Kavus Torabi - History and Main Musical Projects

History and Main Musical Projects

Kavus Torabi was born in Iran to an Iranian father and an English mother. His family moved to Plymouth, UK, when he was eighteen months old, originally planning to return once his father had made sufficient money, but ended up settling permanently following the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. "Most" of Torabi's relatives remain in Iran, but he himself has never returned.

"I always love the term 'psychedelic'. It has a few negative connotations, depending on how you happen upon the word in the first place, but in the main I'm very happy to be described as that. I think the mis-conception with the word 'psychedelic' in music is that it pertains to a particular era, ie: the late sixties. That's not the case, Steve Reich is psychedelic music, as is Devin Townsend, Shudder To Think, Debussy, My Bloody Valentine, Don Caballero, White Noise, Autechre, Magma, The Necks etc. I like it because it seems to describe more how the music makes you feel than a particular sound or style. There's that horrible term "pronk", which is supposed to be a cross between prog and punk, which I loathe. I don't go in for descriptions anyway. Thinking of music in terms of genre is so reductive."

Torabi remembers that his family were not particularly musical (although his mother knew a few guitar chords) but that he humself was interested in music from an early age (in particular the music from TV shows). Torabi taught himself music by inventing his own form of notation and using it to score out the theme from CHIPS. When he was seven, his family bought a piano and he used it as a compositional tool - already writing songs of his own, he showed little interest in learning those of others. From 1980, he became interested in pop music (initially becoming inspired by Brian Setzer and The Stray Cats) and began teaching himself how to play guitar. Eight years later, aged sixteen, he discovered his main musical touchstone in the form of Cardiacs, although in the interim he had taught himself more about music by sequential obsessions with various other bands and music forms.