ZirGround: Interview with Kiosk

There was this one afternoon, my pal Semco urged me to hastily rush to Beethoven music store in Tehran and buy the debut album by a brand new underground band called Kiosk! Ordinary Man was the title and I admit it was…appealing.

Kiosk rose from the ashes of Persian Underground phenomenon. They wouldn’t have got a proper license if they were to tour in Iran for like a hundred thousand years. They’re more recognized to be described here for Iranians; however the rest may not even bother knowing them, but This Winki’s ZirGround has served its purpose that way so far so good thank you so nice!



The guys play firmly great when it comes to live. We Iranians usually cannot see each other progress that much, even when we’re in the same band making the same profits for the same WE. Kiosk has luckily survived this chaos up to now. Three major albums in the career of the impossible is what they have accomplished. When you play Persian Rock, you’d better make sure you don’t have big dreams, unless it genuinely DOES become big. Kiosk’s audience is not necessarily outcasts, or left-outs. With their humor in lyrics it’s almost easy to connect to souls, ones who yearn to hear something they want to utter everyday but may never hear on the radio and these are the fun stuff about them. The rest lies in a minor place. As long as you speak out what you ought to, Iranian folks are least likely to judge your performance, your instrumentation and your appearance. But to quote on that matter, they have their Mark Knopfler and Dylan influences although they wisely add eastern condiments to the formula. Don’t take it as a con or pro, that’s merely the way it is.

Their third album published through Bamahang Productions is Global Zoo (Baghe Vahshe Jahani to be precise) and has made ends meet and been accepted by a mass Persian public community. That alone is more than making ends meet I guess. The album artwork is just as great as the other two works and the monkey kinda reminds me of someone! Someone with some authorities! Uhmm alright skip the political talk! They’re kinda aware of how to represent themselves. At the end of the day, it’s good to see a band that can stick around for three albums. Their current line-up is Arash Sobhani (vocals and also strumming on a thing called Kamal-o-caster), Babak Khiavchi (guitar), Ali Kamali (bass), Shahrouz Molaei (drums) and Ardalan Payvar (keyboards). Here’s a little chit-chat with Arash the frontman and thanks to Babak Khiavchi for the negotiation.

TW: The Global Zoo is out, what is it about and have you guys taken any different paths?
AS: Global Zoo is a new/different project (experience) from Kiosk and it reflects the band's observations of the global chaos with a focus on Iran. The idea of the "Global Village" has morphed into a "Global Zoo", where the relationships of the citizens has been devalued from a "village" into a state that is very un-humane, the events and the future of the citizens of this zoo is absurd, the "new world" order has proved to be nothing but another downturn by the human race and the animals in this zoo do not even enjoy the freedom of the jungle!!!!! That is basically the theme that was used for this album, and we also did some experiences on the overall "sound" of the band.

TW: There's a huge amount of social humor in your lyrics, where do you think they're going?
AS: They are not "aimed" to go anywhere, we are not trying to give solutions or think for people or give answers or any of that "big brother" sort of things. We are just watching the events around us, and a lot of times we find them funny in a depressing way!!! and we talk about these events in our songs. I really hope that we lived in a place and time that you would only do love songs and there was nothing else to worry or talk about!

TW: What scale are your live plays and how do the audience react? cause you happen to be a band that stands still and plays their tunes. You don't usually go AC/DC, do you?
AS: No. Going AC/DC is not our thing. We want people to listen to our lyrics, we want them to feel what we are talking about and we do receive a lot of energy from the crowd. I think people who come to our shows have a deep understanding of the lyrics. We all share the same background and we feel the same way about the experiences that we as Iranians are going through. So in nature I see it's a lot of times it is different than a conventional rock concert, sometimes it seems like a big group therapy!

TW: Your collaboration with Mohsen Namjoo, what will be the fun thing to remember about it?
AS: The fun thing was the process! It was not planned and completely by accident. Mohsen was in town and we met in a cafe. Afterwards I was heading towards the studio and he showed interest to come and see what we have done, so with a group of friends we went to the studio and started to listen to the songs and next thing you know he was on "Yarom Bia"! We really enjoyed that evening and as to me it was like a snapshot of an evening of good time with good friends.

TW: To what extent, do you find your sound original and noble?
AS: I do not think there is such a thing as an "Original" sound in the style that we do. Any art product is made out of series of elements that have become pretty much standard, you only have so much control over how much you use certain elements to give the final product a certain character, BUT the content is what makes it different, "original" or "noble".

TW: Name three of the post-Millennium albums that moved you.
AS: This is a really tough question! You may discover an album that was recorded in 1940, today, does that count?

But if we had to name the albums recorded after 2000 I would start with
Love and Theft by Dylan, I think it is a masterpiece! the lyrics are pure poetry and the music is one of the best Dylan has ever done. Every time you listen to this album you discover a new song or in a song you discover a new meaning or a new sound it is so thoughtfully layered.

I also came across a very different Turkish band called Telvin which really moved me, the guitarist Erkan Ogur is mind blowing and I can not stop listening to their work. They have done a great job in what most people in Iran refer to as "Fusion". They have incorporated eastern modes and melodies so delicately and masterfully in a free style jazz ensemble that makes you think Jazz was born in Istanbul!

I am not sure about the third album, but what I have been listening to most lately (last 2 years) is Voyage en Tzigane by Bratsch; a Gypsy band based in France. I think they have all the elements I find fascinating in music. The melodies, the collaboration of so many talented masters on various instruments and how they make it look so easy, it is really interesting. They might use all these different instruments, like guitar, accordion, violin, clarinet, bass, drums and very dominant vocal, in a song, but they leave enough room for each instrument to reach it's fullest capacity without getting in the way of the other instruments and still maintain that organic gypsy feel in the song, it's magical.

*****

Links:
Kiosk's Official Joint
Kiosk on MySpace
Buy Global Zoo through CD Baby
Read Other ZirGround Entries on This Blog