This Winki's: ZirGround: Interview w/ Abjeez

Abjeez’ emerge in Persian underground music was quite phenomenal. In the era when femme-charm is almost six feet under and there’s almost no female voice rhyming or chanting in harmony in the country’s biased but desperate public media, the Safavi sisters (Safoura and Melody) - pretty much translated as Iranian music’s Tegan & Sara - represented their Persian ancestor’s souls and culture to blow in their eclectic amalgam of Latino pop, ska and of course reggae. Three albums so far and much more due! Based in Östersund Sweden, the sisters earned a remarkable fanbase in the past three years. The current line-up also sees Johan Moberg on guitar, Erland Hoffgard on bass, Robin Cochrane behind the drums and Paulo Murga as the percussionist, not to mention the guys also have their own funny monikers. We entrapped Melody on a cold Scandinavian autumn midday for a couple of questions and here it is all This Winki’s style!...and by the way Abjeez is a Persian slang meaning "Sisters".

TW: I’d like to go off the beaten path by starting with a question that doesn’t necessarily concern your band but involves some clarification. It’s about ”Borrowed lyrics”. I’ve been thinking about artists that owe half their songwriting glitter to poems and lyrics that come from somewhere else. Some are too familiar that you cannot relate yourself to the artist anymore. Abjeez, among few others have not joined that club. What do you think happens to singer/songwriter art when what you’re manifesting are words from somebody else and not yours?
M: It’s not unusual for singers to use other people’s words and lyrics in their songs, especially in our culture, and I actually don’t really see any problem with it, as long as it is done with clear objective and the permission of the songwriter of course. Since Iranians generally place an extremely high value on poetry, it’s more common, or I’d better say “acceptable” to use lyrics of famous poets in different music arrangements. But it all depends on the purpose of your music.

Songs in pop music for example are often written by others and in the Western culture some songwriters are directly employed by music publishers to write specifically for certain artists. In these cases they have legal rights and their lyrics cannot not be used or published without their own consent.

In Abjeez’s case we have chosen to stick to our own lyrics because our main ambition is to spread our words with the help of the music as a tool. When you write your own songs you write right from the heart. You reach out to your own personal life experiences which makes the song more authentic. When you genuinely express your own feelings, it inevitably becomes more attractive and sincere in your listeners ear.

TW: We have our own Swedish favorite indie bands. The Knife, Peter Bjorn & John, The Sounds, not to mention the old schoolers a la ABBA and Roxette just to name a few. Did they happen to influence you in your songwritings beside Persian artists or did you come up with a new recipe all by yourself?
M: I can’t say that I am directly influenced by a specific singer/songwriter but I am doubtlessly influenced by the culture I was raised in: the Swedish culture. The openness and lack of complexity in our words are pretty much affected by the Swedish side of us. However the issues we touch are more universal and sometimes influenced by, and directed to, our Iranian background.

TW: During traumatic political times, numerous bands have tried to speak for their generation. From Dylan to Clash and stories climb up to the present, too. Iran is definitely not spending the best years of its history for the time being. Do you see yourself as a riot megaphone? Do you like to speak for your people?
M: We have already expressed our viewpoint regarding the current political situation in Iran though a song we wrote and composed only a few days after the last Presidential elections. The song “Biyaa” invites the Iranian people to peace and unity at these difficult times and the words are directed to the armed forces that attack people during peaceful street demonstrations. The song has a video that was posted online the same day that Neda Aghasoltan was killed (among many other innocent people) on the streets of Tehran. If we had waited only one more day before making the song public, the tone it had definitely become more angry and strong. However we believe in peaceful solutions for any country or people who are striving for human rights and democracy. Even though at moments this approach seems remote or impossible, history of mankind has proven that peaceful resistance is the only practical and effective way to reach such goal.

TW: What are the best and worst things about leading an indie female pop band?
M: Personally, I believe that even though we live in a society where the level of gender bias and prejudice towards women is much lower than in countries like Iran, being a woman in a male dominant line of work can still be pretty hard. Since most of our songs are written in Persian, our main audience has been Iranians from all around the world. There are yet not many Iranian female band leaders in today’s Iranian music scene, especially not in our music genre, so this makes us a unique band and attracts a whole lot of interested ears towards our music. On the other hand, being woman band leaders in our limited Iranian alternative music scene often times feel a little bit challenging. The discriminative view of women in the bigger society is also reflected in the smaller parts of our society. Although we tend to want to believe that our cultural and academic elite are more open-minded than the rest of the society, unfortunately as a woman I don’t experience it the way I wish I would.

TW: “Geryeye Mard (the Man's Cry)” is so far our favorite Abjeez song, could you spare us some insight info on the song and it’s reggae structure?
M: The song is basically about how men in our society are conditioned to hold back their sensitive side (feelings and emotions) from the early ages and that our women (particularly our mothers) are as accountable in the prevalence of this issue as our fathers are. Abjeez’ lyrics are generally humorous and Safoura who writes all of our songs often times turns to reggae in expressing the bliss and joy that usually comes along with humor. However there is always some kind of a dark or serious message folded in most of our songs. In this case Safoura decided to apply the passion and melancholy of the flamenco music in the song, in order to bring out the tragic truth of the story.

TW: Name three of you post-millennium favorite albums for us!
M: There are 4 albums ;O)