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Iran’s Hypernova: A Rock Band From A Country That Arrests Rock Bands

The band — which also includes guitarist Kodi, 17, drummer Kami, 25 and bassist Jamshid, 26 — recently made their club debut in New York, after the group missed its scheduled appearance at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, last month. At the time, Raam explained via e-mail that the band was forced to cool their heels on a beach in Dubai because they couldn’t get visas to fly to the U.S. — an unfortunate byproduct of the political tensions between Iran and the United States.

But inside Iran, where more than half the population is under the age of 30, bands like Hypernova are struggling to find a way to live the rock and roll dream in a country with no official rock clubs and a new ban on high-speed Internet connections (which makes posting music and surfing other bands’ sites difficult at best). It’s the kind of place where Western culture can be sampled on satellite TV — but a T.I. or Fall Out Boy fan has to go to an underground store or an illicit street vendor to get their hands on a Western CD, since most legitimate music stores don’t stock anything beyond bland pop offerings. And even if they do, it’s typically a bootlegged version.

The title of Hypernova’s new EP says it all: Who Says You Can’t Rock in Iran?

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