important to him:
[ click here to listen if you have a Backstage Pass] "There's plenty of stuff I'd like to do outside of System, whether it's producing or doing my electronic projects. I don't really stick to one thing. Even while I was writing the System record(s), I produced a band (Bad Acid Trip) that was on Serj's label and I produced a band on my own label. So while I was writing these records, I was keeping myself busy doing other things too, you know."

The songs for System's two 2005 releases, Mezmerize and Hypnotize, were recorded at the same time and then split into two separate albums.

Both albums debuted at Number One in America.

After touring the world this year, the group is currently on a holiday hiatus.