The Arash Moghaddam Interview
Coming off the road The JFS had a relatively quiet week behind the mic. Cosmically I did connect with Arash Moghaddam and his story is one of the most compelling I have heard in 2,000+ interviews. Born in Iran left as a very young baby Arash immigrated to Maryland at the age of 2. At 13 he moved to Turkey for 8 months and then to Norway for three years. Right before his 16th birthday his parents took him back to Iran for a “vacation.” After the government "lost their papers" his family wound up spending the next couple of decades in the country. At that time Arash was obsessed with listening to music and skateboarding. Music was outlawed in Iran at that time so Arash was relegated to acquiring cassettes of Metallica on the black market and showing off his skate moves to culturally starved people. There were no drum kits available commercially in Iran because music was forbidden so he took a 13-hour drive to Tehran to find instrument stores. When he did a gentlemen opened a sliding wall and dozens of antiquated kits - from before the revolution - reveled themselves. The only problem was they cost 3x as much as a car so Arash returned to his hometown and with that help of a friend built his own kit. What followed were gigs in wedding bands and shedding in his room being careful not too play too loud so as to alert the neighbors. In dealing with family strife his father taught him to pray. Arash managed to create his own version of allegiance to god and never fell into the doctrinaire pit of conformity and group think. Instead he held true to the principles of his faith while incorporating the mystical side of Islam known as Sufism. He also began to read the philosophical works of cats like Maurice Maeterlinck as well as Cabalistic texts which broadened his ability to alter states of consciousness while praying and receiving messages that only became clear in their meaning as he got older. Arash now lives in Sacramento and is a decorated teacher, player and international inspiration. His story is one of perseverance, getting knocked down and starting from scratch. He and his friends created improvisational musical games w/o having any formal training and over time his ears became bigger to contain all music. Suffice it to say we still have at least one more installment to do but I highly recommend listening to this interview. If nothing else to gain some perspective on how we are all connected by the universal vibration and through that frequency we are all one. Link in bio