April 11, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 22, 1428

NEW YORK: They rock. They roll. They drink herbal tea.

There’s something slightly different about Hypernova, one of the young indie rock bands currently playing the New York club circuit, and it’s not only that they come from Iran.

With their long, shaggy hair and torn jeans they could easily be just another of the hundreds of punk bands that come to New York in search of 15 minutes of fame and maybe more.

There are the occasional expletives in their lyrics, the harsh underground sound and the reverb screeching through their Marshall amps, but Hypernova are surprisingly well-behaved and articulate for a young rock band.

The group cut their teeth playing in underground clubs in Tehran, where they tread a fine line playing Western-style music that — officially at least — is banned.

Their MySpace entry carries the slogan “Who says you can’t rock in Iran,” and cites The Ramones, Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand as major influences.Their line-up of 20-something songs are all in English — a practical choice more than anything, explains the band’s frontman Raam, whose flawless English betrays the years he spent living in the United States when he was younger.

“Farsi’s too poetic a language for rock ‘n’ roll,” he says.

The band hopes to play as many live shows as possible during their next month or so in the United States.

“That’s what we’re obsessed with doing — playing live shows and experiencing that live energy, that raw energy of kids just jumping up and down,” explains Raam, 26, the band’s songwriter and lead singer.

He describes the opportunity to play in New York, after a long battle to get visas, as the biggest moment in the band’s lives.

“It’s always been a lifelong dream to be able to perform in New York. It’s something that every kid — it doesn’t matter where you’re from — every kid probably dreams of performing in New York one day.” He says the music scene in Iran is not as restricted as many might think.“There are laws, we always hear how Western music is bad. But these laws are hardly enforced.” “It’s amazing, the scene in general. From hip-hop to heavy metal, to punk rock, you name it,” he explains.

The band has been offered gigs across the United States since arriving last month and are working on getting their first album together, although they have no great illusions about how far they might go.

The group see themselves as ambassadors and are keen to dispel what they see as misconceptions about Iran. “We want to set a very good example... and set off this whole negative stereotypical bad-guy image,” says Raam.—AFP