Biography

Growing up playing Iranian traditional musical instruments while listening to Nothern European metal music was an unusual, yet exceptional experience for us; neither did we immerse ourselves deep into the serenity of Iranian traditional music, nor did we rebel through the dark arena of metal music. Instead, we learned that every piece of music, in its broad sense, is worth listening to at least once in a lifetime; that art can be hidden in places that you would never expect; and that artistic expression is a markedly universal means of communication, shared by a wide range of seemingly very different cultures.

The idea of the Garden Throne project has been lingering in our heads for a long time. However, we never happened to accomplish it until very recently, due to various reasons (of which you do not want to know!). The Garden Throne project is in fact a collage of overlapping paths from our personal journeys into various realms of music, and our personal lives. Making music is not our vocation: it is our prime passion. The Garden Throne project will be, as long as we are.

The Garden Throne is very distressed by the current structure of the music production and distribution. The highly capitalized and greedy record companies are unwilling to acknowledge the popular demand for free availability of music, and are struggling hard to stop this inevitable (though very natural and favorable) trend by means of filing lawsuits againsts nonconforming individuals and asking for outrageous sums of money. Indeed, they find their standing in the current structure of music production and distribution in danger and are fighting with their full force against the approaching dissolution of their business.

The traditional means of production and distribution of music demands a revolutionary restructuring: art is not a commodity. It makes no sense to charge individuals who are interested to experience an artwork any amount of money, before giving them the opportunity to fully experience and judge it by their subjective aesthetics. The existence of record companies, as mediators between artists and consumers, is a true antithesis of individualism, is vulturelike, and subjects the non-mainstream artists to a very low opportunity of recognition. It opposes individualism, because we believe that the surplus value of an artwork is to be decided by the consumer, not the multi-millionaires who are obsessed with their greedy instinctual desires. We are already witnessing its catastrophic effects in the mainstream music: it is being rapidly transformed from what it originally meant to be, a genuine form of artful expression, to an abominable amalgam of pornography and propaganda. By buying a pressed CD from a record company, one is subject to pay a massive surplus predetermined by the company. This business is vulturelike because almost all of that surplus value goes straightly into the pockets of the headquarters of the record company.

We believe that the music must be made freely available to the interested individuals through a low cost channel. Thanks to the availability of low-cost internet access to most of us, free distribution of music and its accompanying visual artwork is truly possible nowadays. Moreover, we believe that the only meaningful way to acknowledge the work of artist is through direct and voluntary donations by the consumers. This is a decision to be made by the community of artists, and we warmly shake the hands of those who have already taken steps towards this end.

W believe that the system of direct and voluntary donation by the consumers works flawlessly and pays the artist well, in contrary to the pretty much popularized belief that "free distribution of music is an act of intellectual property theft from the artists". At the moment, due to enormous advertisements of the record companies for their ensnared artists, those who choose to work with record companies have a greater opportunity of public recognition. By developing a mechanism through which interested people will get to know the artists, the same people who are willing to pay $15 for a pressed CD, will of course be willing to pay $5 directly to the artist instead; in other words, if the artists can get some royalties by working with a record company, they will still get their royalty without the vulture in between, thanks to the internet! Many full-fledged bands (Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, etc) have already started distributing their music free of charge. A "legal" and centralized BitTorrent website for free artists can be a great move, specially if some well-known artists start distributing their music through that website. Such an action will 1) encourage other artists to do so, and 2) would serve as a legal and free alternative to the modern day incarnation of the feudalism in the community of musicians: iTunes.

As you most probably agree, there are very few full-length (60 mins long) albums in the world with all songs worth listening to over and over again. Indeed, the idea of full-length production has its origins in the consumeristic metaphor more is better, which could not make any less sense when it comes to art. Thus, we do not see any necessity for sharing our work in bundles of 60 minutes.

In conclusion, we feel committed to release our music free of any charge and any commitment for the consumer's end, as a small step towards a more rational and less greedy society. If you like our music, we encourage you to share it with your friends, specially through peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, as long as the copies are reproduced unaltered and in its entirety (including the accompanying cover art).