You’ll definitely find some bizarre lyrics in System of a Down‘s songs, such as when frontman Serj Tankian sings about “banana terracotta pie” on the Hypnotize cut “Vicinity of Obscenity.” Twenty years after “Vicinity of Obscenity” was released, Tankian has been presented with an actual banana terra-cotta pie.
Tankian is the latest guest on the popular YouTube show Last Meal, and during the episode, the host surprises him with a banana pie in a terra-cotta bowl.
“I’ve never had a banana terra-cotta pie!” Tankian exclaims.
Speaking further about the lyric, Tankian says that it’s Dadaist, explaining, “I like creating relationships between things that don’t have a preexisting one.”
Tankian adds that when producer Rick Rubin first heard System play “Vicinity of Obscenity,” he “didn’t like it at all.”
“We’d play it and he’d just be like, ‘What is that?'” Tankian recalls. “By the time we actually went through recording it and he had heard it enough times, he said, ‘It’s one of my favorite songs on the record, I can’t imagine putting out this record without this song.'”
Tankian also agrees with the host’s premise that the sillier lyrics make the more serious lyrics even heavier.
“It makes it more palatable,” Tankian says. “Because if you just preach, no one’s gonna listen.”