For Shavo Odadjian, the selection wasn’t simply steel – it was about discovering the appropriate groove. In a scene saturated with shredding guitarists, the System Of A Down bassist took an opportunity, swapping six strings for 4 and turning into an important a part of the band’s genre-bending sound.
Earlier than the Armenian-American quartet took the world by storm with their self-titled debut in 1998, Odadjian was simply one other aspiring musician navigating the aggressive Los Angeles scene. A guitarist since his early teenagers, he discovered himself dealing with a glut of fellow six-string slingers vying for band spots.
“I assume I used to be like 18 once I picked up a bass. I would been a guitar participant since I used to be 11 or 12 – and I nonetheless am a guitar participant; I’ve extra guitars than basses – however at the moment I used to be making an attempt to get right into a band.” Odadjian remembers in an interview with Bass Player “Guitar gamers in LA had been a dime a dozen, and once I teamed up with some guys in a band it was the time when Rage Against the Machine and Tool had been popping out.”
“We had been auditioning for bass gamers, however many of the guys who got here in had been both too good for the job – all of them seemed like Les Claypool! – or they seemed like they simply picked up the bass a month in the past. There was no center floor for guys who simply grooved, the place the bass is meant to be.” he explains.
Fueled by the band’s want for a bassist and the dearth of appropriate candidates, a lightbulb second struck. “Sooner or later I simply stated, ‘What if I play bass guitar whereas we’re in search of a bass participant?’ And so I hit the bass instantly.”
And identical to that, Odadjian picked up the bass, embracing the low-end groove with shocking ease. Whereas he finally regretted buying and selling in some cherished guitar gear for his new instrument, the swap proved pivotal: “It did not take lengthy. The only remorse of my musical profession is that once I switched to bass I traded in some guitar gear – and I’ve loads of gear – that I want I nonetheless had. It was a Randall guitar amp which I traded in and bought a bass. That is my one remorse. I want I would just saved some cash and acquired the bass as a substitute. I miss the sound of that Randall!”
Odadjian‘s bass traces went on to change into a cornerstone of System Of A Down‘s sound, seamlessly weaving between jazz, prog, and steel influences to create a novel sonic tapestry.
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