Bio/Band

BIO/BAND

“Koolcapitz” is the name of a small weird bird in “Gilaki language”.

Formation of the band
In late 1999, Shahrokh Saadati, Fereydoun Haghighi and Mehrnaz Shahmohammadi who had been bandmates in a pop/rock music band for a while, decided to make their own music group and follow their common interests and taste in music.
The combination of Shahrokh’s background in Rock and Metal Music with Mehrnaz and Fereydoun’s background in Folk / Traditional and Classical music, was the core idea of working and playing together.

After a while, new members added to the group and first ideas developed and began to form based on the members’ ideas.

In 2007, Habib Daliri joined the band and because of his spiritual and philosophical researches, in addition to his profound and sensational playing, some brilliant fresh ideas were injected into the group. The band had been searching for a perfectly matched drummer for a few years and finally it happened once Reza Banaeinia joined the band in 2008.

He began to play a role of performing the drums lines and recording those lines professionally as well as adding so many fresh ideas to the band. Also, he has enhanced the feeling of collaborative working as a team to “Koolcapitz”.

Hossein Shoaiee joined the band in 2009. He has played a role way more than a guitar player in “Koolcapitz”. His background in cinematography and theater, has been a major plus to “story telling” of melodies which has always been desired in the band’s musical taste and style. Hossein focused on professionally recording of all guitar lines as he was perfectly loyal to the main ideas of the melody lines that were performed and played previously by former band’s guitar players.

In 2011, Adib Ghorbani agreed to join the band. One of his most unique qualities is his knowledge and mastery on Piano which has been as a gift for “Koolcapitz” by far.

The band is working on some old and new projects now and new songs will be released soon.

KOOLCAPITZ is still Breathing


Consciousness
The only common denominator of all beings in the universe for the transcendence, expansion and correspondence of everything with it’s own principle, regardless of limited and partial desires.

Art
The necessary flexible stream for our enlightenment by the same consciousness.

Poem and Literature
“The origins of native culture” that connecting to it, is essential for life in all contexts.

Sound
An energy that arises from the eternal depth of “Silence”, and returns again to the eternal expanse of “Silence”.

Music
A possibility for becoming aware of quiescence and “Silence”.

Harmonica
A musical instrument that sounds with “inhale” and “exhale”.

Composing
A “limited” effort to express “unlimited” concepts.

Music
I have been in love with music since I was a little kid and tried to learn and practice as a self-taught musician. It pushed me through to change the field of my career and walk of life to the music education full time after I graduated as a graphic designer!

Music is healing and soothes the souls and minds and affects instantly.

Vocal
To me, Opera and Jazz vocals are the most interesting musical voices. I like Iranian traditional vocal performances for Persian spiritual poems as well.

Bass Guitar
The warm and rich tone of this instrument has been one of my most pleasing instrument’s sounds and tones since I was a teenager. When I met Shahrokh and his style and touch of playing bass guitar, I fell in love with the “bass” and it made me bow to it. An instrument that most people know it as a masculine musical instrument, but it reminds me of a very pleasant feeling like the smell of coffee, and a serenity mixed by self-confidence and happiness.

Music Instruction
As a music instructor, I would learn more and more once I do my best to humbly transfer my knowledge to my students who I love them like my own children.

Leisure time and hobbies
My greatest interests and hobbies are studying and learning about music, psychology and wisdom. Also, I am interested in “Alternative Medicine”, Biology and Applied Science.
I love to watch documentaries and movies about wild life and nature.

The main concern
My main concern in life is knowing of human being, the reason of existence and to reach spiritual perfection.

Drums
Drums is always challenging for me, no matter in what style or genre I am playing. It takes me to an unknown wonderland, a unique place which doesn’t exist around us.
It seems that every brain pictures it in a specific way, but sometimes mine needs more time to figure it out.

Art
In my opinion, art is a way of “thinking” that everybody has his/her way to describe it. A combination of colors, designs and imagination which can shape everything so fantastic and fascinating. It could be a good music, a design, a car or anything else.
When love combines with art and science and so many detailed little important things, then the “masterpiece” will be created.

Bachelor of Flute
Art University of Tehran;

Master of Art research
Tarbiat Modares University of Tehran.

In my life, music, theater, and cinema are like the three primary colors (blue, red, and yellow) in painting. The colors that compose my foundation.

My adolescence was spent with a craving for cinema, although destiny put me on the theater stage, the stage in a black box that was the brightest place in the world for me. In the meantime, music became fascinating to me. Without any special planning and without making a clear decision, I picked up the Setar, a pleasant Persian instrument, then the guitar got into my life and in the end, I became an electric guitar player!

But again, something was missing inside me, one of the three main colors of my foundation. The place of cinema was still empty in my life. So, I started working and learning new things again. I tried to grab every required knowledge and skills that were related to that magical moving pictures on the screen. However, filmmaking has not been an easy career to fulfill and you cannot always make what you want. After years of making commissioned works, I finally saw one of my screenplays on that magical screen, and my soul came to life. Now I have three colors of my being and I live my life with them.

Background
I started music when I was 16. At first, I played the guitar, and after a year, I started playing the piano. I wanted to become a composer, so I was always hearing and playing different genres of music. Classical music, contemporary music, jazz, pop, rock, Persian music, and all kinds of improvisation. I played with a lot of ensembles, orchestras, choirs,  and I made a lot of music for films and theaters. After I migrated from Iran and started my Doctorate studies in the United 

States, I am a multidisciplinary artist who integrates theater, music, and new technologies. Through the combination of physical theater, live music performance, and motion sensor technologies, I shaped my unique style called “Silent Music” or “Electro-musical Mime”. Silent Music is a new field in improvisation, composing creative projects, and teaching music. I am currently a Ph.D. candidate in the ICIT program (Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology) at the University of California Irvine. As a performer and collaborator, I have worked with many well-known artists such as Nils Petter Molvér, Stephen Tucker, Kojiro Umezaki, Lukas Ligeti, Nicole Mitchell, and many others.

Music and community
I love making friends, and I love making music, that’s why playing in the band is a real joy for me. Having both friendship and music together doesn’t happen around us that much. I was lucky enough to be part of “Koolcapitz” and experience the sense of community in making art. I started building new ideas in making

operatic works. Having a group of friends that you can always be spontaneous and creative with, is a blessing. In my viewpoint, the perfect ensemble looks like a kindergarten. People just want to know each other, just to know each other, and they just want to play with each other, just to play with each other.

Piano
Piano is like silence for me. They are more than a friend, or love, or a tool to survive. They always lived within me. The first time I touched a clavier, I deeply felt I heard a friend, older than my age.

Poetry and Rumi
I grew up hearing my mom and dad reciting Persian poetry, mostly Rumi. As my dad always says, “Rumi is both fire and ocean”. I never had the chance to make music for his poems, but I am glad that we have worked on them in “Koolcapitz”. I love the approach of the band towards Rumi’s poems. We all know the deep value of them and we try to put as much effort as needed to produce good music for them.

Life
Life seems so mysterious, it’s too short as well and somehow, it is way simpler than what we think!

Music
My personal favorite “cave” of my own deep melancholic daydreams!

Knowledge
Knowledge Is the “light of the world”

Omid Athari Nejad, Guitars
Reza Gholi Zadeh, Keyboards, Piano
Sanam Pasha, Vocals, Piano
Shahhin Ghorban Nejad, Guitars
Amin Dogounchi, Guitars
Ali Abedini, Drums
Arian Borhan, Drums

Arash Pouri Mohammad, Vocals
Bita Sadeghi, Guitars
Roya Amidi, Backing Vocals, Guitars
Hamed Mirmostafa, Tenor
Bahara Tehrani, Mezzo Soprano
Mehdi Bagherian, Guitars
Peyman Jouyandehpour, Keyboards, Piano

For the album “Say No More”
(Degar Hich Magueid)

Shiva Soroush, Soprano
Alireza Abdolkarimi, Tenor
Omid Tajdoust, Baritone
Javad Moradioun, Bass

 

Translators
Saeideh Ghasemzadeh
Anahita Zarabian