Rock bands are notoriously rebellious, but when underground Iranian band members Hypernova left their country for the United States almost one year ago, they took rebellion to a whole new level.
“It’s dangerous at times,” Hypernova lead vocalist and guitarist Raam told The Daily Free Press after the concert. “There would be a couple hundred people in some obscure basement hearing us play, and we’d kick them out right after so we don’t get raided.”
The Iranian government, led by ultraconservative Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, crippled Hypernova’s artistic freedom when it imposed a ban on broadcasting Western music on national radio. The ban fueled the thriving underground scene and Hypernova soon became a part of it, Boston University Persian Students Association Secretary Omeed Askari said.
An audience of nearly 50 BU students, professors and even a few fans from New York listened to the Western styles of the group last night in BU Central in an event hosted by the BU Persians.
Underground bands in Iran have to be constantly aware of the political atmosphere surrounding rock and roll, Raam said. Hypernova gained popularity by playing in garages and basements, but members were constantly worried about being arrested.
College of Arts and Sciences anthropology professor Fereydoun Safizadeh attended a Hypernova concert in Tehran.
“Their music is popular among the young crowd, but there are the more traditional people who can be fanatic,” Safizadeh said. “Though they don’t know enough to disapprove, they oppose to it.”
Hypernova is one of the few bands that managed to make it out of Iran and achieve the level of success it has today, Raam said. Despite various restrictions imposed, the band insists they did not “flee” Iran and are not fuelled solely by political beliefs.
“We are not trying to change the government and we’re not a political band,” Raam said during the question-and-answer session. “We just want to have fun.”
Underground bands typically perform in garages and basements in Iran, CAS international relations professor Houchang Chehabi said. He said he thinks the government ban on western pop is unfair because there is nothing wrong with what bands perform.
“The fact that they can come out here and get the success that they have is awesome,” Saeyoung Cho, a College of Communication freshman, said.
Cho said she was looking forward to the question-and-answer session to find out about the band’s controversial political history.
Raam told the audience about how the band formed in Iran before it left for the United States. While many publications like to emphasize Hypernova’s political rebellion against Iranian conservative law, the band strives to make a musical statement rather than a political one, he said.
“Our mission is to show that rock and roll has no boundaries,” Raam said. “Music brings you together wherever you’re from.”
Band members said they want to serve as an inspiration to other bands in Iran who confine themselves to the underground scene because they think they have no other option.
“A lot of bands [from Iran] contact us to find out how we got here and who to talk to,” Raam said. “Some of them hate us, too, but that’s good; it gives them healthy competition, which they need to evolve.”
Attendee Ghazaleh Khosravi said she thinks the conflict in Iran is the result of fear.
“They want to preserve their own culture, and they don’t want to contaminate it with too much influence from others,” Khosravi, who came from New York, said. “It happens in every culture. The root of everything is fear.”