Damahi are representing Iran’s independent music scene

We don’t tend to hear much about the independent popular music scene in Iran, but there’s been an active and growing movement since the late 1990s, despite often precarious circumstances for musicians.

Named after a gigantic mythical fish from the gulf region of southern Iran, Damahi is one of the most popular grassroots bands to have emerged in recent years as part of a wider trend of mixing Iran’s regional traditions with contemporary popular global music.

Based in Iran, Damahi’s members are Dara Daraee (bandleader and bass), Hamzeh Yeganeh (keyboards and banjo), Ebrahim Alavi (guitar and oud), Reza Koolaghani (vocals) and Ahmad Abbasnia (drums and percussion). Formed in 2014, the band’s distinctive sound comes from being steeped in the vibrant music heritage of Iran’s southern provinces of Hormozgan and Sistan & Baluchestan. This region has been the site of extensive cultural encounters over centuries, via traders travelling through the Persian Gulf as well as the former East African slave trade that resulted in a large community of Afro-Iranians in the south. Together with lyrics mostly in the local dialect – written by local poets or as rearrangements of well-known folk songs – Damahi’s music has a strong southern identity; indeed, one of the band’s aims is to make the music of this region better known outside Iran.

The band’s debut album, Damahi, was released in 2015 and was an immediate success. A second album followed in 2019 entitled Dar Man Boro Shekari, which means ‘Go Hunting in Me’. Since then, there have been a clutch of singles – ‘Barekat’ (2020) and ‘Rafik’ (2021), ‘Parizad’ (2022) and ‘Mahi’ (2024), to name a few – with the band currently working on their third album.

Damahi’s rich musical fusion – taking in the driving rhythms of bandari (meaning ‘from the port’) southern Iranian styles on the one hand and influences from Africa, Europe and beyond on the other – have made them incredibly popular in Iran, particularly among young audiences. Songs range from high-energy percussive pieces to reflective ballads and jazzy pieces with Arab influences. Bandleader Dara Daraee cites a long list of artistic influences, including local musician Alikhan Habibzadeh, Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf, Cameroonian musician Richard Bona, Israeli double bassist and composer Avishai Cohen, and the bands Quarter to Africa (Q2A) and Yemen Blues. “We take a free-spirited approach”, he tells me, “to blending elements of Iranian folk music with diverse genres such as jazz, rock, reggae, flamenco, African music, Latin, funk, classical Iranian music, Indian music, and more.”

Lyrically, one of Damahi’s strongest influences is the Iranian singer, musician and poet Ebrahim Monsefi (1945–1997), who was mainly active before the 1979 Revolution and who came from the southern city of Bandar Abbas. The band also draw on contemporary Iranian poetry, including lyrics that resonate with young people and that address personal relationships and social issues such as economic challenges and migration.

Damahi are not new to the global stage, as Daraee explains: “Early in our journey, we participated in the Do Re Mi Fair Play cinematic project in Brazil during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. We performed in various cities across Brazil and even played on FIFA’s official stage in Curitiba, ahead of the Iran-Nigeria match.”

While Damahi are phenomenally popular in Iran, they deserve to be better known outside, with their fun performances and rich intercultural mixes. Following their UK premiere at the London Jazz Festival in 2023, they will be back touring Europe in the spring of 2025. Don’t miss them!