Hello to all friends . This is the fifth part of my story about the IGM project, which I have been telling here for a few weeks. If you have not read the previous parts, I must first apologize to you because my main language is Persian and I use online translators. The translation of my writings may not be done well. I also invite you to read the previous sections first, then read the rest of this text.
It had been a few months since I started the IGM project and I decided to do an interview with a musician or a music fan in Iran every day and publish the result via Instagram and Telegram. It was an exciting day for me and the energy I had in those days is indescribable. Research projects have been very useful to me. In many cases, the interviewee was very happy to be seen and invited to introduce himself or herself and his / her activities, but in some cases, there were those who were invited to the interview and expected professional facilities and equipment for filming and broadcasting worldwide. They had me and due to the lack of these conditions, they did not respond to my invitation or they refused. This point made me dissatisfied with the fact that such media, with the conditions that some of these friends expected, are not willing to interview this group of musicians in Iran. Because, firstly, this group of musicians who formed the target community of my research is practically illegal in Iran, and there is no right to make and play rock, metal, blues and similar styles in Iran, and secondly, when these people can not work legally, They can not give concerts, they can not play their music on reputable and well-known sites of the Iranian society and they are not even allowed to print CDs and sell them, in practice they do not have any income this way, In general, media promotion programs are not based on commercial principles. In the next part, I will try to explain more about the ban on holding concerts for some styles in Iran and the special complexities of written and unwritten rules in this regard. But now in the continuation of this section, I will refer to my approach to these issues. When live performances are not legally available for some bands, they go underground. Of course, as you know, this is just a metaphor, and the basement can mean any informal place where there is the possibility of a live music performance. Only non-alcoholic drinks are served), some art galleries, small private studios with a maximum capacity of 150 people, music schools and other places such as ...
But even holding a live event in these places is not without the risk of confronting government officials. Because even in these places, depending on the current situation and the political and social situation, and depending on the circumstances, the government may try to soften the atmosphere of the society in line with its own goals by making the situation a little easier and ignoring this type of performance. Again, even these performances may be confronted by the police or other security forces. In such a situation, when I did a considerable number of remote video interviews with various musketeers, I realized that it seems that the situation is such that some rock, metal and funk bands, and in general, forbidden music, perform underground performances. At that time, I was still living in Gorgan, where there was no news of this story, and most of the underground performances took place in Tehran. To that end, I launched a program called IGM Reporter to cover these events, in which an honorary reporter from IGM went to these underground performances, from which a video report as well as an interview with the members of the group that performed there. They were preparing and I was posting these videos on my Instagram and Telegram. I also found honorary reporters through Instagram and among my friends.
Artaman Group is one of these groups that we prepared and broadcast a report on their performance in the hall of a private studio in the first special reports of IGM.
Artaman is a metal band founded by two brothers, Pouria and Pedram.
In their resume, they had the chance that their first years of activity coincided with a period in which the government showed the most flexibility in Iranian rock and metal music and allowed rock and metal bands to hold concerts with a capacity of 500 people. Their initial lineup in a few programs managed to cover a number of tracks of groups such as Metallica, Avon Down System, Nirvana and .... After the golden period for Iranian metal music, which may not last for a year, the situation returned to normal and the program in which the IGM honorary reporter went and interviewed Artaman had a maximum of 120 spectators and was held underground. have been . Of course, I had done the same distance interviews with four current and former members of Artaman before, but this time the report contained videos of live performances and backstage. The band has changed bass and vocals several times over the years, but has gradually reached a steady line-up, releasing two Turkish singles recently. The links below are their Instagram page, YouTube and Spotify. Take a look at them and share your opinion with me.
http://artamene-official.com/
https://instagram.com/artamene_official
https://open.spotify.com/artist/568SWEIeS0xF7754uDvXPy?si=BeVs_ZXOQgq7ONEpUqX2PA&utm_source=copy-link&dl_branch=1
https://youtube.com/channel/UCJeNNtMjpZrCmUzBPu6A87w