-Do it again, but just look at --
you can look straight at the camera lens
and just say something like,
"This is -- this is punk rock."
-Okay, sure. -Or something like that.
Just announce it. -Another click?
-Uh, no, I got it. We're just gonna keep rolling
till we're synced up. And go ahead.
-This is punk rock.
♪♪
I grew up in Lynnwood and Edmonds,
like 20 minutes north of Seattle in the suburbs.
There was a lot of music, um...
I remember being obsessed with Raffi when I was a little kid.
You know, like the sing-alongs and nursery rhymes
and, uh, pretending to play guitar
and singing and stuff like that.
-♪ Beluga, is your mama home with you? ♪
♪ So happy ♪
-So I believe the medical term for what I was born with
is bilateral equinovarus talipes,
or otherwise known as clubfeet.
But basically the skeletal structure
and the muscular structure and the tendons,
ligaments and all that from the knees down are twisted.
And I had a bunch of surgeries before I was even one.
I was in casts.
And I managed to escape from those casts,
and the doctors called me Houdini Karimi,
which is kind of funny.
A lot of things came later in life for me,
you know, riding a bike or swimming
'cause I had another round of surgeries
when I was six years old,
so that's like first grade.
So I was missing a ton of school.
I was in the hospital
and, uh, in a wheelchair,
and I had to go through the process of relearning
how to walk.
I was held back in the physical world,
but I was -- I was developing up here in my mind,
and I have a big imagination
when I was a kid, and I was very creative.
So when I was ten years old,
my mom bought me a drum set for Christmas,
and it was probably still the coolest thing
that anyone's ever done for me.
♪♪
My mom and my jazz band teacher both
encouraged me to audition for Berklee College of Music
when I was a senior,
and I kind of begrudgingly did.
I was like, "Fine, I'll do it for you guys", you know?
So it was the only college I applied to,
and I got a full ride, a full tuition scholarship,
which was pretty amazing.
And it just kind of reinforced my, like,
drive that this was what I was supposed to do.
♪♪
So, you know, with drumming,
you're using all your limbs,
and lots of different things are happening at different times,
and you got to keep it all. in time.
For instance...
we'll start with the kick drum,
and then we'll add to it, so...
♪♪
When I got back home after Berklee,
I came back to Seattle and heard that
the Sea Monster was the place to go check out live music.
♪♪
I was hooked, and I was like, "I want to get into this scene.
I want to get to know these people."
One thing leads to another, and then eventually
there's an opportunity to do a tour.
♪♪
A friend of mine showed me a YouTube video.
And I'd never seen anything like this before.
This guy playing, like, this metal-looking,
UFO-looking thing that just sounded amazing.
♪♪
The Hang drum is a steel drum, essentially,
that you play with your hands rather than
with sticks or mallets.
The first one that I got the scale would be D, A,
B flat, C, D, E, F, A.
So, two octaves -- I think only six different notes.
With the Hang pan, it's like a less-is-more kind of thing,
and a lot of creativity can come from that.
♪♪
So the thing about this career
is that there are no guarantees ever.
And a lot of unexpected stuff tends to come up.
So, for example, this past summer
I had my whole summer planned, had it all booked,
you know, I manage myself, so I, you know, did all this booking,
and, um, had all my gigs lined up.
And then a really good friend of mine, Thaddeus Turner,
who I met at Sea Monster Lounge,
he's the musical director for Digable Planets.
He called me up and was just like, "Hey, do you want the gig?"
And...[laughs]...
And I was just like, "Um, yeah, that sounds awesome."
I didn't start playing drums to get rich and famous, you know?
The most important thing is to be happy no matter what.
♪♪
-Follow Ehssan on Instagram
and catch him live with his band, McTuff,
at the Fiddlers Inn on Thursday, November 21st.
♪♪
Catch Art Zone Friday nights at 8 and anytime online at seattlechannel.org/artzone