Faraz Razavi

What does music mean to you personally?

Dancing with life.

Do you agree that music is all about fantasy?

Yeah, Music is a fantasy by itself. When it’s unpredictable and u see a combination of notes and chords that u never thought sounds good .it’s a lovely accident.

If you were not a professional musician, what would you have been?

Probably a writer.

The classical music audience is getting old, are you worried about the future?

Classical music wants the audience to be patient in order to enjoy while nowadays they do not have time and energy to listen to pieces. They want a song that grab their attention soon. No, I’m not worried, because despite that the genre is not as popular as it was 100 years ago, there are many great musicians who re not appreciated. It does not matter if we re worried or not.We re worried but we cannot do anything, there re many subtle reasons that young people go for other genres, probably it is because they just want to listen to music in clubs or in the car while the he elderly used to choose classical music, they used listen to tapes they used to wait for the radio to play interesting stuff. The reasons to this trend are changes in people lifestyle business and etc. So we cannot prevent the world from going to its way.

What do you envision the role of music to be in the 21st century? Do you see that there is a transformation of this role?

Yeah. I cannot predict the future of music in this century. What I ve seen so far is that today music is mostly used for dance and entertainment, but in the past people listened to music to enjoy, to make beautiful memories, to get out of their monotonous life and to feel free of their chaos of thoughts for a while.

Do you think that the musician today needs to be more creative? What is the role of creativity in the musical process for you?

I believe that in every era, musicians need to be creative and music needs to get evolved. It does not have any tangible formula to be creative!In fact all of them need to make a new combination of sounds because what is old and done before has become repetitive and boring. That cannot have an impact on the audience and in fact that the reason why we need new music is that we are tired of what we have heard in the past. Young grows from old. Music needs to be `re-invented‘.

Do you think we as musicians can do something to attract the younger generation to music concerts? How would you do this?

For instrumental music that is too tough today. I think the reason is that classical music (instrumental, solo piano, orchestral) is not promoted any more. So people’s desire for music is fulfilled with the music made by promoted musicians. It would be a very nice goal for instrumental musicians to perform a concert of their music because probably it would’nt be as crowded as a linking park concert. Instead people who come are intellectuals, real music lovers, musicians and a small percentage of people who value good music and respect creativity.Investors are leaders and people who re in charge to make this happen. It’s turned out that if they invest in neoclassical or new age music concerts they could get good results.

Tell us about your creative process. What is your favorite piece (written by you) and how did you start working on it?

My favorite piece is: twilight. It is an orchestral piece. My creative process: Creativity comes to you. Like many composers I believe in that. The creative process is not the same always! I make a song for guitar solo or piano solo then sometimes I add other motives sometimes I try to add other instruments or change the arrangement, sometimes I ask my friends to add any ideas they have on the song or orchestrate the song. it usually does not take more than 3 months from me.

Can you give some advice for young people who want to discover classical music for themselves?

Firstly they should have a passion for music that is within themselves. Without that that is impossible. So they need internal motivation. Secondly, they need to play classical pieces on an instruments to understand them and the meaning transformed by the classical music language.I used to prevent myself from listening to a recording of a classical piece(online or on Youtube) before finishing it. That used to give me more motivation for finishing the piece, because the only way I had to enjoy the piece was to play it correctly. xxxx

Do you think about the audience when composing?

No. I just try to express myself! I usually trust my ears even if they hear wrong! If u think too much about audience u would lose the chance to experiment, search, feel free and go for new things.

What projects are coming up? Do you experiment in your projects?

There are a couple of solo piano projects. Some of them are rearranged for piano by my friends or other composers. Across the sea, Meteorite and Sky without Stars. Yeah! I am trying to include more classic and romantic language in my songs and that is what I am experimenting. Generally, I do not like to use the word `experiment` u would not experiment a new genre of music unless u really like it or for example I do not like to transpose my songs everyday and see what happens. I think that’s dull! Composition to me is a little different with cooking. U need to get connected to your work and definitely it should have a `chemistry` behind that could not happen whenever u want. U need to be lucky to get a `shot` of those moments.