Farhad Mehrad

Biography

Farhad Mehrad widely known in Iran as Farhad (1943 - 2002), was an Iranian musician, poet and politician. He rose to prominence among Iranian rock/folk musicians before the Islamic Revolution, but after the revolution he was banned from singing for several years. His first concert after 1978 was held in San Francisco in 1997. Farhad was born on 20th January 1944. His father was Reza Mehrad, an Iranian diplomat who worked in the Arabic countries for the Iranian ministry of foreign affairs. Being...

Farhad Mehrad widely known in Iran as Farhad (1943 - 2002), was an Iranian musician, poet and politician. He rose to prominence among Iranian rock/folk musicians before the Islamic Revolution, but after the revolution he was banned from singing for several years. His first concert after 1978 was held in San Francisco in 1997.

Farhad was born on 20th January 1944. His father was Reza Mehrad, an Iranian diplomat who worked in the Arabic countries for the Iranian ministry of foreign affairs. Being the youngest child he always behaved differently than his family members and everyone assumed he was trying to act like an adults.

When Farhad was three years of age his love for music was noticed when he stayed outside his brothers' room, listening to his Violin lessons. His family bought Farhad a Chello and he started taking lessons. After 3 lessons, his Chello broke and as Farhad describes "the instrument broke into pieces so did my soul". That was the end of the Chello for Farhad and his love and passion for music ended up to be only listening to his brother playing the Violin.

When he went to school he found a passion for literature. He decided to study literature in high school but with the absence of his father, his uncle forced him to study science despite his weak results on all other subjects other than literature and English language. His interest being ignored; he quit high school on the 11th year, because he had no love for what he was studying.

After quitting high school he met an Armenian music band, using their instruments he learnt music by experience and after a while he became the guitar player in the band. The band went to southern Iran to perform for the Iranian Oil Company Club. One of the biggest organizations in Iran with many foreign employees. Before the start of the first nights' performance, the band made Farhad sing, the excuse was the vocalists' absence. Farhads' great attention and fuss for correct pronunciation of the words, and his knowledge of world literature came as a good advantage; when he preformed a few songs in Italian, French and English, it was hard to believe his mother tongue was Farsi. That led to the band's success and they preformed for an extended number of nights.

After a while Farhad quit the band and started his solo career. In 1964 he performed a few English songs on an Iranian TV show, where he captured the attention of more people.

Later in an event sponsored by "EtelaÃt Javanan"; a popular youth magazine, he preformed in "Amjadie" Stadium. He played a few songs with the guitar which was followed by a huge crowd response. That was when "Shahbal Shabpareh" , the front man of the Iranian popular band "Black Cats" found out about Farhad.

Sometime later Shahbal and Farhad met and Farhad joined the Black Cats as a vocalist, the guitar player and the piano player. The Black Cats members were Shahbal Shabpareh (the percussions) "Shahram Shabpareh" (the Guitar) "Hasan Shamaeezadeh" (the saxophone) "Hamou" (the Guitar) and "Manouchehr Eslami" (the trumpet). The band started playing in "Couchini Club".

Manouchehr Eslami called Farhad the most important member of the band; "Despite the fact he couldn't read music sheets and had learnt the music by listening and playing by experience, Farhad did not need to attend the practice sessions. By whispering the song a few times he could cooperate his voice and instrument with the other band members. In fact he attended the sessions only for the respect of other band members" said Eslami.

In the busiest and most successful time of the band, the first Farsi song of Farhad, called "Agar Yek Javshenas Dashtim" (if we had a weather predictor) was used in the movie "Banooye Zibaye Man" (my beautiful lady).

After a while Farhad left the Black Cats to take care of his sick sister in England. Farhad met a famous producer and he was offered a record deal by him. Farhad became ill and due to his illness and personal problems the deal never took place. The journey which was supposed to last for two months, took one year.

In 1969 Farhad sang "Marde Tanha" (a lonely man) for the movie "Reza Motori" (The Biker Reza). The song was composed by "Esfandyar Monfaredzadeh" and the lyrics where written by "Shahyar Ghanbari". After the release of the movie, the song was released on gramophone discs and Farhad became a legendary star.

Farhad only sang songs which had a message and he believed in their messages. That's why after Marde Tanha he only released 3 singles during the years of 1971-1973. Those where "Jomeh" (the Friday) "Hafteye Khahestary" (the gray week) and "Ayeneha" (the mirrors).

Before the Iranian 1979 Islamic Revolution and during the political conflicts of the 1970s in Iran, Farhad recorded 6 songs with revolutionary massages that became the Iranians voice of unity.

The day after the Iranian revolution, 11th of February 1979, his song "Vahdat" (unity) was broadcasted from Iranian television[1] in the honour of revolution and freedom.

After revolution, the Islamic government turned its back on Farhad and refused to grant him permission to publish his album many times. Even the song "Vahdat" -which was considered a song in honer of the revolution- was refused permission to be released, the government's reason was the song is nothing new; but the fact was the Islamic Government was concerned about his popularity and his influence on people. The government wanted Farhad to be forgotten

In 1993, after 15 years of silence, Farhad was granted permission to release his first album "Khab Dar Bidari" (sleep while awake) and it went straight to the top of the charts just after its release.

After this album Farhad lost hope in the Iranian governments' grant of permission system and he released his next album "Barf" (snow) in the United States in 1999. Barf was released in Iran a year later.

After barf Farhad decided to record an album with songs from different countries and in different languages. He decided to call the album "Amin" (Amen) he started recording; but death stopped him from finishing it.

On September 2000, Farhad's illness became serious and on the 31st of August 2002, after 2 years of treatment in Iran and France, he died in Paris.

Farhad was 59 years of age when he died; he is resting in peace in the Thiais cemetery in Paris.
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