"Caterpillar" is a story told through conceptual dance and modern music, following a solo dancer's journey of metamorphosis from a dark place to becoming a butterfly.

Koosha Hakimi is an Iranian-American musician and composer known for his fresh and innovative approach to playing drums and piano, and composing story-telling music. He graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a Bachelor of Music Performance in Jazz Drums, where he studied with notable musicians. Koosha has been performing and teaching with local legends in San Diego, first with the Dapper Bandits and now as a solo artist under his own name. His unique style and creative vision make him a rising star in the music industry. 

‍

‍

"Caterpillar" is a music video that Koosha and I, my close friend, worked on together in April 2021. The video tells the story of a solo dancer's journey of metamorphosis from a dark place to becoming a butterfly, through conceptual dance and modern music. 

As we brainstormed ideas for the video, we faced the challenge of working within a limited Ultra-low budget, which restricted our ability to explore different worlds for the visuals.

Despite the challenges, we were determined to make our vision a reality and see the project through to completion. 

I always make sure to prioritize my collaborators' vision over my own when working together on a project.

It's essential to allow people to follow their own vision, even if I think my way is better.

The Caterpillar music video project was particularly challenging, as we had a great and solid plan for the shoot, but we faced several miscommunications and technical issues on set that limited us in post-production and caused us to work three times as hard to get as close as possible to our original vision. 

Working on this project with Koosha has been an incredible experience. It's amazing to see how far we've come from our college days when we were just two clueless kids dreaming up big ideas. Now, we're slightly less clueless adults who actually know how to make those ideas a reality. It's like we've unlocked a cheat code in life, except instead of infinite lives or money, we get the satisfaction of seeing our creative visions come to life, and that's just freaking cool. 

We couldn't have done it without the hard work and dedication of talented individuals like Samir Golshan and Carissa Songhorian. All in all, the Caterpillar music video project is a reminder that anything is possible with the right mindset and a willingness to put in the effort.

‍

Cheers,

Shahrooz

‍