Amir Khostavan is an Iranian-American musician and composer based in Northern California.
Hello internet. Here’s a quick bio :)
I started playing the piano at two-years-old, and wrote my first song, entitled "Royaa" (“Dream” in Farsi), at the age of six. That song then got recorded and released through an Iranian major label (Caltex Records) at nine.
From there, I dabbled in a number of musical styles, including new age and contemporary instrumental, but I fell in love with rock music when MTV was playing “November Rain” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on heavy rotation. I picked up a guitar and started writing.
I’ve been lucky enough to have opportunities to perform with numerous artists around the world, and to play in bands that had a small amount of success here and there. In high school, my band “Ignition” got to open for Sugar Ray in front of 4,000 people. It’s a core memory I won’t ever forget. Side note: Mark McGrath and the rest of the band were really nice to us, when they didn’t need to be. Thanks, Mark!
Later in my career, I was a regular keyboardist for the band “The Stereophones” and we got to open for Smash Mouth at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz.
I’ve also toured with Bijan Mortazavi, a world-reknowed Violinst and singer, and performed throughout California with my own mom, who’s a phenomenal singer and has song great albums you can stream right now.
In 2016, I released my first full-length instrumental album entitled XVII, followed by XVII Vol 2. in 2018. I then followed that up with Ghestmat, released in 2021 which included the singles "Block Party", "Ghesmat", "Breathe" and the mini-documentary, "Phoenix."
Somewhere in the 2010s, I recorded a cover of the Smashing Pumpkins song, “Cupid De Locke” from their album “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” and entered it into a Smashing Pumpkins cover song contest, judged by Billy Corgan. I got 2nd place in that contest, which just meant that Billy heard my track and liked it, which was all I cared about.
In 2018, I started the band “Racket City” and proceeded to write and record the album “Baggage”. Racket City won the 2018 Battle of the Band’s contest held at San Jose State University, and released two singles, “Ladies and Gentlemen” and “The Movie Life”.
Check out “Block Party”
Block Party is the debut single from Amir’s sophomore piano-instrumental album, Ghesmat. The song features middle-eastern stylings with a hard rock vibe, and Amir’s signature piano stylings. The music video was filmed by Ross Mehan and Laurence Simmonds, and was produced and edited by Amir Khostavan.