Meet the Writer: Padideh Aghanoury

Editor’s note: As part of CMN’s music journalism program, our music writers are profiling other team members, asking about how they got into music and what they see themselves doing in the future. You can read all the profiles here.

Writer, DJ and a surgeon with the strings, Padideh Aghanoury does it all.

With artists such as Simon and Garfunkel, Cat Stevens, and Pink Floyd in her father’s listening repertoire, Aghanoury was introduced to a litany of different music from a very young age. She not only cites her father as an important factor in shaping her love of music, but her brother and the rest of the family as well.

On her brother getting her into indie rock and electronic music: “One of my first memories of being in a music store, I was like seven and trying to buy a Black Eyed Peas CD and he literally took it out of my hand and said ‘you’re not buying this.'”

On her first concert: “My brothers and my mom piled into a car to see Guster play a free show in Vail, Colorado.”

Why so sad Adam?

Her friends also contributed to developing her wide-ranging taste that engulfs just about all genres — with the exception of top 40.

“Anything by Maroon 5 and I’m gonna break something,” Aghanoury says.

She cites Polvo, Swirlies and Built to Spill as her three favorite artists, and created her dream concert as an electronic show featuring Grimes (only the old stuff), Christian S. and Powell.

Not content with just being a listener, Padideh picked up a number of instruments from a young age.

Starting with the cello, Aghanoury also experimented with guitar, bass, piano, and most recently, DJ equipment. She also hosted a radio show through her university and has recently been getting acclimated with creating electronic music.

When she isn’t creating music, she’s writing about those who are.

In addition to being a part of CMN’s Music Journalism Program, she contributes to a music and culture site in her home state of Colorado. A huge fan of live music, she talked about how much she appreciates the opportunity to get into free shows from a plethora of different genres.

“It creates a challenge in terms of writing, how do I write about something I know nothing about? It forces me to dig deep into it and do some research and learn about this genre by talking to people at show to understand what this scene is.”

Outside of the research for the music writing she one day hopes to make a career of, her top genres at the moment are ambient and post punk. Aghanoury has been jamming a lot of Sonic Youth lately, and expressed how excited she was over the latest show she went to (Jerry Paper) for nothing except pure enjoyment.

Padideh has her eggs in a number of different baskets when it comes to music based careers, and there may be no limit to what this 23-year-old workaholic will accomplish in the industry.