On a relatively cold winter night, during Chaharshanbe Suri 1404, I met Yung Trio for the first time, with the sound of explosions filling the streets of Tehran. I’d heard the name before, but had never actually met the people behind it. Five and a half months later, I was back in the same house, part of which has become the band’s small, peculiar studio. This time, I wasn’t there to meet them. I was there to watch them play live.
Yung Trio dates back to around 2017–2018, when Mohammad Javan, Makan and Tarik first started playing together. The name came from the same place: “Yung”, a translation of Javan, and “Trio”, for the three people who started the group. The lineup has changed over the years. Makan moved abroad, Tarik moved to one of Iran’s northern cities, and Mohammad is now the only member left from the original three. Today, Mohammad, Shayan and Sahand play the instruments, Sara and Yasaman handle the vocals, and Dariush works with them as Project Manager and Creative Director.
But Yung Trio is more than its lineup or its history. What caught my attention was the seriousness behind their easygoing presence and upbeat sound. They rehearse almost every day and, by their own count, have around a hundred tracks ready to play live, from their own material to nostalgic covers and even Iranian folk songs.
That routine goes beyond simply keeping a band in shape. Over the past few years, they have continued to meet, play and rehearse even on nights when the country was at war. When the sound of missiles grew louder, they turned up the volume in their tiny studio, trying to hear less of what was happening outside. Yung is tireless, rehearsing and performing in every circumstance. Music was never something they needed the right conditions for. It became part of how they got through the conditions they were given.
All that preparation may matter even more because performing officially has not always been easy, or even possible, for them. With female vocalists in the lineup, their shows have largely taken place in private spaces, special events, underground settings or outside Iran, including Berlin and Dubai. Perhaps that is part of what has kept them constantly ready to play, even when they have no idea where the next performance will be.
Their studio has a story of its own. It is a shipping container that was once a mirrored art installation, displayed in a gallery or museum before eventually being set aside to make room for new works. Dariush bought it and kept it in a corner of his house’s yard for a while. Eventually, the container found a new life as Yung Trio’s studio.
Today, Sara and Yasaman write their own lyrics there and perform them themselves. Mohammad, the only member who has been there since the beginning, does much of the production work too, from recording to mixing and mastering. Shayan and Sahand play alongside them, while Dariush takes on the project’s management and creative direction. Everyone has their own role, but what comes through most clearly from the outside is the friendship and chemistry that have kept this group together for years.
Five and a half months after that first meeting, I saw them perform live. More than anything, it was the energy of the music that stayed with me. Given everything behind the band, you might expect something darker, heavier. Yung Trio goes the other way entirely. Their sound lands somewhere between funk, pop and a touch of electronic music: upbeat, playful, funny and full of life.
Sara and Yasaman each performed two songs, and each had a distinct presence on stage. Yasaman has the fuller voice and tends to carry emotion through her facial expressions, while Sara relies more on her gaze and the way she occupies the stage. Meanwhile, Mohammad at the keyboard and Shayan on bass would sometimes perform off each other with such intensity that they felt less like two musicians standing side by side and more like a two-person performance.
Of everything they played that night, “Noor Mi-bareh” stayed with me the most. The song took shape during those nights of missile attacks, when the members would gather together. There is something striking about the fact that a song born out of that atmosphere could sound so lively and bright, almost the complete opposite of the nights that gave rise to it.
Now, Yung Trio is entering a new chapter. After years of writing, rehearsing and performing, they have decided to record this body of work and release it as an album. For years, they have been preparing music for different situations and different spaces. Now they want to finally record what they have built over all this time and put it out as one cohesive work.
But the bigger dream goes beyond an album. More than anything, they want to see Yung Trio on stages around the world and eventually take the band on a world tour.
Their name may still be unfamiliar to many. Their route to an audience may look different from that of a typical band. But maybe this is exactly the right time to listen to them: before anyone knows how far they’ll go, while the first signs of something bigger are quietly beginning to take shape.
