The bass guitarist and backing vocalist of the heavy metal band System of a Down, Shavo Odadjian has expressed his thoughts about the future of the band and unveiled if everything has gone down so terrible with them to never make music together again.

Within his recent conversation on Ernie Ball’s ‘Striking A Chord’ podcast, Odadjian has finally talked about the controversial musical career of the band which has been on hold since their last albums in 2005, ‘Mezmerize‘ and ‘Hypnotize.’

Shavo Odadjian said that they’re still friends and love each other, while admitting nothing has gone down so terrible that they can never make music together again. He described himself as optimistic about the possibility of a new project.

However, he also mentioned that the new System record isn’t happening right now. So the fans shouldn’t rip them up about the new music. Odadjian has criticized his bandmates as well while saying they shouldn’t be so adamant about their views.

As you may recall, in a November 2016 interview with Kerrang!, drummer John Dolmayan revealed that System of a Down was working on more than a dozen songs for their follow-up to the ‘Mezmerize’ and ‘Hypnotize’ albums.

In a video Q&A session with fans on July 2, 2017, Shavo Odadjian was asked about the status of the next album and he said he’s waiting for a new album too. A year later, Daron Malakian said the band did not abandon the idea of making new material and made a passing mention that System of a Down was not making any music at that time.

In the following years, Odadjian expressed disappointment at their inability to record new music, explaining that there has been new material written by the other members in the form of a possible new album but without Tankian’s presence no recordings had been made.

Here’s what Shavo Odadjian said about the band during his recent conversation:

“I love System. I love the guys. They’re my friends, over anything. Even if I don’t see them or talk to them for months, when we’re on the phone, we’re best friends. That’s how I am with them. Nothing has gone down so terrible that we can never make music together again.

That’s why I’m always optimistic, and whenever I say that, it becomes headlines. ‘Oh, Shavo is optimistic. Well, yeah, bro, I’m optimistic about a lot of things.

It doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen. But the reason why I’m optimistic is because nothing has been done that can’t be undone. It’s not like someone said or did something that’s ‘end all.’ It’s not like, God forbid, anyone’s passed away. We’re still all here, we still can talk, we still can play, we’re still alive.”

He continued with the reasons why they haven’t made a move yet:

“If we could just agree. If people weren’t so adamant about their views. It would be nice to just back up a little and say, ‘You know, let’s just do it. And I’ll listen to you if you listen to me,’ instead of, like, ‘I think it should be this way, ‘I think it should be that way.’

Okay, well, then that’s not gonna work because if you both… I don’t know.”

You can check out the rest of the interview below.