I had heard a little about him before I saw his concert at NIAVARAN Cultural Center last year. I knew that he was both a painter and a musician, lived mostly in Europe and America, and that he had modified Iranian instruments, adding electric pickups, using sound effects, changing the shape of backboard, etc.

Like any other artist, Reza Derakhshani’s actions have to be assessed in the shadow of his art. If the music produced by these instruments sounded good, then the techniques and the thinking behind them became exceedingly interesting.

His band that night consisted of some of our best musicians: {Arash Moqaddam} on drums, {Kasra Saboktakin} and {Kamran Mojarrad} on electric bass, {Mehrad Sharif-Bakhtiar} on electric piano, and {Mahsa Qasemi} on cello. Together, they created a strong and robust rhythm section on top of which Derakhshani improvised his avant-gardish Iranian melodies on vocals and Jimi Henrix-sounding Iranian instruments.

The energy of the music that night reminded me of classic rock bands of the early ‘70s, except this was a little more jazzy and had a strong Iranian flavor to it, which made it quite unique and original. If I had to name a style for the music that night, I’d call it avant-garde Persian rock. Most non-Iranians would probably call it world fusion, or maybe world rock. Had {Brian Eno} been born here, he might have made similar music – assuming that he wouldn’t give up this trade all together in return for something a little less stressful, such as architecture or dentistry. I had never heard anything quite like it. Now, I was very interested to trace his thinking and modus operandi.

I met him in his apartment and we talked about a lot of things, his childhood and influences, his reasons for changing instruments and a music that has not been so drastically modified in centuries, and how he sees where our music is and ought to be. He told me how painting has affected his music, and how difficult it is to do something new in a culture with ties to traditions.

Modern art has yet to find an appreciating audience in Iran. Some times, it seems we are downright fearful of artists who break away from the beaten path, as if their work might interfere or maybe jeopardize our traditions. The habit of encouraging, or even simply accepting the few brave souls in each generation who follow their own artistic instincts and vision is lost to our phobia of the unknown new. The modernist Iranian poet and the "father of New Poetry," {Nima Youshij}, would understand what people like Derakhshani have to go through. Their work is misunderstood, and their intentions misinterpreted, by the general public and their peers alike. Unlike Nima, whose art form was of a Persian nature and had to be understood by his own people first, music can be readily appreciated by anyone anywhere. So Derakhshani’s music is praised in the West, while we are trying to figure out what to make of it.

He was raised near Semnan, in a small town in the North-Eastern part of the country. Fortunately for him, his brother was an art instructor, a painter, and an avid music lover. This encouraged young Reza to think of art as a serious profession early on. He started painting as soon as he knew how to hold a pencil in his hand, and by the age 12 he was getting paid to paint portraits and do calligraphy. From seventh to eleventh grade he won 5 first prizes in national art competitions. He says that knowing about painting has helped him tremendously with his music, and that he has learned to apply concepts from painting, such as texture, color and composition, to his music.

He fell in love with the tar at age 12 after he accidentally heard a tape of {Aqa Hoseingholi}, a master of Qajar period. But since he could not find or afford a tar or a teacher at the time, he instead started to sing. Finally at the first year of college he had a chance to start studying the tar with {Mohammadreza Lotfi}. Later he learned other instruments such as setar, ney, kamanchehh and guitar.

***

TA: Many Iranians, specially our traditionalists, don’t like the fact that you have modified our instruments. So let me ask you, why did you do that?

DERAKHSHANI: Originally, this had something to do with my collaborations with non-Iranian musicians. Everyone loves our traditional instruments because they are so delicate, beautiful and exotic. But for many reasons they have not evolved for many centuries, and it’s not easy to use them in a non-traditional situation. For example, we don’t have an instrument with a deep bass sound, except for a few percussion instruments such as dohol or daf. This made it difficult for me to play alongside western musicians, because many of their instruments, such as the piano, has a full-range sound. Colonel {Alinaqi Vaziri}, by the way, did notice this shortcoming, and created the bass-tar by adding bass strings to a larger tar. This attitude extends to vocals as well: a deep, husky, bass voice is not considered beautiful or desirable. If we consider the evolution of orchestral instruments in the West, we see that almost all of them now come in a variety of sizes and ranges. For example you have the violin, the viola, the cello, and the double bass. Same is true of different brass and wind instruments. So we have three choices, ignore this fact and continue using our own instruments, use Western instruments, or modify and make new Iranian instruments.

So the first thing I did was to add two strings to the tar and called it hash-tar, because of its 8 strings instead of 6, which enhanced the tone, resonance and possibilities. Bass kamancheh and bass qaychack are also instruments that I have been using, especially in recordings. I also brought back Vaziri's idea of stretching the neck over the skin to get another half octave on the higher register, so now there is a whole octave extension on this instrument. Other modifications were to make the tuning process easier. The instrument was made by Mr. {Kamran Rouhani} in Texas. I have recently started using these excellent tuning pegs for the tar made by {Masoud Qomashi} (a tar student of {Majid Derakhshani} in Berlin), which are based on a German design and are now available here and many have started using them.

When I started playing the kamancheh, I found sitting on the floor too uncomfortable for the player and not so visually attractive to the viewer. So I added a long, adjustable leg, which brought with it the freedom of body movement, where you can sort of dance with the instrument while playing it. This is not only visually appealing to a live audience and allows them to see how you feel, but is also more expressive and lets me articulate better on the instrument.

Out of the necessity of being able to play acoustic Persian instruments loud enough to be heard in Western band situations, I added electric pick-ups to them. This also allowed me to start using different effects, which opened virtually an ocean of possibilities in terms of new sounds and colors and textures, an area which is traditionally very limited in our music. Until you’ve heard it, you can’t imagine how nicely the wah-wah pedal works on kamancheh. The vocoder effect on the ney is just magical.

Some ask why don’t I just use an electric guitar! Well I have done that too, and have even adjusted the frets to turn out Persian scales, which is now one of my favorite instruments (this, by the way, was done in the early 90s, with {Cameron Hatami}, a musician friend in NY). But still there is a huge physical and tonal difference between a guitar and an electric setar or kamancheh. So I ask back, why should I limit myself to only one when all these others are available so easily?

New tar and setar that I have designed and have been made in Tehran are more advanced and pick-ups have been permanently placed under the bridge. The new setar, built by Mr. {Ali Ebrahimi}, which I call the pantar, is a larger version of the old ketabi version, which has a flat back, and an extra lower string and wider neck. Same with the tar, built by Mr. {Kiumarth Bozorgi}, which is more flat and has a wider neck so it can be easily hung around the shoulder and played while standing or even moving around the stage. I have called this one a laptar, because the word "lap," which makes one think of lap-top computers, also means “flat” in my native Sangsari language, a reference to the flatter back of the instrument.

I still play a lot of acoustic instruments in certain occasions and solo performances which is mostly improvisational and has it’s own beauty, but that does not really work when you get involved with a band and need a big sound.

TA: But you have also modified our traditional music itself. Why did you feel the need?

DERAKHSHANI: Again, part of it has to do with playing with non-Iranian musicians. As you know, our musical traditions teach us that there are certain rules for playing Persian music. You have to start with the prelude and follow a particular succession of modes, and you can never, ever just jump from one scale to another unless you do it in the way you have been told . Breaking any of these rules, is tantamount to committing musical crime! I realized that it is impossible to expect even a very capable western musician to understand and follow all these rules, so I experimented with them. After I did, I realized that not only can I communicate with them artistically, but I was surprised to see how much our music has to offer, mainly because of its improvisational nature. That combined with the new instruments, gave me a whole new range of possibilities to work with. For example I learned that if you jump from Chargaah to Afshari, something unheard of in traditional circles, that it actually works! It sounds great and it creates a whole new space, and yet you are still definitely playing Persian music. I don’t personally think that trying to add western classical notion of harmony to our music really works. But when I blend in different Iranian scales, it works so much better.

Other experimentations lead to things such as changing our scales a bit, adding notes and taking off notes here and there, taking them to a totally different space. For example, when I play in the nava mode of Persian music, I have a tendency to take it to a blues scale, which works very well. The first time I did this in Iran was on my trip back home in 2002. There were two nights of musical performance planned for me in “Khaneh Honarmandan” (The Artists Forum). I was supposed to play Persian music on the first night, and world fusion music on the second. But the second night’s performance was cancelled because it coincided with a religious mourning holiday. But the audience on the first night demanded that I also play some fusion music for them, but I only had my traditional instruments with me. So I thought why not, and tried fusing our nava and shur modes with western blues back and forth, and what do you know, it sounded great! You should have seen the audience. They just loved it. [listen to snippet 4]

TA: Where do you think our traditional music is?

DERAKHSHANI: The strongest points of our music are its freedom to improvise and its ability to express profound emotions and its deep, rich melodic structure. So to me Persian music is a great source of inspiration. But the conditions surrounding our music are not healthy, and so it is not evolving. Wrong attitudes, unhealthy competition and lack of real criticism are all very damaging. Our musicians don't try enough to know about other forms of art, cultures and types of music, which is the key to their growth. New-comers basically copy the generation before out of a confused respect for traditions and this mistake is passed on to the next generation. Concerts are boring and lack basic elements of the art of entertainment. Here and there you see some artistic efforts but there is no fundamental movement to speak of. Creativity is never a priority, its ground rules are never taught, understood or appreciated. Various restrictions by the music establishment make the whole thing worse and the rest is not hard to guess.

I respect all those who preserve artistic traditions but they have to realize that the world of art is larger than just what they do. In fact, when traditions become taboos, they lose an important aspect of what makes them artistically valuable.

TA: There are many bands playing world fusion here. What do you think of them?

DERAKHSHANI: I encourage the effort, but I question their notion of fusion. Often I see our traditional musicians playing with other, mostly western musicians, but not meeting them halfway. It is like they are more committed to preserving their own traditions and its restrictions than the communication that needs to take place on that stage, that night. I think our musicians have to realize that you cannot continue to do what you always did and expect to create successful world fusion music. If you lift these restrictions, you realize that you have actually added to our traditions rather than destroying them.

TA: What kind of music do you listen to?

DERAKHSHANI: I listen to any kind of good music. When I studied Persian music I mostly listened to western classical music. Later, there was PINK FLOYD and rock and roll which I found to be quite powerful and exciting. Now, I jump from original folk to ney of Master {Kasai} and from Indian classical to PORTESHEAD and COLD PLAY, jazz, R&B and fusion. You name it.

I think it is important for a musician to question his or her aesthetic notions and develop them by experimentation, research, becoming familiar with other forms of art, specially other kinds of music. What is important is that we don’t want to copy anything or anyone, but we can use them to add variety and richness to our own. For example, I have learned so much from our kooche bazar (street pop) artists, often judged vulgar by our traditional standards. The truth is that some of that music, to me, sounds more interesting than the formal contemporary traditional stuff because I find them very honest and at times more tasteful. Certainly, they understand entertainment intimately, where as our traditional music can sound repetitive and overly restricted at times. For example, Master {Saba} used to really enjoy popular music and even wrote several such pieces himself.

TA: How would you describe your music?

DERAKHSHANI: You can't escape yourself, in my case, my “Persianality!” So it's always Persian music I play, but in my own way and according to my own taste. When I perform on an Iranian instrument, its melodic nature encourages me to express a lot of my emotions. Other times music becomes like painting with sounds for me, where I look for new colors and compositions while trying not to lose the feeling of Persian music. It's very free and that's what I like about it.

TA: What future directions might you have for your music?

DERAKHSHANI: In general I follow new sounds, where ever they take me. I see no boundaries except a foundation of Persian culture. I particularly find writing music for motion pictures very creative and colorful.

TA: Do you have a message for young Iranian musicians?

DERAKHSHANI: Aim high and work hard. The fact is that whatever you do, when it comes to the international art scene, you are considered Iranians, even if you don't look like one. So the key is to learn as much as possible about your own culture and traditions and at the same time gain knowledge of other forms of creativity and artistic expression. This is a life-long effort and requires a lot of work. The rest depends on your talent, wisdom and of course circumstances and luck. Remember not to be afraid to take that extra step when the choice crosses your path.

Images

Home Page: Detail of a painting by Reza Derakhshani recently shown at Assar Gallery in Tehran (see http://www.tehranavenue.com/sidebox.php?catid=19).

Top: The re-fretted guitar and laptar used by Derakhshani.

Snippets

01/ From the Album Gift of Love I
02/ From the Album Ray of Wine (in cooperation with John Densmore)
03/ From the Album Gift of Love I
04/ Live at the Artist Forum, Tehran, 2002
05/ Score for video art by Chiara Clemente
06/ Film Score for Smoke and Mirror by Farinaz Karimi
07/ From the Album Elevations (upcoming with Steve Shehan)