The Gang Of Three!

Interview by Arash Maleki
 

Two years after O-HUM's first album many people though that it was a quick blink in music scene, expecting it to be forgotten and disappeared. why? there was a big reason: they couldn't get permission to release their first album, and this could be an ending to any new established music band in Iran.
 
But with the huge feedback and the continues support from their fans, whom seem to be Iranians from around the world, this band is still alive. Even they have not got permission to release their first CD yet, many people have found them and their music, and the strange thing is that most of these people have CD copies of this album! O-HUM told me that this is a pre-release version with a rough mix that some friends and people got their hands on it and started to copy it out.
Internet has been another important factor in their success to find their audiences around the globe, and their web site now is a strong fan base for people coming in to find information about the band, and download their MP3 songs. a visit to their messageboard shows that they've got some serious die hard fans! And now, as it was scheduled they've started to write and record their second album. as Shahram says they can't wait 'till their first album comes out, they are just doing two things paralell.there are chances to release 'Nahal-e Heyrat' for summer 2001,if everything goes well...
I meet O-HUM in their place busy rehearsing and writing their new songs. this is a cozy old house in a quiet zone of Tehran. they've setup their mini-studio in the second floor, in a big room with plenty of daylight coming from a big window looking to a sleepy and quiet garden.Cables,wires and instruments are all you see in this room. do they record drums in this room?! "sure not! it'll blow away neighbors! we'll record it in a real studio this time.", shahrokh says.
we sat down and talked about 'Nahal-e Heyrat',their website and the next coming album.
So how's life two years after 'Nahal-e-Heyrat'? is there any significant change in your life?
Babak: Life goes on as usual. Of course it’s a bit more exciting than two years ago. We’ve become “almost famous”!! The big changes are yet to come (hopefully!).
Shahrokh: well I should say that life has been pretty weird! ,I mean we've had great and hopeful moments and sometimes a little bit depressing moments since then! but despite of what ever happened in our personal lives, the strange thing is how music itself made us stick together.It cleared the doubts about what we do.

How about you Shahram?

Shahram: there was always a doubt if we ever can do this, and there were lots of ups and downs in these last couple of years. but the huge energy and support these people are giving us, made it clear that we're on the right way. that's the biggest change that has happened to my life,personaly...
let's start with a common question that many people ask you: What happened to your CD? is there any hope that it will be released?
Shahram: There have been lots of problems with this album since we applied for distribution permission two years ago, and there are still few troubles that we're facing with. but we still try to get over these things. we're also working to release it outside of Iran. I know that people want to have our CD but we live and work in Iran and things are not so easy here...
How about your fans outside of Iran? will they get your CD someday?!
Shahrokh: There are chances that we release this album in summer 2001 outside of Iran, and it will be available via a buy-on-line service in our site very soon!
Babak:...and For Iran, The CD is still on Ershad’s waiting list. We are quite optimistic that it will be released in near future (knock on wood!)
Shahram: You know,We're bunch of friends doing the whole thing and don't have many connections. we have to do everything
ourselves so this could be a bit slow. but it's safe.

 Are you gonna try again to get the permission from these guys? I mean Ershad...
Shahram: Sure, we have already tried again. many people are asking for this CD. we just can't sit and say "well...many people have a copy and we're getting famous, that's it!". we're still trying...
Babak: We won’t give up so easily!
What's the exact reason they don't provide you the permission?
Shahram: The latest problem is two lyrics that have been rejected by them. See? though these are Hafez poems, they still don't accept them!
Shahrokh: I think the poems and the way shahram sang them are their main problem but there are some tiny(!) problems too, including the fuzzy guitars, the punchy drums and restless bass! (or every thing you hear in the album!?)
Babak: Yeah,The reason is the whole album itself: the music as well as the lyrics we’ve chosen.
Shahrokh: as a matter of fact they want the music to be empoisoned for the people's ears and this empoisoned music must have slow and jazzy drums (that are very low in quality and played by a keyboard!), some flamenco-like guitar or Saxophone (that is mostly played by keyboards too!), heartbreaking female backing vocals (surprise that recently some people dare to NOT use keyboards for that!!)...
Shahram: ...Add a very low pitch and sad vocal to this list too!
Shahrokh: yeah,an imitating type of vocal and of course tons of ECHO...
Do you think there's a specific way to sing Hafez lyrics? I mean is there any standard?
Shahram: Some people treat 'Hafez' as their grand father and deserve some sort of copyright and responsibility for themselves wherever someone mentions Hafez name or sings a line of his poems. These guys tried their own method all over these years and it failed. people have got bored with poets and their works, becuase of the way they've been presented to us. they made it something just for 'Fortune telling' or simply 'Fale Hafez' in Farsi. how many young people you know who can remember two lines of his poems? I still remember what teachers did to us in schools with these poems when we were kids ...
Have you tried to release your album overseas and have you had any offer?
Babak: There have been quite a few offers from overseas, but regard it as the last option. We would love to see our album released in Iran first.
Many people have a copy of your CD these days: it's been copied hand-to-hand. don't you think this would be a sale problem when you release your album someday?
Shahram: I don't think so...these guys are not just looking for a hand-to-hand-copied CD or a bunch of MP3 downloads. that's more than that, they are looking for music and their favorite band and want to help and support us. I really appreciate their attitude...
Babak: Yeah,we trust our fans. I’m sure they will support us.
The Copy that people have (including myself) is a little bit low in quality. I know that this album has been recorded in home with poor equipments. but do you have any plan to increase the audio quality in final CD?
Shahram: sure! the copy that has been copied around is a rough mix which we did when the album was done. many changes were made to it in terms of mix and quality since then, and I even sang few tracks again. the final CD will be an enhanced version, and keep in mind that since it's been recorded with poor equipments, the sound itself is low in quality, so there's no magic I can do for it. but quality will be much better than what you've heard in that copy or MP3 files...
How about MP3 files you have in your site? are they the final mixes?
Shahram: I hope so! usually I soft tune the music 'till the last minutes to CD burning!
Well, you played 'Nahal-e Heyrat' live for the first time in Russian church in march 2001.how you see it now and what has been people's reaction to it?
Babak: It was one of the greatest nights we’ve had in our whole life. The people were fantastic. They seemed to love what was going on stage...
Shahram: there was an extraordinary good vibe and feel from the audiences and that made everyone enjoying the show, including ourselves! nothing can be compared to playing in front of such excited and cool audiences...
Shahrokh: although the sound was a little bit distorted and noisy, the jumbo 2000 watts JBL speaker system we used, melted the brain of people and moved them like an earthquake! personally I didn't expect to see people torturing their throats and shake their heads like that. it really touched me and made me feel crazy. we received the re-action so we played louder and harder and the sweat started to drop all over my body and totally washed my guitar away!
why didn't you notify people about your concert via your web site?
Babak: The concert wasn’t supposed to be an official one. On the other hand the place was far too small...
Shahram: sorry for this! this concert had been hold for non-Iranian and embassy people so we couldn't invite Iranians officialy,though it ended up having Iranians head banging!
Shahrokh: ...you know, we had some limitations regarding advertising,' cause it was a church and also some people in Tehran are very sensitive to this kind of events with lots of boys and girls hanging around...
Do you have any plan to have a concert soon?
Babak: Yes, it depends on whether we can get the permission from Ershad to perform officially or not. Time will tell.
Shahram: We're looking to have an official concert and not an underground one anymore. It would be much safer for people and us.plus,we can invite all O-HUM friends to come.
Shahrokh: we are always ready but in Iran, problem is the permission...
and will you notify us this time?
Shahram: Sure! We'll notify everyone via our web site...
Well, it's been two years since you recorded this album. now when you look back and listen to it, what you guys think about your performance in 'Nahal-e-Heyrat'?
Shahram: Well,personaly I don't like my own parts very much, cause I was doing some things for the first time in my life like singing Iranian, and mostly 'Hafez' lyrics. and we had to sort everything by try-and-fail method. we were also under time pressure that finally affected the overall quality.
Babak: I really like my playing on Nahal-e-Heyrat. There was a great vibe and Shahram gave a lot of good and useful ideas. I just like it.
Shahram: Oh...You're welcome!
Shahrokh: I played most of guitar parts at that time cause Shahram was starting to play guitar as a new instrument (he was playing keyboards and sequencers before). we arranged and record them in real-time. we overdubbed the guitar parts to simulate a band lead guitar and rhythm guitar parts. now when I listen to it I realize that all the guitar feel of the album is one person's touch. now Shahram is playing guitar so my part becomes pretty easier and I can concentrate on the sound of my guitar rather than technical things.
Babak,What makes a bass player groovy? what factors improve a bassist's performance?
Babak: Groove is something you have to feel inside, it’s a kind of vibration, an energy, which moves you from within, which makes you feel great and happy and sometimes even crazy. In order to be a good bassist, you have to be very flexible and open-minded towards all styles of music, and the most important thing: You have to practice!
 
what kind of guitar and amp you guys used in this album?
Babak: I used mainly my Clover 4-string fretted bass. On “Deyr-e-Moghan” I also used a Samick 5-string fretless and on “Cho Bad” I used an Ovation acoustic
4-string. My amp at that time was a 30 watts Aria Action, which in fact was a practice amp. The only  effect I used was a compressor.
 Shahrokh: my gear for nahale Heyrat was a les paul-type electric guitar through analog boss effects , RSP550 roland multi fx unit and a 1972 tube fender combo.I used Yamaha 12 sting acoustic guitar and an ovation 6 string electro-acoustic.
Shahram: I played my voice (which god only knows it's brand and model), I had my trusty RHODES keyboard and Midi controler,which has only Hammond B3 and vintage sounds. All synthesizer sounds were generated with software synths like ReBirth and Reallity.I didn't have any guitar at that time yet, and played some guitar parts with shahrokh's gear. those days I was tweaking with everything around me to make a noise for this album.
Who recorded and mixed the album? did you try any real studio for mixing?
Shahram: I recorded and mixed this album which was a very very good challenge for me. It was recorded with a 166Mhz pentium, a soundBlaster LIVE! sound card, a simple mixer and a microphone we used to borrow from a famous friend for every recording session! It was some kind of self-teaching private recording school! I learned lots of stuffs during that period of my career. sometimes limitation gives you much more creativity than what you could get in a luxury high-end studio like what they have in LA!
Generally what's your goal in playing music? how you treat it to yourself?
Shahram: Music is not the only thing I can do, but is the only thing I love to do. I've had lots of ups and downs in my personal life and every time it's been only the music that has relieved my mind. during the years music has been turned to an essential part of my life. some kind of addiction, dairy food or...I don't know! beside these, becoming a good songwriter and music producer is my goal while I'm doing this...
Babak: I try to be original and develope my own style of playing. If I can play everything which crosses my mind, I’ll be a happy player!
Shahrokh: Hmm...actually guitar playing for me is like acting and I consider myself playing for the audiences not for myself. I want my sound to be heard by people through albums or concerts so what ever helps me to gain that is my goal...
Who are your Music Heroes?
Babak: I’m influenced by bass greats such as Jaco Pastorious, Jonas Hellborg etc. Generally, I love all players who groove and are funky. To be honest, I like Jazz and Fusion more because of the players, not really because of the music. In other words, I love how they play, not what they play.
Shahrokh: Hmm...Many musician's that I can't remember!
Shahram: Chris Cornel, Ben Harper,Toploader,and many more to mention...
Shahrokh,There are Persian riffs you play in few songs. how you find these riffs, and how you transfer them on electric guitar?
Shahrokh: it's funny coz I don't know much about Iranian music. the irani riffs that you hear with guitar or setar are the most popular and even funny Persian melodies that everyone has heard. they used to be broadcasted on Iran's radio and TV. I just remember these little riffs and transfer them for the guitar to bring an person mood to our music.
 
Have you had any training on sehtar and things like that?
Shahrokh: I play setar,tanboor and an Arabian
divan(looks like a giant setar with 7 strings) that I brought from Damascus but I play them in my own way and not based on a standard educational system or cliché.
 I see a strange sehtar here! is it a regular sehtar?
Shahrokh: yes. I added another sting to the upper C string and changed the tuning.I play it with a guitar pick. it sounds bigger than an ordinary setar and gives it a strange and ancient character. I want to add another string to it so it becomes something in between setar and guitar!
shahram,what you think makes a song and a band popular?
Shahram: well I think there are many factors that define if a song is going to be popular or a band is gonna be a (as they call it) 'Hit'. the first thing is how you communicate with your listeners. you can't show-off, pretend something or simulate a feeling. there should be something inside it. if it shakes your own heart, then it can shake and move other's.and it must be original...people's ears are filled up by commercial and cliché tunes these days so they just don't really listen to every music. they are looking for passion and difference in everything, and you must respect their attitude. they don't like second hand artists, playing third hand music with fourth hand voices! if you see that people buy those CDs and Cassettes it's because they have no other choices. otherwise they have to listen to western music with English lyrics, which is not Interesting and suitable for all type of people...
Do you think playing the main stream music is an important factor?
Shahram: Well you can't play 1930's music today and expect to grab people's attention. you have to be up to date if you want to walk along with other people. but that's not the final factor: I mean you don't have to be a boyband,play a Ricky martin style music, or scream like hell in a heavy metal band to excite your audiences. if you play something new, it could be a cool music, and doesn't matter if it's rock,pop,heavy metal or Iranian traditional music...
Babak: Music in general is all about love and sincerity. Any music and instrument you play, you have to love it from deep inside. and must be flexible, too...
Some people say your music is too LIGHT! what you think about this?
Shahram: This is a heavy comment!
Shahrokh: in terms of being heavy(!),you know there is not an end of being heavy in rock'n roll but anyway we focus on the mainstream of music. what we personally like is in that mainstream. but I appreciate hard rock and heavy metal music as a guitarist and even who knows? why not?
Babak: ...but I ‘m happy that it’s not “DARK”! Those people who say these kind of things, can listen to something more heavy. We're not supposed to satisfy every one’s taste.
Shahram: Maybe we should have a death metal song in our next album...
I see you're working on your next album. what's new about it?
Babak: We don’t want to reveal that much about the new album. Let it be a surprise!
Shahrokh: But to give a clue, we are working on it like a turtle (not like nahale heyrat that we were just like rabbit!).shahram is writing the songs and we play them and make some scratches but this album will be totally different and surprising both in quality and the mood. it is more acoustic than Nahale heyrat,but the character and the sound of it will remain secret for now!
Shahram: Is there anything else I could say!
where you rehears and record? do you record it in a studio?
Shahrokh: we mostly rehears in shahram's home or mine. we both have some recording gear but when we rehears for a concert or all together for recording drums, bass guitars and some additional musicians), we usually manage to find a bigger and sound proofed place for rent (or whatever!) and it could be a deserted basement or a fully equipped studio! we just record the drum tracks or other tracks in studio which are impossible to record at home.
 Shahram: We're gonna record in different places. for instance we'll record drums in a commercial studio. then get a private studio to record Iranian instruments, and the rest of the process will be done in our own place. for concert rehearsal we usually rent a practice room for a week or two.
How many songs you've written for new album?
Shahram: Right now we have 7 to 8 new songs. we'll write 3 to 4 more tracks while we're recording these songs. there are some good old materials from the early days we'd started to play music with shahrokh that seem to be cool for this album, but they must be rearranged...
How do you start writing a song? is there any specific procedure to write a good song?
Shahram: well everybody writes his songs in his own way and there's no particular way to get a good song. with O-HUM it usually starts with me writing a simple song with an acoustic guitar or maybe keyboard. then I make a demo of what we're going to record. this way we can share our ideas over the song by listening to it together or playing it live. Here's when we expand the basic simple idea by arranging different parts.shahrokh and babak's parts are up to themselves, I only suggest them what could be cool to play. and sometimes they come up with a cool riff, or simply suggest to add one more bar to chorus for instance, which sometimes makes a big difference. then we start to record, and the rest of the story happens during the recording...
Last time you used 'Hafez' lyrics. do you plan to use other poet's works this time?
Shahram: Sure. we're not gonna stick to one thing forever! I've written few songs with Rumi's lyrics, there are lyrics from 'Hafez',and there's someone else too that I'm not sure so let's see what will happen!
Why don't you write your own lyrics? are you going to try this?
Shahram: Well, it may sound easy but it's not at all! I have thoughts and ideas to share with other people via a song but I'm still looking for a new style in lyric writing. I don't like to write about 'lips with honey taste' or broken hearts. I think there must be something unique in it, and it doesn't have to be so 'deep' and complicated, but the main reason is...I think I should do it when people wanted to hear about me and my feelings, I guess this is a bit soon!
You had few additional traditional musicians in your first album. are you gonna use Iranian instruments again?
Shahrokh: of course and also this album contains some kind of deeper Persian taste so we're gonna use more Iranian instruments and riffs covered by a hard-shell rock'n roll body. I play some of them and other more-professional folk musician will play daf,Kamoonche and things like that.you know luckily there are lots of great traditional musicians in Iran!
Now let's talk about your website: how it all started?

 Shahram: It was a year and half after we finished 'Nahal-e Heyrat'.Babak was in tour with the legendary googoosh,and me and shahrokh were spending our days by daydreaming. someday babak sent me an e-mail, talking about a new O-HUM site and the huge crowd visiting!! well it was like a joke first, but then we found it: an Iranian cool guy named 'Sepul' had setup a site for O-HUM in geocities and had few MP3s on-line. there was also a
messageboard too filed by hot messages! before that we were thinking of a little homepage for O-HUM,with doubt if we will ever have any visitors. things happened very quickly after that: we got O-HUM.COM and we're here now!

 Your site looks good, and it's easy to surf. who designed it?
Shahram: Zartosht soltani,an old close friend of us. he's a genius graphic artist and painter. he did a real great job for us.(Thanx ZARY if you hear me!) recently he's moving to video and animation field so he might make a little video clip for us soon...
You've been a successful Iranian website. as I talked to your webmaster, you have huge number of hits in week days. how you see this?
Shahram: Internet has been one of the most powerful tools for us to be heard out there. I know that lots of our fans have found us in internet and I really like this. but the main reason is music itself that is inviting people to come over here and find us. The truth is that we haven't started up a site to be famous. I mean first we played the music, and it was the music itself that led us to current situation. as I told you we opened this site when people had already started to make O-HUM un-official sites, so you feel you can put one more step. but the fact is that a colorful site and a private domain can't do much for you. It must contain something...
what's the most downloaded thing in your site?
Shahrokh: It varies week to week. sometimes MP3 files and sometimes a little gif or picture...
Shahram: But the most downloaded file since O-HUM opening has been 'Darvish' MP3.many many copies have been downloaded. our webmaster knows the exact number!
Do you check your messageboard? I read many nice messages from people there. do you reply them?
Shahram: Of course! I usually check it for new messages to see what people think about our music. I like the way they express themselves, they are really cool and friendly. we're so pleased to hear such nice comments and messages. sometimes we answer them directly and sometimes the mysterious INFO contacts them!
 
I also saw some angry messages right there!
Shahram: Yeah...you know,that's a public place.Everybody's free and welcome to have his or her opinion in our messageboard.everything has its haters and followers, so this is fine!
Well as the final question, how you guys spend your time? what are your hobbies? Do you meet many people?
Babak: I spend my time mostly with playing bass. I play studio sessions for different artists. I also have a few bass students. I own a small publishing company as well. I have no specific hobbies, Music is my main hobby. I also love books, mainly those about new age and modern mystiques, such as Osho.
Shahram: I spend most of my time with shahrokh banging on guitars or alone behind my computer.I don't have many friends. few close friends, my computer and a guitar are just fine for me...
Shahrokh: Yeah...they are enough for a lifetime!
Thank you guys for your time. do you have any messages for your fans?
Babak: We love each one of you , It’s your support and energy which keeps O-Hum alive. we'll get you the CD ASAP, and Keep the faith...
Shahram: Love and hugs to everyone, we'll see you very soon...
Tehran - May 2001
O-HUM Portrait Photography by Sohrab Darya Bandari
Other photos by Ali Shahbazyar