System Of A Down guitarist on the magic of super producer Rick Rubin

System Of A Down’s Daron Malakian has reflected on Rick Rubin’s hands-off approach to music production, and why he appreciates it so much.

Rubin is the only external producer that Malakian has shared production credits with across his work. The SOAD guitarist, who also releases music as Scars On Broadway, has produced on all System Of A Down records alongside Rubin. Malakian produces for his Scars project solely by himself.

During a new episode of Ultimate Guitar’s On the Record podcast, Malakian explains, “I’ve only worked with one producer in my whole life, that’s Rick Rubin. I co-produced those records with him [for] System, but with Scars, I always self-produced. So yeah, I’ve never worked with anybody else but Rick.”

As to his reasons why, he adds, “I don’t really need anybody to hold my hand through the whole fucking process. I’m looking for the opinion of someone that I respect, and I respect his opinion, I respect his taste and that’s what he brings to the table.”

Malakian refers to a quote from Rubin himself, in which he confessed to his lack of technical skills but explained why his assuredness in his tastes prevails overall, before adding: “He made so many of those [SOAD] songs with just one little opinion or one little nudge, and it made a song better than it was. A song is like two and a half minutes. So when you make a tiny change in that song, you’re making a big change…

“Lost In Hollywood is a System song that I wrote on for the Mesmerized album, and I had written the first part of the song, but I hadn’t written the middle part of the song, which is now like the most epic part of the song,” he continues.

“When I brought in the first part of the song he told me, ‘It’s not finished.’ I thought it was finished, but he’s like, ‘I don’t think it’s finished.’ And I came home that night, and I wrote the middle part of the song… ‘I was standing on the wall feeling ten feet tall…’ And I was like, ‘Wow, this song just became something really fucking great.’

“I probably wouldn’t have gone there if he didn’t say, ‘I don’t think it’s finished.’ He didn’t turn a knob. He didn’t give any technical advice. He didn’t even tell me what direction to go to finish it. He just left it to me. I don’t need him to paint my painting, but he definitely pushed me into a direction that made my painting better,” he concludes.

Daron Malakian has just released a new album as Scars On Broadway titled Addicted  To The Violence. You can find out more via his official website. 

Rachel is a DIY musician who began learning guitar and keyboard from her bedroom at 14. She has written news and features for MusicTech since 2022, and also has bylines across Kerrang!, Guitar.com, and The Forty-Five. Though a lover of heavy music, her guilty pleasure is 2000s pop.