Today we’d like to introduce you to Pouya Pourtahmasbi.
Pouya, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I was born in Tehran in 1982 into a middle-class Iranian family. My brother, who was 15 years older than me, had a collection of records, mostly 70’s and 80’s rock music. Iran, especially a few years after the revolution, was quite different from a typical western society many readers are probably familiar with. You couldn’t just listen to your favorite songs on the radio or buy your favorite album from your nearby record store. Western pop music was only available in a bootleg form that you could borrow from a friend or a neighbor and make a duplicate for yourself. That’s how my brother made his own collection, and I started listening to those record from an early age. Those songs shaped my musicality even though I never played music myself until much later.
I started my music journey by learning bass guitar so I could accompany my two friends who recently had formed a band together. Unfortunately, they both moved out of Iran, and I had to find new people to work with. I was able to shape a new band, and we started to write songs and play together. I quickly realized that it was not as easy as I thought to turn songs into a record. I wanted to learn the art of making a record, and it inspired me to move to the United States to study music technology and production at Florida Atlantic Music. While at FAU, I caught a performance by Jamie Craig and was fascinated by her unique voice and songwriting.
We became good friends and started playing music together and as a team produced her first EP. Soon after she released her EP, we decided to form a band together, and that was the birth of Indigo Dreamers.
While living in the US, independently I have also collaborated with some other musicians and artists locally and from around the globe.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I am an electric bass player, composer, and music producer. I write music for various types of projects such as films, promotional videos, sound design, and more. I also have a Persian podcast called “Dardo Del” which is a collaboration between myself and my dear friend Soheila Ghodstinat.
Most of my time is spent playing live music in South Florida with Indigo Dreamers or working on arrangements and productions of new songs with my bandmate Jamie Craig. We perform all over South Florida as both a duo and trio, alongside percussionist Reza Filsoofi. As a bass player, I do my best to provide the perfect accompaniment. Since we don’t have a solo instrumentalist, I fill the gap by playing bass in an unusual or out-of-the-box way. I incorporate solos, chords, and melodies on the bass and I am able to do this with the special tuning of my 5-string bass and my pedalboard.
Even though I mentioned a little bit about the technical aspect of what I do to clarify my input, I never want to get lost in technicalities. To me art is all about the connection the artist creates with their audience. It doesn’t matter how that connection is made and the tools that are used. At the end of the day as an artist, you want to make people feel something or more profoundly, to inspire them and to help them move along on their own journey.
How do you think about success, as an artist, and what do quality do you feel is most helpful?
Being an artist is challenging. Not only must you learn your craft, which takes a lot of time and effort, but you must truly love and believe in what you are doing. Otherwise, you could easily become exhausted and disappointed.
The outside world is rough and sometimes unkind, especially to an up-and-coming artist. You may feel that you have created a masterpiece and the world around you should praise you for that accomplishment. A lot of times you are actually wrong! You need to gain a lot more experience before you give birth to a masterpiece, but even if you have such quality work, it is still difficult to make people pay attention to your work and take you seriously. I think this is the most challenging aspect of being an artist because it is so easy to get disappointed and to give up. As an artist, you really need to have solid self-esteem, integrity. And goals beyond becoming a star or making money. In order to be successful in art, having these qualities are as important as knowing the art. The definition of success might be a little bit different from one artist to another, but overall every artist fights for one basic need, and that is having an audience. When it comes to the audience, I believe it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality that matters the most. You need to have people who will support you and follow you because they relate to your art and your message. As I said earlier, the end goal is to inspire people and to help them move along on their own journey. To me, this accomplishment is the success.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
We would love to see more people at our shows. This is the best way to support us. We post our shows on our website as well as on our Facebook and Instagram page. Furthermore, we have our debut album “Lessons of Blue” on iTunes and Spotify. We also have a couple of songs performed live on YouTube. We have been told by many people that our live performance is quite a different experience compared to our recordings, so I would say first check out our live shows.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.IndigoDreamers.com
- Email: pptahmasbi@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/indigodreamersband
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/indigodreamersband
Image Credit:
Kathrine Smith
Jennifer Rink
Ian Ibbetson
Fareed Almashat
Makan Foundation
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