Our Community: Conversation with Dan Rein

Dan Rein is a musician, poet, radio host, and community member who has become a member of the Iranian musical community. He shared with us pieces of his journey, the significance of Iranian culture and it’s many facets to him, and how much he has learned from being a part of the artistic community in the Twin Cities.

Tell me about your work.

For the last 27, 28 years, I’ve played Iranian music. Part of that came about through a radio show through KFAI which I’ve done for 33 years. Through radio, I met an Iranian musician and began studying music and classical Iranian music. As you know, Iran gets a bad name in the American press. If you knew Iranians.... The Iranians are the kindest, generous people. You go to Iran and I am embarrassed of the hospitality of these people— they bend over backwards. [Iranian culture] is so multifaceted. Like everything I get into, I learn about people through music. Same thing with radio. You learn about the music, culture, the food, it’s not just one thing.

What instruments do you play?

I started out on the Iranian setar. It only has four strings. “Set” actually means three and it originally had three strings, and the neckface is only an inch wide. You pick with the fingernail on your index finger. So that’s where I started with classical Iranian music, and then along the way I started playing a two-string instrument that has a history of 7,000 years. I ended up learning a Kurdish instrument that originally had two strings and now it has three. That one is actually a mystic instrument. It’s considered a sacred instrument to the Kurds. I even tried the sitar from India, but now I’ve been doing this Iranian music but I used to play guitar, so I just kept following and going down this path.

What about Iranian music resonated with you so strongly?

Western music is based so much on chords and melody. Iranian music you’re mostly playing melody, and with that comes with rhythm, all kinds of various rhythm. A lot of Iranian music, especially classical, there is a way of playing it may seem like there is no rhythm but it can be just as structured as a rhythmic thing, it [just] may seem to be meandering. I like to think of it as if you’ve ever watched a hawk fly on a windy day? They ride the wind currents. They ride the rhythm of the wind. And there’s no rhyme or reason, you can’t count it out, but there is.

In Western music you have the happy mode and the sad mode, the major and minor, and you have variants on that. Well, Iranians have 12 modes, what I call moods, or feelings. And it’s gotten to the point where I feel so comfortable and it seems so natural a way for me to express it in these modes, which are just groups of notes that create a feeling. Within that, I can go from mode and mode, once you know the structures and the doorways and how to play with it. I feel like it’s given me a way to express things that I cannot express in Western music. And there are notes that are not in the Western scale.

Do you write poetry as well?

I do. I used to write a lot, but then when I got involved in Iranian music, I wasn’t writing as much. But in the last four-five years, I started writing poetry. Some of the early ones were influenced by the poet Omar Khayyam. Eat My Words carries a recent translation a friend and I did. Now, I write my own poetry, sometimes I use Khayyam with it, sometimes I don’t. But now I’m writing a biography of my musical journey. It’s poetic stories — I’m doing it more in a poetry form, but they’re really just stories. Certain things that changed how I think. A big part of it is that I didn’t get here alone. There are so many people I have learned from, who have helped me, who taught me, who shared things. So I am in the process of writing that. And right now I figure I am close to about 80 poems into it.

Why choose poems to tell your story?

I realized that some of my favorite books are where writers’ would write just short things. Sometimes they were poetic and sometimes not. And it partly came from a friend asking me to write something on Iranian music. And I don’t want to do just a book, I want everyone to understand what I’m saying. So I’m avoiding most technical things, I’m talking in poetic language which most people will be able to grasp. And it comes from a couple of books that influenced me, like this one from a Japanese writer who I think called it “A Fool’s Life”. And then there was this Polish writer who I just liked the form he used, I wasn’t necessarily in love with his style, it was too heady it was too intellectual, but I loved what he was doing with a short form. And I’ve written things in this sort of short-form before, but I’m covering 50 or 60 years. The Western part is a lot shorter than the Iranian part. Because that’s the interesting part, ya know.

How has Iranian culture and philosophy changed your perspective?

It’s changed how I think about life.

I started putting Omer Khayyam to music because I saw that classical Iranian singers only sang it occasionally. But the two string instrument I had was from Khayyam’s home region, so I thought this is what he would have heard! So I started doing it in the style. And at first I only sang it in Farsi. But then I jokingly one day did it in English… and my wife started laughing and said “That just might have worked.” So I started working with a friend, and we’d been doing sort of translations before. I’ve been working with Khayyam for 18 years and I’m still not done.

Khayyam… his philosophy is almost zen-like. It’s nothing new. It’s in four lines; he’s basically saying you only have this moment. Enjoy it. The past is gone. Tomorrow’s not here. Don’t worry about it. Of course, he’s talking about getting drunk. And you don’t need alcohol to be drunk. He’s talking about being drunk on the moment. He’s talking about being drunk with your friends, whoever you’re with. Even if it’s not a good moment, are you enjoying it? Are you living it? Sort of the simple answer in Iranian poetry, it took me years to understand. If you’ve ever been around someone who has their own culture… I’ve been lucky enough to share their ideas and their insights. You never really have the whole grasp on it and there’s always more.

Dan Rein’s translations and his recordings can be found at Eat My Words Bookstore. We also have a wide range of Sufi poets and writings available.