Down with the System: A Memoir (of Sorts)

by Serj Tankian

Everyone seemed to agree that the first single should be the song that we were calling “Suicide.” A lot of stories came out subsequently claiming that Sony forced us to change the song’s title, but I don’t remember it like that. I mean, you don’t have to be a multibillion-dollar international corporation beholden to shareholders to come to the conclusion that “Suicide” is a pretty bleak title for a song, particularly one that isn’t even about killing yourself. Changing it to “Chop Suey!” on the other hand, was a kind of meta inside-joke about the title itself. Both the song and the title had been cut up, diced, mixed around, so the new title seemed to make sense—it was the chopped version of “Suey” or “Suicide.” I liked it.