Photo: Greg Watermann

John Dolmayan – These Grey Men

A conversation with John Dolmayan can get pretty deep. It’s partly because he’s one of the most up front, no nonsense type of people that I’ve ever interviewed. And he sugar coats nothing. The reason I tell you this is because when John says something – you can pretty much take him at his word. I can see how this might rub some people the wrong way, given the way people speak in today’s world. You almost get used to it and have to take everything at face value. For me, it’s refreshing to hear someone speak their mind without the fear of what others think. Our conversation was filled with examples of this. He’s also one of the most talented drummers alive and you can hear examples of his bad-assery on his new album or any System Of A Down record.

Let’s explore together.

John Dolmayan just released his first solo album – These Grey Men – on February 28, 2020. The record features eight cover songs from a wide array of artists and era’s. This collection of eclectic music comes with a blend of talented artists and musicians that lend their skill and flavor to the album. As I got got deeper into the record I started to wonder how the idea of this all came about in the first place.

John tells Sound Vapors, “I think a lot of it came out of just the frustration I felt that we weren’t recording any music with System. I worked very hard over the course of the last fifteen years to try and get the guys together and make an album. It didn’t work out but there were a lot of drives back and forth from Vegas because I live in Las Vegas. I have a lot of family in L.A. and friends. So, often I would drive down and visit for a day or two and head back. It’s about a three and a half hour drive from Vegas to L.A. so you have a lot of time on your hands. I would either put on a shuffle on my phone or iPod or something or I would put SiriusXM on and just listen to some songs. You know, there’s all these songs that you forgot about and you listen to them and go, wow that’s a great song. During that time I started listening to the songs and was thinking what would I have done if I was the drummer on that? How would I have played that, how would I have helped changed the arrangement, what would I have done differently? I started saying, it might be kind of cool to do that. I’m not doing anything else artistically right now and I do have the time to do it. So I started writing down the list. I got to like thirty songs on the list.”

John continues, “At the time I asked a friend of mine, James Hazley that I’d grown up with, who’s a fantastic musician all around and can play anything but started on the drums, like me. I got him on board and kind of started asking friends here and there like, hey if I do this, would you be interested in playing on it? I think one of the first people I asked was Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine). He said, “yeah” which was like two seconds because that’s Tom, he’ll do anything for anybody, you know? So he said, “I’m in”. Obviously Serj (Tankian – lead vocals for System Of A Down) was an automatic, yes“.

These Grey Men also features M. Shadows from Avenged Sevenfold, Jonathan Dorr, Franky Perez and Sirusho. Jonah Perry Nimoy rounds out this impressive line-up of musicians. Each person brings their own influence to the songs, making the product feel even bigger as a whole.

When naming an album, some artists go for a theme. Eponymous titles are common. Some simply choose one of the songs as the title. But the title of this album, These Grey Men has a deeper meaning for Dolmayan. John explains, “My friend is a former Navy Seal and fought during the Iraq War. A lot of friends of his got killed during that war and he’s a very good, soft spoken, soft hearted guy, who’s dealing with a lot of demons. At one point he was living at my house and we were talking one night and he was explaining to me how the guys in the Navy Seals.. it’s not like a Chuck Norris movie. They’re the guys you don’t notice in the room because they are taught to be the grey man. The one that nobody notices. I thought that was interesting because a lot of times, you don’t notice the drummer unless they are really bad or they mess up. In a lot of ways, the drummer is the grey man in the band. So I said, perfect title for the project. These Grey Men.“

John speaks what’s on his mind. While I’m sure he gets asked so much that it’s almost hard to be courteous at this point, I decided to ask him a simple question for a simple answer.

Tommy Marz: Serj is on two of the songs. I’m sure it gave fans of S.O.A.D. hope that there might be some new recordings. Does him singing on two of your songs give YOU hope that you guys will get back together in the studio and put out a record?

John Dolmayan: I think it’s more likely that Serj will sing on ten songs for me than you’ll have a System album coming out anytime soon.

Candid. You’ve got to love that. Even if it’s not the news System fans are hoping for. You always know where you stand with him.

You can hear my entire conversation with John including his hope that Two Door Cinema Club hears his version of their song What You Know and likes his version of their song by clicking on the link to your favorite place to listen to podcasts or watching the video version on YouTube.

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-Tommy Marz

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John Dolmayan – These Grey Men

01. Road To Nowhere (TALKING HEADS cover featuring Serj Tankian)

02. Starman (DAVID BOWIE cover featuring Serj Tankian)

03. What I Know (TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB cover featuring Jonathan Dorr)

04. Runaway (DEL SHANNON cover featuring Franky Perez)05. Street Spirit (RADIOHEAD cover featuring M. Shadows and Tom Morello)

06. Hung Up (MADONNA cover featuring Sirusho)

07. Beautiful Thieves (AFI cover featuring Jonah Perry Nimoy)

08. Rock Bottom (EMINEM cover)