05/13/08 – Suroosh Alvi – The Scott Horton Show

It's Chaos Radio in Austin.
Today, we are changing the revolution.
Enjoy your revolution.
Attack for a generation.
After that, listen to the way it sounds.
The war is dead.
The rest is the future.
The same is yours.
It is much more than what you want.
The war is here.
All you got to do is kill the dead.
It's the change of the revolution.
It's the dawn of the revolution.
The revolution is here.
They got the power to cut my hair.
Darkness will come close to my eyes.
You will check.
What?
That I will fight to the end of death.
By what?
The stone is deep and it's all I need.
I'll step to the victory.
I'll step to the death.
Yes, it would.
All right, folks.
That's Akrasiketa, which is the subject of the brand new documentary, Heavy Metal in Baghdad, which is debuting May 23rd in New York and L.A.
Actually, I'm lucky enough that last week I got to go see the world premiere of the final cut of Heavy Metal in Baghdad at the Alamo Draft House here in Austin.
I had a really good time watching it.
We have one of the directors of Heavy Metal in Baghdad on the phone here.
It's Soroush Alvi.
He is a co-founder of Vice Magazine, head of Vice Records, and a producer for VBS.
TV.
He's also a co-director with Eddie Moretti of Heavy Metal in Baghdad.
Welcome to the show, Soroush.
Thanks, man.
Am I saying it right?
Yes, you are.
All right.
Now, in the movie, which one are you, the guy with the glasses?
I'm the one with the glasses, yes.
All right.
The guy with the glasses from the movie.
Great.
All right.
Yeah, good to have you on here, man.
This is a really interesting movie.
It turns out there's one Iraqi Heavy Metal band.
That was them.
Did I say the name of the band right?
It's pronounced A-cross-a-cow-da.
A-cross-a-cow-da.
Exactly.
All right.
That's the Latin name for the big black scorpion from the Iraqi desert there or something?
That is correct.
Cool.
All right.
Now, let's see here.
Tell us about the movie.
You already won some awards and that kind of thing, right?
Well, it hasn't really won any awards yet, but it has played out at festivals to a fair amount of acclaim.
The first festival was the Toronto International Film Festival, and then they played at Berlin and then South by Southwest.
Since then, we've been getting invited to play at festivals every day.
It seems like a few more requests come in.
Those three were the main three that we were trying to launch the film with, and it's gone over really well.
Yeah, that's great, man.
A friend of mine saw it here at South by Southwest and told me about it.
When it was playing at Alamo last week, he said, hey, that movie I told you about is playing.
You've got to come see it.
I went and saw it.
It really was good.
How did it go over?
Did people show up?
Yeah.
Well, it was a Monday night show, so it wasn't packed, but there were, I don't know, quite a few dozen people in there.
I don't know, four or five dozen people probably.
A lot of applause.
Everybody laughed through it and had a good time.
It seemed like it went over pretty well, I'd say.
Yeah, good.
All right, so tell us how you got into this.
How did you hear about these guys?
Well, it's a project that we've been involved with for what seems like five years now.
We initially wrote about the band in our magazine, Advice.
A buddy of ours, Gideon, was reporting for MTV News, and he went over to Iraq after the coalition troops went in and met up with them.
Then he came back to New York, and he was like, yeah, I heard about this band.
I met this band.
Iraq's only have a metal band, and can I write about them for you?
We were like, hell yes, you can.
That sounds amazing.
Just the idea that there was a group of guys playing metal in Baghdad during Saddam Hussein's time, and then afterwards, after the troops went in, was just incomprehensible to us, so we decided to start investigating then.
It's just been a long journey of having an idea that we want to film them and make a little five- to ten-minute piece about them for a DVD, and then setting up a concert for them.
We got more and more obsessed with the story, and it just kept getting bigger and bigger, and eventually we ended up with all this footage.
The editor of the film, Bernardo, he said, hey, I think we have enough for a feature here.
So he cut it into a feature, and we submitted it to the Toronto Film Festival, and then it got accepted.
So on that day, it became a film purely by accident.
We were never setting out to make a movie.
Oh, that's really cool, man, the way it came together like that.
Yeah, it was pretty organic, the whole thing.
Yeah, and yeah, I could tell you guys were basically making the events that you're documenting happen, in a sense, arranging gigs for the guys and that kind of thing.
Yeah, I mean, we thought if we're going to go interview them in Baghdad, it would be a lot more interesting if we could actually see them play and see their fans and see what the heavy metal scene in Baghdad is like.
So we organized a concert for them, which we then couldn't get to, so we had to find another camera crew to go film it for us.
And then when we got the footage, we were like, okay, this is cool, but it's not the whole story.
So eventually, Eddie and I went back in on our own and got the story.
Now that first show that you had your friend film it for you, that was in the summer of 2005, right?
That was the last show that they got to play in Iraq?
Yeah, that is correct.
Things were starting to get pretty bad in Baghdad around then, and it was not easy to pull that concert off, but there was just so much security, and it had to be done in the afternoon because there was a curfew.
We tried to cancel it because we couldn't go, and the band said, we can't cancel this because all of our fans are going to show up, they're going to be congregating, and if they can't get into the hotel where the concert is, then they could get arrested, they could get shot.
It's really dangerous, and that was a sign of the times.
And then when we went over a year later in 2006, it was even worse.
One of the things that really struck me watching this movie was how the Iraqi people are just people, and you don't even really realize until you see a movie like this just how little footage you've ever seen of Iraq, even though we've been at war there for so long.
Here's Joe.
Let's sit down and talk with him for a little while.
In fact, a couple of these guys, their names are Mike and Tony, and they look like kids from my high school or whatever.
Yeah, exactly, and I think that's what was one of the biggest revelations for us as well, was just how little we knew about Iraqis, and then in turn how much they were like us, like our bros here.
So to say it was eye-opening is a bit of an understatement.
Yeah, you know, the one guy, the bassist, kind of reminds me of my cousin.
He doesn't even look like an Arab at all, or what I think an Arab looks like or something.
Yeah, I mean, they speak fantastic English, as you saw in the movie, and their knowledge of American culture, especially American trashy pop culture.
They love the Simpsons and South Park, and we turn them on to Family Guy, and they're dudes.
That's cool, and I don't want to give everything away, but I guess it's okay to let people know that these guys, the whole band, is now safe in Turkey, right?
They're in Turkey.
I mean, so after Eddie and I went over in 2006, we met up with two of the guys who were left in Baghdad, and the other half of the band was in Syria living as refugees, and then later that year in December, we get an email from them saying that they're all reunited in Damascus, and they're going to play a concert, so we went over and filmed that, and then the situation in Syria started getting really bad for Iraqis, and the Syrian government was threatening to kick them back into Baghdad, and right at that time, the film had come out in Toronto, and we took that opportunity to raise awareness and raise money for them, and got them out, and with the donations of the metal community and just people around the world, we raised enough money to fly them out into Istanbul where they live now, and they're part of the UNHCR, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, bureaucratic machine, and they're talking about resettling the guys to a third country now, so we'll see what happens, but the good news is that they're safe.
The bad news is that it's incredibly expensive for them there, but it's their first time that they're living in kind of an open, modern society, and they're part of a music community for the first time in their lives.
The first time they ever saw another band play live after being a band themselves for almost a decade was this year in Istanbul, which is kind of insane.
So they've been making their music and evolving as a band in a bubble that's surrounded by war, so it's definitely a unique situation for a band.
I've never come across a band that's had to deal with circumstances like this.
Yeah, and the backdrop for this whole movie is just chaos.
Their practice space gets bombed, I guess, by Americans, right?
Yeah.
Well, no, I'm not going to say who bombed it because nobody really knows.
Fraud in the movie says people said that it was Americans that bombed it.
I mean, who knows who really bombed it?
But it was like a big mortar round or a rocket or something that hit this building where their practice space was, and it's pretty grim.
Everybody in the building died, and it just got completely decimated.
Yeah, and the guys in the band took it really bad.
And I know that there's just the background of stress and fear and even hopelessness is kind of permanent throughout.
That's kind of the background of all of this.
Yeah, I mean, you really appreciate what you have after going and seeing how other people are living, especially when they're living through war.
I mean, for the guys in Across Dakota, they've lived through three wars.
First the Iran-Iraq War, the first Gulf War, and then the recent war.
At a certain point, they just start feeling really hopeless.
But I really respect them so much because the mission that they've chosen for themselves as musicians to play metal is, and I've told this to them, it's either the bravest or the stupidest thing you could possibly consider to do for yourselves.
But they're sticking with it.
As refugees now in Turkey, it's really hard for them, and they're very conflicted.
One day they're just like a fledgling metal band in this new environment, and the next day they're just refugees trying to survive.
But they're not giving up.
The hope definitely has dwindled, but they're still together, and they're actually in the studio right now recording a few songs, which is cool.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Speaking of which, why don't you hang right there for a minute, and let's go ahead and play another one of these tunes.
This one is Between the Ashes from, you've got to pronounce it for me, man.
Across Dakota?
Yeah, there you go.
Those guys, the Iraqi heavy metal band.
This is Chaos Radio Awesome.
We'll be right back.
Rises up in spirits, rising up in the new year Crackles and fries, they will have the wild life we've come known so far Sightings of days where the demons are on the way Rise up and save days and save all the way up in fear We will fight We will fight We will fight Shadow will open your eyes and see All your dreams as they fade away There's nothing left in my soul The light needs to leave as we came to show To be the man that you dreamed to be To be the man that you dreamed to be To be the man that you dreamed to be To be the man that you dreamed to be Shadow will open your eyes and see All your dreams as they fade away There's nothing left in my soul The light needs to leave as we came to show To be the man that you dreamed to be To be the man that you dreamed to be To be the man that you dreamed to be Shadow will open your eyes and see All your dreams as they fade away There's nothing left in my soul The light needs to leave as we came to show To be the man that you dreamed to be Shadow will open your eyes and see All your dreams as they fade away There's nothing left in my soul The light needs to leave as we came to show To be the man that you dreamed to be Drinking some kiss with the boys and I feel that they're real Back from the past they were happy while I stayed young not so far Drinking some kiss with the boys and I feel that they're real Back from the past they were happy while I stayed young not so far Oh, dream little baby Oh, dream little baby Alright folks, that's the Krasikauta, the Iraqi heavy metal band.
You can find their MySpace page and you can hear the three that they got recorded while in Syria as documented in the new movie Heavy Metal in Baghdad.
We're also joined on the phone by Saroosh Alvi, who's one of the directors of the movie.
And one little thing, it's not that little of a thing, it seems like a little thing, but I think it's kind of a major thing in the movie is, I think it's you say to the camera, one of the rules around here is you can't wear a seatbelt because if you wear a seatbelt, that's a dead giveaway that you're a foreigner, is that right?
I mean, yeah, in Baghdad at that time, you know, it's like the whole, if you're going to be going around in the streets you got to keep a low profile, you couldn't stand out, you know, you'll get kidnapped or shot and it was just really bad for foreigners and, you know, people were getting killed and kidnapped by the hundreds every day at that time in the summer of 2006 when we were there and there was a real fear for journalists and there were actually very few journalists, western journalists there when we were there.
You guys were going around with heavily armed security too everywhere you went, right?
Can we backtrack for a second?
I just want to comment on that song that we just listened to.
I think it's important to point out that the band is not happy with these three songs that are on their MySpace page at all.
You know, we were in Syria and they wanted to record some demos and we found this studio that was not like a very good studio and nobody knew what they were doing, including us, in terms of how to record and the band had never recorded before and so, you know, we just put them out on MySpace and people always ask, are you going to release these songs?
Are they going to release these songs?
And the answer is no.
They don't want to be considered, you know, pretty good for a bunch of Iraqi refugees.
They want to be considered good by their peers in the metal world like Slayer who is their, you know, biggest influence and so they are working really hard at their craft and, you know, hopefully they're recording three new songs in Istanbul right now that are going to be not sound like they were recorded in a bubble.
Right.
Yeah, that's cool.
Yeah, I can't wait to hear, you know, the actual finished product.
Yeah.
You know, and you can see in the movie how the thing in Syria was really, well, let's see if we can do it real quick and take a chance and see how it goes kind of thing.
Yeah.
So, yeah, that's cool.
And, yeah, I'm sorry, the reason I brought up the seatbelt thing, it wasn't just the how dangerous it was to be a foreigner there.
Actually, the thing that's really got my goat about that is I read an article in The New York Times where the Iraqi government has now or I guess they already had a law or they claim they already had a seatbelt law, but now they're going to strictly enforce the seatbelt laws in Baghdad.
And if that's the mark of a foreigner, then, you know, it's just it is a little thing.
But how many people are going to lose their lives over this is the thing, you know?
Yeah.
I mean, who knows?
I highly doubt that anyone's going to pay attention to that law in Baghdad.
Well, everything else is, you know, a state of chaos, but we'll see.
Yeah.
It just seems, you know, it's a pretty bad position to put the people of Iraq in for, you know, supposedly for their own good, but I guess that's the whole story here, right?
Right.
Right.
And now another thing that...
Yeah.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Go ahead.
No, I was just going to say at that time it was just, you know, I think because there were so few foreigners there, they said, whatever, you just try and blend in as much as possible.
So don't wear a seatbelt.
And I think there probably are more foreigners there now than there were then.
And the seatbelt thing, you know, I have no idea how big of an issue it's going to be.
So...
Yeah.
But anyway, let's move on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's just a little thing.
And now the other thing about, you brought this up too, about when they were in Syria, is about what a tough time they were having there.
I guess for the rest of the couple million refugees there, the Iraqis, basically they're not allowed to work?
Or what exactly is the deal with the refugees in Syria?
Yeah.
I mean, they're not allowed to work legally by the Syrian government.
Same thing with the Turkish government.
You can, you're a refugee, but you can't.
And so basically it means that you can reside legally without the fear of getting kicked back into the war zone.
But you can't work.
So how the hell are you supposed to survive?
What are you supposed to do?
And the only work available for Iraqi refugees is, you know, working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, washing dishes, or trying to sell things door to door, or, you know, being a dishwasher, whatever it is.
And it's kind of a brutal existence.
You know, work all the time to make $100 a month, and it's no way to live, really.
Now, tell me a little bit specifically about the lead guitarist.
It seems like he's got the, he's really the most talented musician of the group, it seems like, and yet he was the one who had the most difficulties to overcome in terms of his personal life, right?
Yeah, I mean, he's just got like a big family to support.
His dad's not really in the picture, and he's got a bunch of sisters and siblings and his mom, and they all moved to Damascus, and he was like trying to feed like an extra four or five mouths.
And he's like really, and he speaks, he's the most shy and spoke the least English of the whole band.
But now he's, in Turkey he's been forced to speak more, and I think it's one of those things where he actually had all the words in his head, and he was just like, and never had a chance to practice it.
So he's become like a lot more conversational.
But yeah, he's still like, you know, the number of money he gets he sends back to his family back in Syria, and he's got to play the dad role for all these people.
And he became an amazing guitarist by just, like, it was total escapism for him.
It's how he would deal with the fact there was this war going on around him all the time, and he would just hide in his room with his headphones on and just practice, practice, practice.
Wow.
Yeah, wow.
Talk about silver lining, huh?
Yeah.
But I guess for now, though, he is getting by, though.
His family's getting by in Syria.
Yeah, I think so.
You know, like, the money continues to trickle in on their, on heavymetalinbagdad.com that we set up for them on this PayPal account.
So whatever we can, whatever we collect, we just wire it to them.
And so, and then he then wires it on to his family.
So they're doing okay, you know.
Oh, that's good.
And now, when did you say, you say they're working on the record now?
Is there, do you have any idea when it's supposed to come out, the new one?
I have no idea.
I mean, if these three songs that they record right now they're happy with and good, then I think we're going to, like, try and get them out digitally, release them on iTunes, to coincide with the release of the DVD or shortly thereafter, because there's just so much, you know, press and media, like this interview we were doing right now, for example, about the band.
I can't think of another band that has been in Rolling Stone, but doesn't have anything that you can buy out there.
Yeah.
So it'll be interesting to see, like, if we make their music available digitally, if people buy it, it'll be a source of revenue for them.
So, I mean, the money will go straight back to them.
So it's, yeah, I really hope the songs are good.
Yeah, me too.
And they actually sent me one song last night that I haven't heard yet called Message from Baghdad.
I mean, I've heard them practice it, and it's really, really good, but hopefully the recording came out good.
Oh, cool.
Yeah, well, I'll keep my eye on the MySpace page or the iTunes or whatever for that.
And now the movie officially debuts in New York and L.A. on the 23rd, right?
Yeah, and then the DVD comes out early June.
Early June.
And it's going to be playing again here at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin sometime at the end of this month.
Do you know?
Yeah, I don't know the exact dates, but basically everything, you know, I think it's on the Music Mondays that they do there.
So I'm not sure when it's playing again, but I think it will play again at the Drafthouse.
I really like that theater.
The place is a good buy.
But I think on HeavyMetalInBaghdad.com we list all the showtimes.
Right on.
Well, I wish you the best of luck with it.
I hope you guys make a killing and can share, well, bad choice of words, and can share some of the profits with the guys.
Yeah, I hope we make a killing and we can send that money back to the guys.
Like I said, this movie has been kind of a happy accident, and it's enabled the band to have a chance at fulfilling their dreams, and it's been, like, one of the most intense projects I've ever worked on.
So, you know, thanks for talking about it.
Yeah, yeah, no, you guys did a real good job on it.
Say this one more time.
Where can people go so they can donate money to the band?
They can go to HeavyMetalInBaghdad.com.
There's a PayPal account set up there.
And there's also a blog from the band where they send messages, talk about what's going on in their lives, and pretty much all the information you need about the band or the movie is there.
All right, great.
Everybody, that's Saroosh Alvi.
He's the co-founder of Vice Magazine, head of Vice Records, producer for VBS-TV.
He's the co-director with Eddie Moretti of the new documentary HeavyMetalInBaghdad.com.
It opens in New York and L.A. on May 23rd.
And if you're here in Austin, just, I guess, keep your eye on the Austin Chronicle.
It will be returning to the Alamo Draft House.
Thanks very much for your time today.
Thanks, buddy.
Take care.
Here's one more from Akrash Akaura.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.