Serj Tankian has opened up about why the songs on his new ‘Elasticity’ solo EP weren’t recorded and released with System Of A Down.

The singer told Consequence Of Sound that he had written the songs with the band in mind, only for longstanding “creative differences” to resurface once more.

“I definitely thought that some of these songs would have worked out for System, and the guys in System liked them and we even worked on some of them in the past,” Tankian explained in the interview. “This is a number of years ago. We just, theoretically and philosophically, we couldn’t see eye to eye on a way forward, mostly creatively.”

Watch the new video for ‘Electric Yerevan’ below:

He added: “That led me to be like, ‘Okay, well that’s fine, but I’d like to release these songs ultimately.’ Because I believe in them, and I think they’re good songs. I decided to call it ‘Elasticity’ because I liked the title, but also because it does remind me of some of ‘Toxicity’ and that kind of vibe, because the songs were in a way earmarked for System.”

Tankian also said he was pleased with the way the songs turned out, adding that they would have been very different had System Of A Down been able to complete the recordings. “I’ll be honest with you – if we released these songs with System, they wouldn’t sound this way. It would have sounded different and that’s not a negative or a positive,” he said.

“The way System works is in a very unique manner. There would be different things about it. I don’t think the synthesizers would be in there. It would be different. I’m glad that I was able to finish them.”

Tankian recently addressed the future of SOAD, saying the band “can continue if we’re on the same page”.