O-Hum

persian rock

O-Hum (Persian : اوهام) is an Iranian underground rock band fronted by Shahram Sharbaf. Their style is called Persian Rock, combining rock with Persian instruments and modes, together with lyrics drawn from the works of Hafez, the most high-esteemed Persian poet from the fourteenth century. The band was formed in 1999 in Tehran, Iran with Shahrokh Izadkhah playing guitar and Babak Riahipour on bass guitar. Their initial plan was simply to record some demos at Shahram's home studio to document what they were playing at the time. Everything started with the first song Shahram and Shahrokh wrote on acoustic guitar and sehtar, 'Darvish'. Demo tracks soon leaked around via friends and a record company in Tehran asked the band to sign a deal to record a full album. Shahram, Shahrokh and Babak recorded the first album 'Nahal-e Heyrat' in summer of 1999. The original album had twelve songs, one of them to be later removed from the list, 'Pire May-foroosh'. The music company took the album to Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, ERSHAD, in Tehran to get a release permission, since all artistic activities require such permission in Islamic republic of Iran. The ministry rejected the album a couple of times, describing O-Hum's music as Western, cheap and contrary to Islamic moral standards. Because of this, the record company broke off its deal with the band and canceled everything. At this point O-Hum decided to launch its own website and make all the album tracks availab...