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POLITICS AND THE IRAQI BOY BAND
Beth Pearson
The Herald, UK
Sept 26 2006
BUDDING pop groups are faced with many obstacles on their way to the
top. Being forced to compose a birthday song for Saddam Hussein is
not normally one of them. Yet when UTN1 (Unknown to No-One) tried to
launch a music career in Baghdad during the former dictator's reign,
they were obliged to provide a birthday tune before their career
could progress any further.
As frontman Hassan Ali recalls, speaking down the phone from a hotel
in Jordan: "We'd been told that if we wanted to do our songs we had
to first sing about Saddam Hussein - unfortunately. Once that song
had been broadcast we'd be allowed to have other songs broadcast, so
in three days we wrote, composed and recorded a song for his birthday."
The president was pleased with his song, and UTN1 were allowed on to
the VoY (Voice of Youth) station, which principally played Western
pop music such as Michael Jackson, Madonna and George Michael. (The
crooner Richard "Right Here Waiting" Marx was also unaccountably
popular.) Understandably, though, the band are keen to get themselves
known on the world stage - and their next single, While We Can,
is due to be released in America and Europe before the year is out.
Ali, 24, says: "We had an Iraqi friend who managed the band, but
sadly he has since passed away. He was the owner of a music shop at
the time, and I made him listen to us. He said he would pay for the
recording of an album, so we did a demo album in 2002. It sold two
or three thousand copies in Baghdad and we became a bit famous -
especially with regulars of the VoY station."
However, more challenges were to come. The invasion and subsequent war
meant most Iraqis had rather more pressing concerns than keeping up
with a boy band - and when UTN1 tried to broaden their horizons beyond
their borders, they discovered it was difficult to get passports.
Ali and his bandmates - Nadeem Hamid, 24; Akhlad Raof, 26; Art
Haroutuanian, 29; and Shant Garabitian, 28 - were featured in reports
by western stations including the BBC and CNN during 2003, but over
the following year coverage dried up and they decided to call it quits.
Ali went to Syria and Haroutuanian to Armenia; Garabitian opted to
stay in Baghdad.
"By coincidence, he was introduced to Mr Larry [Underwood, an American
businessman] and gave him a copy of the demo CD," says Ali.
"Mr Larry liked the idea. He used to have a construction company over
there and he works all over the world. Shant sent us e-mails saying
he'd found someone to sponsor us and be our manager, but we didn't
believe him. But Shant was so confident that Mr Larry was serious
that we all came back to Iraq at the end of 2004.
"We met with Mr Larry, and from the first day we liked the guy. He
was straightforward with us. He said, 'To me you're a business. I
want you to be successful, but in the end it's all for the sake of
the business, not because I like you guys or anything.' Together we
decided we should leave Iraq, and so last year we all went to Jordan."
After a six-month wait for visas, the band travelled to London, where
they took performing classes and recorded three demo songs, including
the forthcoming single. While they were inspired by Western musicians,
they are confident of their identity. "We are Easterners," says
Ali. "We bring our own touch to our songs. We put Iraqi instruments
in our music, such as the joza. It's a stringed instrument, similar
to the violin, but it has its own special scale of sadness. When
people hear it, they cry. We tried some ad-libbing in Arabic too,
and I think it was successful.
"Some of us play instruments, we write our own material and we have
our own style of music. We are not inspired by boy bands - but I know,
the idea of five guys ...
"But we see ourselves as a rock band of five members who compose their
own music. I was influenced by people like Bon Jovi and Black Sabbath;
others in the band like Michael Jackson. And Art, who's our oldest
member, is in love with the Spice Girls. He adores them."
While the Spice Girls might have attempted to be political in their
time, praising Mrs Thatcher as an advocate of "girl power", UTN1
are ambiguously so. The band do not talk about specific politics,
nor their personal experiences of war - but toy guns appear in the
video for the anti-war song While We Can, which was made in Lebanon.
"It was great," says Hassan of making the video. "Lots of people were
working on the project, and it's the first time we saw how many people
were working with us to try and make it successful. The song talks
about war and peace. It's not political, it's a message: war is not
a good thing for anywhere in the world. We've lived through three
wars, so we have enough experience to say that. They brought five
kids to represent us and they were playing with fake guns and stuff
like that. I'm still waiting to see how Western audiences respond to
the video. We're eager to know. I think it will be positive."
Larry Underwood adds: "While We Can is about stopping war. The guns
in the video are wooden guns that children are playing with. They drop
the guns, therefore stopping war. The message at UTN1's first concert,
which was in Jordan last month, was 'kill war', and the proceeds went
to a Lebanese refuge fund".
Hassan enjoyed the live experience. "The audience was great," he
says. "They were surprised and we were surprised. People were clapping
and cheering. It was very motivating for a first show. We don't really
dance - we're not that flexible. I'm one of the youngest, but we have
members aged 28 and 29! So we use our personalities to entertain,
and people react positively."
They would like to come back to the UK to promote their single, but
it's not simple. "These are problems that will always follow us because
we have Iraqi passports," says Hassan. "But we would love to come to
the UK to promote the song, and we would accept any invitation."
Beth Pearson
The Herald, UK
Sept 26 2006
BUDDING pop groups are faced with many obstacles on their way to the
top. Being forced to compose a birthday song for Saddam Hussein is
not normally one of them. Yet when UTN1 (Unknown to No-One) tried to
launch a music career in Baghdad during the former dictator's reign,
they were obliged to provide a birthday tune before their career
could progress any further.
As frontman Hassan Ali recalls, speaking down the phone from a hotel
in Jordan: "We'd been told that if we wanted to do our songs we had
to first sing about Saddam Hussein - unfortunately. Once that song
had been broadcast we'd be allowed to have other songs broadcast, so
in three days we wrote, composed and recorded a song for his birthday."
The president was pleased with his song, and UTN1 were allowed on to
the VoY (Voice of Youth) station, which principally played Western
pop music such as Michael Jackson, Madonna and George Michael. (The
crooner Richard "Right Here Waiting" Marx was also unaccountably
popular.) Understandably, though, the band are keen to get themselves
known on the world stage - and their next single, While We Can,
is due to be released in America and Europe before the year is out.
Ali, 24, says: "We had an Iraqi friend who managed the band, but
sadly he has since passed away. He was the owner of a music shop at
the time, and I made him listen to us. He said he would pay for the
recording of an album, so we did a demo album in 2002. It sold two
or three thousand copies in Baghdad and we became a bit famous -
especially with regulars of the VoY station."
However, more challenges were to come. The invasion and subsequent war
meant most Iraqis had rather more pressing concerns than keeping up
with a boy band - and when UTN1 tried to broaden their horizons beyond
their borders, they discovered it was difficult to get passports.
Ali and his bandmates - Nadeem Hamid, 24; Akhlad Raof, 26; Art
Haroutuanian, 29; and Shant Garabitian, 28 - were featured in reports
by western stations including the BBC and CNN during 2003, but over
the following year coverage dried up and they decided to call it quits.
Ali went to Syria and Haroutuanian to Armenia; Garabitian opted to
stay in Baghdad.
"By coincidence, he was introduced to Mr Larry [Underwood, an American
businessman] and gave him a copy of the demo CD," says Ali.
"Mr Larry liked the idea. He used to have a construction company over
there and he works all over the world. Shant sent us e-mails saying
he'd found someone to sponsor us and be our manager, but we didn't
believe him. But Shant was so confident that Mr Larry was serious
that we all came back to Iraq at the end of 2004.
"We met with Mr Larry, and from the first day we liked the guy. He
was straightforward with us. He said, 'To me you're a business. I
want you to be successful, but in the end it's all for the sake of
the business, not because I like you guys or anything.' Together we
decided we should leave Iraq, and so last year we all went to Jordan."
After a six-month wait for visas, the band travelled to London, where
they took performing classes and recorded three demo songs, including
the forthcoming single. While they were inspired by Western musicians,
they are confident of their identity. "We are Easterners," says
Ali. "We bring our own touch to our songs. We put Iraqi instruments
in our music, such as the joza. It's a stringed instrument, similar
to the violin, but it has its own special scale of sadness. When
people hear it, they cry. We tried some ad-libbing in Arabic too,
and I think it was successful.
"Some of us play instruments, we write our own material and we have
our own style of music. We are not inspired by boy bands - but I know,
the idea of five guys ...
"But we see ourselves as a rock band of five members who compose their
own music. I was influenced by people like Bon Jovi and Black Sabbath;
others in the band like Michael Jackson. And Art, who's our oldest
member, is in love with the Spice Girls. He adores them."
While the Spice Girls might have attempted to be political in their
time, praising Mrs Thatcher as an advocate of "girl power", UTN1
are ambiguously so. The band do not talk about specific politics,
nor their personal experiences of war - but toy guns appear in the
video for the anti-war song While We Can, which was made in Lebanon.
"It was great," says Hassan of making the video. "Lots of people were
working on the project, and it's the first time we saw how many people
were working with us to try and make it successful. The song talks
about war and peace. It's not political, it's a message: war is not
a good thing for anywhere in the world. We've lived through three
wars, so we have enough experience to say that. They brought five
kids to represent us and they were playing with fake guns and stuff
like that. I'm still waiting to see how Western audiences respond to
the video. We're eager to know. I think it will be positive."
Larry Underwood adds: "While We Can is about stopping war. The guns
in the video are wooden guns that children are playing with. They drop
the guns, therefore stopping war. The message at UTN1's first concert,
which was in Jordan last month, was 'kill war', and the proceeds went
to a Lebanese refuge fund".
Hassan enjoyed the live experience. "The audience was great," he
says. "They were surprised and we were surprised. People were clapping
and cheering. It was very motivating for a first show. We don't really
dance - we're not that flexible. I'm one of the youngest, but we have
members aged 28 and 29! So we use our personalities to entertain,
and people react positively."
They would like to come back to the UK to promote their single, but
it's not simple. "These are problems that will always follow us because
we have Iraqi passports," says Hassan. "But we would love to come to
the UK to promote the song, and we would accept any invitation."