‘They can jail me again. My music will not stop’: The musician risking it all to release his album
For more than nine months, musician and composer Mehdi Rajabian kept himself hidden away in an underground room in Sari, northern Iran, working to create his latest album undercover.
While many artists will tell you they pour blood, sweat and tears into their art, this is much more than just a throwaway phrase for Rajabian.
He has already served more than two years in prison for making music the Iranian authorities did not agree with, including a period of solitary confinement and a hunger strike, but is undeterred – despite the very real threat of more jail time. No power, he says, can stop the “freedom and thought of music”.
Rajabian has collaborated online with singers and musicians from around the world to make the record. Pic: Barg Music
So despite his limitations and the danger he faces in a country where art is heavily censored, the 31-year-old recorded his second album, Coup Of Gods, in a secret basement, patiently dealing with the challenges of keeping hidden, plus low-speed internet, to connect with other musicians from all over the world.
The album includes tracks featuring an orchestra from Brazil, and singers and musicians from everywhere from the US to Italy to Russia. It has been mastered by record producer and songwriter Harvey Mason Jr, who has worked on tracks by stars including Beyonce, Britney Spears, John Legend and Justin Timberlake, and became chief executive of the Recording Academy (which runs the Grammy Awards) earlier in 2021.
Rajabian approached Mason on email and the Grammys boss tells Sky News he was at first “blown away by his story” but ultimately the music had to be good enough. “For me it all came down to what came out of the speakers,” he says. “The music was beautiful, compelling and so well done. In my mind, it is true art.”
Rajabian, also corresponding with Sky News over email, says he is proud of the album and thinks it has “come out really strong”, despite “all the complications” he has had to overcome.
“In Iran, women can’t sing and it’s prohibited,” he says. “Even I got arrested a few months back for finishing an album having female voices. Prison and prohibition have caused Iranian artists to be afraid to be in my album.”
Rajabian is all too aware of the horrors he could face should he be jailed again. In 2013, he spent three months in solitary confinement for propaganda against the state. Solitary confinement “kills the human soul,” he says. “You are no longer a normal human being afterwards.”
Producer and songwriter Harvey Mason Jr, who is releasing the album through his label, says he believes it is “true art”. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
From 2015, following what Amnesty International described as a “blatantly unfair” trial, he served two years in prison until he was released after a 40-day hunger strike. “Solitary kills the soul and the hunger strike kills the body”, he says, describing it as “like eating your own flesh” because of the damage inflicted. “I lost 15kg of weight and 40% of my vision.”
The musician was arrested again in 2020, for his first album and for working with female dancers and singers, and again, he says, because of his new album earlier this year. He is currently in the midst of a three-year suspended sentence, which could be activated at any time.
Rajabian spent his time behind bars at Iran’s notorious Evin Prison. “It can be said that it is one of the most horrible prisons in the world,” he says. “I spent several months in a Somali pirate cell as a punishment. Prison is a difficult place to live, but what matters is how much you believe in your own thought and philosophy of work; the more you believe, the easier it is for you to overcome difficulties.”
After his arrest, his office was closed and his recordings and hard drives seized. He spent his “whole life” while making the album in his underground room, alone. But he is determined.
“A few months back, I was arrested by the Iranian regime,” he says. “Handcuffed in a court, they asked to seize the project, and [ordered me to] stop making music. But I stated to the judge that even if this means I’m going back to jail, I’ll get my work done. I do not think about the consequences of producing a work of art and I am ready for any consequences. They can imprison me again. I [will] also write music in prison, as I wrote before. Music will not stop under any circumstances.”
The hunger strike left Rajabian with incredibly swollen joints, meaning he can no longer play an instrument himself. So he composed and arranged the album working alongside collaborators including US singers Lizzy O’Very and Aubrey Johnson and musicians such as violinists Yury Revich and Emmanuele Baldini, cellist Rafael Cesario, duduk player Soroosh Nematollahi and sarangi player Vanraj Shastri. His underground room has now been cleared, to remove all trace of his work, and the album is ready to go.
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A teaser for Iranian composer Mehdi Rajabian’s new record, Coup Of Gods.
The first track, Whip On A Lifeless Body, is his most personal. “This piece is the narrator of a human body that no longer has a physical presence,” he says. “The feeling is for the time when I was on a hunger strike, between earth and sky, between life and death, between the living and the dead… on the 29th day of the hunger strike, I opened my eyes that morning and I did not know whether I was alive or dead, on earth or in heaven. I was in a trance. It was a strange feeling.”
Making music, or the type of music Rajabian wants to make, is clearly a dangerous business in Iran. Many would ask why he continues. “Forbidding music for me means sewing my lips,” he says. “I cannot be silent. In the time of oppression, silence means betrayal. Prohibition of art means prohibition of truth and suppression of consciousness. So I have to believe in the freedom of music, even if I go to prison again for it.”
The release comes just weeks after the Taliban’s takeover of bordering Afghanistan, where concerns have been raised for musicians and artists and how their work may be censored. Rajabian says he knows too well the mentality of the country’s new rulers.
“There is only one question for me: how can we as artists express our pain to the world with the language of art, when these kind of painful images are sent to the world from Iran and Afghanistan? As artists, our work has become difficult, because feelings, sadness, surprise and pain are no longer effective.
“The world is no longer amazed by any sound or image; humanity has seen everything that exists. That is why humanity is moving towards fun and entertainment with art. Philosophical, protest and poetic art no longer has a place. Humanity shuns philosophical and painful art because humanity wants to get away from these pains. And that makes it difficult for us.”
Rajabian says that despite everything, hope keeps him alive, “even though I know we have a difficult future ahead of us”.
He continues: “After every darkness there is a light. Finally, I am optimistic about the future.”
Coup Of Gods by Mehdi Rajabian will be released on streaming platforms by Mason’s label Hundredup on 17 September
Despite The Who’s Quadrophenia being set over 60 years ago, Pete Townshend’s themes of identity, mental health, and modern masculinity are just as relevant today.
The album is having a renaissance as Pete Townshend’s Quadrophenia A Mod ballet is being brought to life via dance at Sadler’s Wells East, and Sky News has an exclusive first look.
As Townshend puts it, the album he wrote is “perfect” for the stage.
Pete Townshend
“My wife Rachel did the orchestration for me, and as soon as I heard it I said to her it would make a fabulous ballet and we never really let that go,” he tells Sky News.
“Heavy percussion, concussive sequences. They’re explosive moments. They’re also romantic movement moments.”
If you identify with the demographics of Millennial, Gen Y or Gen Z, you might not be familiar with The Who and Mod culture.
But in post-war Britain the Mods were a cultural phenomenon characterised by fashion, music, and of course, scooters. The young rebels were seen as a counter-culture to the establishment and The Who, with Roger Daltry’s lead vocals and Pete Townshend’s writing, were the soundtrack.
Quadrophenia the album is widely regarded as an essay on the British adolescent experience at the time, focusing on the life of fictional protagonist Jimmy – a young Mod struggling with his sanity, self-doubt, and alienation.
Townshend sets the rock opera in 1965 but thinks its themes of identity, mental health, and modern masculinity are just as relevant today.
He says: “The phobias and the restrictions and the unwritten laws about how young men should behave. The ground that they broke, that we broke because I was a part of it.
“Men were letting go of [the] wartime-related, uniform-related stance that if I wear this kind of outfit it makes me look like a man.”
Paris Fitzpatrick and Pete Townshend. Pic: Johan Persson
This struggle of modern masculinity and identity appears to be echoing today as manosphere influencers like Andrew Tate, incel culture, and Netflix’s Adolescence make headlines.
For dancer Paris Fitzpatrick, who takes on the lead role of Jimmy, the story resonates.
Paris Fitzpatrick, who takes on the lead role of Jimmy in the ballet
“I think there’s a connection massively and I think there may even be a little more revival in some way,” he tells Sky News.
“I love that myself. I love non-conforming to gender norms and typical masculinity; I think it’s great to challenge things.”
Despite the album being written before he was born, the dancer says he was familiar with the genre already.
“I actually did an art GCSE project about Mods and rockers and Quadrophenia,” he says.
“I think we’ll be able to bring it to new audiences and hopefully, maybe people will be inspired to to learn more about their music and the whole cultural movement of the early 60s.”
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In 1979, the album was adapted into a film directed by Franc Roddam starring Ray Winstone and Sting but Townshend admits because the film missed key points he is “not a big fan”.
“What it turned out to be in the movie was a story about culture, about social scenario and less about really the specifics of mental illness and how that affects young people,” he adds, also complimenting Roddam’s writing for the film.
Perhaps a testament to Pete Townshend’s creativity, Quadrophenia started as an album, was successfully adapted to film and now it will hit the stage as a contemporary ballet.
It appears that over six decades later Mod culture is still cool and their issues still relatable.
Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet will tour to Plymouth Theatre Royal from 28 May to 1 June 2025, Edinburgh Festival Theatre from 10 to 14 June 2025 and the Mayflower, Southampton from 18 to 21 June 2025 before having its official opening at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London on 24 June running to 13 July 2025 and then visiting The Lowry, Salford from 15 to 19 July 2025.
Russell Brand has been charged with rape and two counts of sexual assault between 1999 and 2005.
The Metropolitan Police say the 50-year-old comedian, actor and author has also been charged with one count of oral rape and one count of indecent assault.
The charges relate to four women.
He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday 2 May.
Police have said Brand is accused of raping a woman in the Bournemouth area in 1999 and indecently assaulting a woman in the Westminster area of London in 2001.
He is also accused of orally raping and sexually assaulting a woman in Westminster in 2004.
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Ashna Hurynag discusses Russell Brand’s charges
The fourth charge alleges that a woman was sexually assaulted in Westminster between 2004 and 2005.
Police began investigating Brand, from Oxfordshire, in September 2023 after receiving a number of allegations.
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The comedian has denied the accusations and said he has “never engaged in non-consensual activity”.
He added in a video on X: “Of course, I am now going to have the opportunity to defend these charges in court, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.”
Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy, who is leading the investigation, said: “The women who have made reports continue to receive support from specially trained officers.
“The Met’s investigation remains open and detectives ask anyone who has been affected by this case, or anyone who has any information, to come forward and speak with police.”
Tom Cruise has paid tribute to Val Kilmer, wishing his Top Gun co-star “well on the next journey”.
Cruise, speaking at the CinemaCon film event in Las Vegas on Thursday, asked for a moment’s silence to reflect on the “wonderful” times shared with the star, whom he called a “dear friend”.
Kilmer, who died of pneumonia on Tuesday aged 65, rocketed to fame starring alongside Cruise in the 1986 blockbuster Top Gun, playing Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky, a rival fighter pilot to Cruise’s character Maverick.
Tom Cruise said ‘I wish you well on the next journey’. Pic: AP
Val Kilmer in 2017. Pic: AP
His last part was a cameo role in the 2022 blockbuster sequel Top Gun: Maverick.
Cruise, on stage at Caesars Palace on Thursday, said: “I’d like to honour a dear friend of mine, Val Kilmer. I can’t tell you how much I admire his work, how grateful and honoured I was when he joined Top Gun and came back later for Top Gun: Maverick.
“I think it would be really nice if we could have a moment together because he loved movies and he gave a lot to all of us. Just kind of think about all the wonderful times that we had with him.
“I wish you well on the next journey.”
The moment of silence followed a string of tributes from Hollywood figures including Cher, Francis Ford Coppola, Antonio Banderas and Michelle Monaghan.
Kilmer’s daughter Mercedes told the New York Times on Wednesday that the actor had died from pneumonia.
Tom Cruise at Caesars Palace on Thursday. Pic: AP
Diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, Kilmer discussed his illness and recovery in his 2020 memoir Your Huckleberry and Amazon Prime documentary Val.
He underwent radiation and chemotherapy treatments for the disease and also had a tracheostomy which damaged his vocal cords and permanently gave him a raspy speaking voice.
Kilmer played Batman in the 1995 film Batman Forever and received critical acclaim for his portrayal of rock singer Jim Morrison in the 1991 movie The Doors.
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He also starred in True Romance and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, as well as playing criminal Chris Shiherlis in Michael Mann’s 1995 movie Heat and Doc Holliday in the 1993 film Tombstone.
In 1988 he married British actress Joanne Whalley, whom he met while working on fantasy adventure Willow.
The couple had two children before divorcing in 1996.
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