INTERVIEW: UKHC All Iranian Hardcore Band MAZANDARAN Drop Immense Knowledge

INTERVIEW | MAZANDARAN
UK / IRAN
Photo Credit: Joe Leitch, Meline Gharibyan

“We used this famous myth as an apt metaphor for the Islamic Republic’s regrettable occupation of Iran, including its attempted suppression of Iranian culture and hostility to the wellbeing of the people.”

We have had the immense pleasure of befriending so many incredible members of the UK hardcore scene ever since arriving here in 2023. As we get to meet more and more people we start connecting the dots and realize which bands some of these people play in. One such encounter happened a couple weeks ago when we met an amazing dude named Darius who turned out to be the drummer of several insane UKHC bands like SPECIAL MOVE, RAIDEN and it turns out…a UK hardcore band made up of Persians called MAZANDARAN who we had written about a couple years ago.

For those who don’t know, QUALITY CONTROL released the band’s debut EP in 2023.

“Mazandaran was born from an idea to make protest music that shone a light on the experience of the Iranian diaspora, many of whom were displaced by the current regime. All members share Iranian heritage and the lyrics and imagery speak of the ancient Persian mythology of The Shahnameh, with passages about the legendary hero Rostam slaying the Div-e Sepid, or White Demon, and overcoming evil. Musically, the band delve into the deep and rich history of Japanese and Skandinavian hardcore punk of the 80s, as what better type of punk is there to make you feel like you are battling demons and about to fuck shit up?

Dedicated to the brave women and men of Iran suffering 44 years of oppression from the current theocratic, fascist, and fundamentally anti-Iranian regime occupying our ancestral home.”

With all that’s happened recently, you KNEW we had to throw some questions to the band to continue to support the Asian contingent of the UKHC community. So enjoy this frickin’ enlightening read!

UA: What’s up guys! Very excited to do this with you all! As a UK based band with ethnically Persian members, can you talk about how the band got together?
Thanks for asking us to do this interview, my side of meeting the others goes back to a show I played in Birmingham with Raiden, one of the bands playing dropped out because of covid so it finished early which meant some of the lads wanted to hang out and get a curry, one of the topics of conversation was Iran and the recent women, life, freedom uprising and I was remarking on how I wish there were other Iranians in the UKHC scene, to which one of the guys with us told me all about the legend Pat Hassan and also Alex from a band he was in with him called FRAME OF MIND. I was so excited and once I got home, I found Pat on social media and fired him off a message….

Pat: Alex independently had an idea to do an all Iranian band musically influenced by Death Side, Nightmare and Japanese HC a few years prior. It all came together when we hooked up via social media and decided to put 4 songs together one weekend and record them a few days later.

UA: Yeah that’s the exact vibe I have about Asians as a whole in UKHC and wishing there was more of us involved. I’m currently working on a band that has 3 Pakistanis and one member who is ethnically from Cyprus. Once you got the band together how did the idea of going in a Japanese hardcore direction come about?
Alex:  I had been already writing the music with that style being in mind as it’s one of my favorite styles within the genre, so most of the music was already written. Also thought the metallic d beat Japanese style worked well with the idea of Iranian mythology.

UA: Oh sick! Tell me more about the Iranian mythology that you wanted to embed into this band and its music. I see some of it from incredible cover art. And also, how you felt this particular style others ore was the best vehicle for that.
Alex: If I’m being honest it all started with the nightmare 7” cover art with all their onis all over it. It made me look into what would the equivalent be within Iranian culture and that ultimately lead me down the road of the stories of the Shahnameh.

UA: Could you share a couple of those stories? Just to help provide more context to the band’s music and lyrical content.
Pat: Many of the most well known stories centre on the mythical hero of Rostam. In a much recited story, Rostam ventures into Mazandaran (the kingdom of demons) in order to slay the Deev-e Sepid (white demon) and rescue the Persian King Kay Kavus as part of his ‘seven labours’. We used this famous myth as an apt metaphor for the Islamic Republic’s regrettable occupation of Iran, including its attempted suppression of Iranian culture and hostility to the wellbeing of the people.

UA: Thank you for that thoughtful response. Perfect segue-way…Iran for sure is such a complex situation. In terms of the beautiful “Jin, jiyan, azadi” slogan for women’s right from a few years ago to the insane authoritarian control of the Islamic republic/ayatollah, but then the attacks by Israel…all of it feels so confusing and complicated…as Iranians, what would you really want people to understand about where Iran is right now as a country and people?
I suppose one thing we all want people to understand is that the social and political landscape of Iran is far more complex that is often made out. The people in the country are caught between the imperialistic ambitions of foreign powers which have a history of interference in Iran and an internal government which relies upon the threat of an external enemy to feign ‘resistance’ and legitimise strangling the country for its own exploitative purposes. People in the country are fed up with having their narratives constructed for them, be that by orientalising western powers or Islamist fascists in power who are only ‘Iranian’ when it suits them. We don’t believe the choice on the table is a simplistic dichotomy of either ‘Islamic Republic’ or ‘pro-American capitalist monarchy’. Internal resistance movements have for years worked towards alternatives and their voices are often drowned out by the typical political discourse from the ‘right’ the ‘left’. It is for this reason that the unlawful bombing by genocidal regimes such as Israel, with the help of the US, to bring about regime change in Iran are both doomed to fail and morally bankrupt. This has to be done by the people—an ethnically and religiously diverse citenzry—and will be.

So in your opinion, what is the way forward? Currently it looks like the Islamic regime has garnered some sympathy with different factions because of Israel’s attacks. Do you think this could be the start of some comprising between the different factions – setting aside the “left” “right” divide? It just doesn’t seem Israel by way of USA will ever rest without dismantling Iran. Netanyahu has been on this crusade for decades stating that Iran will be armed with nuclear weapons any day now to justify attacking Iran every few years.
It could be the start of factions coming together. The IR could either use this as an opportunity to reform and loosen up restrictions, or they could double down and increase repression. It looks like the latter is happening, as they have accelerated the imprisonment and execution of political prisoners in recent weeks. In our view, a theocracy can never be just, especially in such a religiously diverse country.

In Iran, many people ‘rallied around the flag’ after Israel’s attacks starting hitting residential neighbourhoods, not because they love the regime, but because they don’t want external forces undermining their sovereignty yet again. Even prominent critics of the IR currently or formerly imprisoned by them rightly condemned the attacks. Paradoxically, this reinforces the rhetoric of ‘anti-imperialism’ which the IR makes use of for its own ends. We agree with you that Netanyahu likely won’t stop his unlawful attacks, and that’s because Israel (like the IR) needs an external ‘monster’ to fight to justify their actions.

In our opinion, the way forward is to indirectly support the building of grassroots political networks of resistance by giving them voices, platforming dissidents and exiles, and most of all: listening to people on the ground. It is slower than regime change, but morally superior insofar as it respects the autonomy of the Iranian people in building their own future.

“Torn from the land of our ancestors,
Forced to flee from the face of death,
Strive for for control in the guise of jihad,
Devils of Jahanam.

Lost generations behind walls of pain,
Under the boot of your fucking Sharia,
Despisers of material reality,
Grasping for culture.”

– Estranged
(off of the band’s self-titled EP)

UA: So if we bring it back to the band, which now, after reading through all your responses, makes it even more important that a band like yours exist because think about how many people in Iran are dying to say what you’re able to say while being here in the UK, what is your hope for the music and the art you all create?
Alex: For me it’s about representation within a scene I’ve been apart of for most of my adult life, connecting with our culture and hopefully exposing people to a different perspective of what Iran is and its people.

UA: To wrap this up, are there any shows on the horizon or new music?
We hope to be able to play again in the future, logistics allowing. As for new music, there is something in the works.