“The war followed us,” says Akhlad glumly. Now 26, he plays the jozza, a stringed instrument that gives UTN1′s music an Arabic touch. Securing visas and work permits has been a problem for them everywhere. And for more than three months this year, they were split up and strewn across the region, their movements replicating those of the Iraqi refugee population at large. Hassan, 23, is the only one who has returned to Iraq – for three harrowing days after his father passed away. Shant, 28, and Art, 29, ended up in Armenia for months, if for no other reason than Yerevan welcoming them as young men of Armenian descent. But none had it worse than Nadeem, 24, who got stranded in Jordan over the summer – totally illegal and unable to do much more than sit around and be fearful of checkpoints.
The music is a tad cheezy, but the message is nice and the production values are good:
I am usually more interested in counter-culture music in the Middle East, but every once in a while you gotta give some love to the boy bands of the world. Unlike their American, British or Kuwaiti counterparts Iraqi boy band Unknown To No One (UTN1) has been through a lot:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baqJBGOD7jA]
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