SHĀHERI is the Los Angeles Persian psych band led by composer, guitarist and singer Jonathan Shaheri: a band that sounds like a lost 1970s Tehran record found in a Los Angeles surf shop.

Born and raised in LA to Iranian parents who immigrated in the 1970s, Jonathan grew up between two record collections. One held the pre-revolution Persian rock of Kourosh Yaghmaei and Googoosh; the other was everything California. Before SHĀHERI he built a career in film and television music, closely working alongside Hans Zimmer. SHĀHERI is where those worlds stop being separate.

The EP PERSIĀDELICĀ, released in December 2025, named the sound: 70s Persian

psychedelic funk played through surf guitar. Since then SHĀHERI has sold out shows across the US, from iconic California venues like Lodge Room, Zebulon, Soda Bar, Eli’s Mile High Club, Jacumba Hot Springs, Gold-Diggers and Members to Palapa in Miami. Live, SHĀHERI is a fivepiece band that plays the records harder and longer than they were cut, and that room-to-room energy is the heart of the project.

The debut album ROYĀ (“dreams” in Persian) is out now on Avenue Niel Music. Its twelve songs move through psychedelic Persian rock (“TORO MIKHĀM,” “RUĀ ZIBĀ”), nostalgic originals (“DOKHTAREH MANI,” “CHER ALICE”), cumbia and Latin rhythms (“IXTĀPĀ,” “GĀRDENIĀ”) and cinematic instrumentals (“COMO,” “MĀR,” “ĀLIYEH”). At its center is the focus track “PERSIĀCUMBIĀ” with Los Mirlos, the Peruvian band who helped invent Amazonian psychedelic cumbia in the 1970s. They travelled to Los Angeles for the song, and its official video was shot at Jonathan Shaheri’s home.

In 2027 SHĀHERI takes the album on the road with the ROYĀ Tour 2027, their biggest headline run yet: from The Independent in San Francisco and SOB’s in New York to ZeyZey in Miami, the Trópico de Cáncer festival in Todos Santos and a hometown night at Los Angeles’ El Rey Theatre, before heading to Latin America and Europe.