By: Babak Khiavchi

No, your ears are not having hearing problems. The whining voices in your head are only echos of shifting vocal pitches, not the actual tormented souls being exposed to the latest Persian Pop music hits. What started out as a simple plug-in tool for correcting pitch in vocal and instrumental performances has now become the de facto style of singing among Persian Pop singers.

By: Mohsen Namjoo

Note: A short while ago TehranAvenue sent me several questions that Mr. Nassir Mashkouri, editor of respected music magazine zirzamin.se, had asked from various musicians. These were questions about the general situation of rock music in Iran. Many have attempted to elaborate on such general questions and it is doubtful whether another generalization about rock music in Iran would be beneficial to anybody. Notwithstanding, I will put in my two cents' worth in the hope that they may be useful to somebody. -- Mohsen Namjoo

...That's why our rock music, exactly as our traditional music has always been, is all about resisting and protection, not protesting and rebellion.

Z.Z: Tell us about your band Explode?

Soheil: Explode is a Thrash Metal band that me and my old buddy Mohammad Tasooji have started around 1999. at first it was all about jamming and playing covers, but with the time passing by, adding members and gaining more experience, it has become into an original band with it's own songs, We tried to put Persian Lyrics into thrash metal riffs and I think beside of Farshid Erabi's "Penhan" which uses more mellow Persian vocals Explode's "Temptation" was first or at least one of the first complete scores with original Persian lyrics. Now I don't want to start the trend of "WE'RE THE FIRST BAND THAT BLAH BLAH BLAH!!" what I want to say is we in explode think that having Persian lyrics with heavy metal music is a challenging thing to do and it's worth trying. Though we're open to English lyrics too and we're doing it as well.