The band was unable to make the screening of the film No One Knows About Persian Cats, but they were able to keep their concert date in Budapest.
Bahman Gobadi's film about the indie music scene in Tehran is half feature, half documentary. At the centre of the story are Take It Easy Hospital and their efforts to get a visa so they can leave Iran. In reality, the band's efforts paid off: the two founding members now live in London.
"The only difference between London and Tehran is the chance to play music openly. Big-city life is just the same," said Ashkan Kooshanejad, the male member of the duo.
Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been president of Iran, playing any kind of Western music has been forbidden, Kooshanejad said.
"They don't recognise regulations in Iran. They just hang over your head, allowing them to lock you up at any time," said the female half of Take It Easy Hospital, Negar Shaghaghi.
She recalled that when she was younger, the only way to get music from the West was to have people you knew bring it from abroad. What you got depended on the tastes at the time, she added.
"You never knew if it would be ABBA or Nirvana or Pink Floyd," Shaghaghi said. "The situation has improved much since the internet," she added.
Take It Easy Hospital's concert in Hungary drew many Iranians living in Hungary. Kooshanejad said their fates were much like those of the band: they left Iran to study something or do something that was forbidden under the regime at home.
"It's a great feeling to be able to share something with them, but we're sorry that we can't do more for them, said Kooshanejad.
Take It Easy Hospital don't worry that their profile was raised because of the band's story.
"When they invited us to the In The City Festival in Manchester, they didn't know anything about us. We didn't write anything about coming from Iran on our MySpace page. When they contacted us, they thought we were from the UK," said Kooshanejad. The band got the invitation to the festival because the organisers liked the single Human Jungle, which can also be heard in the film, he added.
So far, the band has only put out an EP which can be purchased on the internet. It still has no contract with a publisher.
"You can hear the underground influences on our music....Now we're trying to make our new songs sound better. We want a cleaner, electronic sound, a sound you can already hear on the new demo," said Kooshanejad.
Take It Easy Hospital will start a tour of France after leaving Budapest.
No One Knows About Persian Cats won an Un Certain Regard in Cannes in 2009.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
