Last week, System of a Down kicked off their two-week string of North American dates with Deftones .  Frontman Serj Tankian says that touring with SOAD is a welcome break from working on his many solo projects.

“I call it summer vacation because there’s so much going on with my other work and then you come to the System camp and it’s like relaxing,” Tankian tells ABC News Radio.  “We just have shows to play, hang out, make jokes.  We barely do soundchecks and we just go in and play awesome and we’re tighter than ever and the audience is happy and so it’s been really fun.”

Tankian added that fans need to see the band now while they can because he’s unsure if they will be scheduling any tour dates next year.  “As far as touring, we get offers here and there,” explains the singer.  “We haven’t really looked at next year as of now; so I’m not exactly sure what’s going to happen with System of a Down next year, but if we get offers we’ll look at them.”

The singer also noted that at the moment, he has no plans to record a new album with SOAD anytime soon. “We haven’t really talked about doing anything new with System, we’ve just been enjoying the no pressure, have fun kind of touring that we’ve been doing together and everyone’s working on their stuff,” reveals Tankian. “I know [guitarist] Daron [ Malakian ]’s got another [ Scars on Broadway ] record that he’s gonna put out and so in time I think we’ll get to [a new SOAD album] but for now I think we’re just doing our own thing.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio