‘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
Entertainment
New Universal theme park set to open in UK – with promise of ‘billions’ of pounds for the economy
A deal for a new Universal theme park in Bedfordshire has been confirmed, which Rachel Reeves says will bring “billions” to the economy and create thousands of jobs.
It will be the first Universal-branded theme park and resort in Europe and is set to open in 2031, when it is expected to become the UK’s most popular visitor attraction.
The government said it will bring an estimated £50bn into the British economy and will create about 28,000 jobs – nearly 20,000 during the construction phase, and 8,000 more in hospitality and the creative industries when it opens.
A 500-room hotel and a retail and entertainment complex is planned alongside the theme park, which will be built on a former brickworks.
Universal, which is owned by Sky News’ US parent company Comcast, expects the 476-acre site just south of Bedford to generate nearly £50bn for the economy by 2055, with 8.5m visitors in its first year.
The plan remains subject to a formal planning decision process from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Universal has committed to working with local colleges and universities to train students for hospitality jobs.
There are Universal theme parks in Florida (pictured), California, Japan, Beijing and Singapore. Pic: AP
Among some of the famous Universal films are Wicked, Minions, Oppenheimer, Bridget Jones, Fast and the Furious, and Jurassic World.
There are five Universal theme parks already: Orlando in Florida, Hollywood, Japan, Beijing, and Singapore.
The new Universal theme park will be just south of Bedford
Speaking to Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the deal was “huge”.
“This is not just about numbers on the spreadsheet,” she said.
“This is about good jobs. It’s about growth. It’s about raising people’s living standards and putting money in people’s pockets. And it’s a massive vote of confidence in the United Kingdom.”
Welcoming the timing of the announcement, Ms Nandy added: “This deal comes off the back of one of the most tumultuous few weeks in global markets that I think anyone can remember within living memory.”
She said the fact that the government had been able to show it kept a “cool head” and “we don’t take knee-jerk decisions in response to global events” was one of the reasons it was able to announce the deal.
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The proposals to transform the site, a former brickworks, remain subject to a formal planning decision process
The government has said about 80% of employees at the theme park are expected to come from local areas, and it will support the “Oxford-Cambridge corridor” revived by the chancellor in January after the Conservatives scrapped plans for an Abingdon-Milton Keynes train link in 2021.
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It will also commit to a “major investment” in infrastructure around the Universal site to ensure it is well-connected and easily accessible.
The announcement comes days after the government approved an expansion of nearby Luton Airport.
Mike Cavanagh, President of Comcast Corporation, said: “We could not be more excited to take this very important step in our plan to create and deliver an incredible Universal theme park and resort in the heart of the United Kingdom, which complements our growing US-based parks business by expanding our global footprint to Europe.
“We appreciate the leadership and support of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Minister for Investment Poppy Gustafsson, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and their teams, as we work together to create and deliver a fantastic new landmark destination.”
Entertainment
BAFTA Games Awards: Astro Bot tops leaderboard – with psychological horror close behind
Astro Bot was the big winner at this year’s BAFTA Games Awards, taking home five prizes, including the coveted best game.
The 3D platformer, which was launched to critical acclaim in September to mark PlayStation’s 30th anniversary, was nominated for eight gongs, while Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, led with 11 nods.
But in the end, the critics – some of whom had dubbed Astro Bot a “perfect game” – were right as it dominated the awards at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, hosted by comedian Phil Wang for the second year running.
Astro Bot. Pic: Team Asobi
Nicolas Doucet with his five awards for Astro Bot. Pic: PA
BAFTAs for audio achievement, game design, animation, and best family game completed the set for developers Team Asobi, who designed multiple galaxies and dozens of levels for the titular Astro to journey through, retrieving spaceship parts and rescuing lost robots.
“We’re a team based in Japan, but we have over 12 nationalities. We really mix it up and get ideas from everyone,” Nicolas Doucet, president of Team Asobi, told Sky News.
“We do a lot of jokes in the game, but the joke has a different meaning depending on where you are in the world. So it’s really, really nice to go around and ask everyone ‘is that joke fine in your country?’ And then together we come to a kind of universal playfulness.”
Among the gongs for Astro Bot was the best game award. Pic: BAFTA
It’s a very different atmosphere than that generated by British psychological horror Still Wakes The Deep, which won three awards for best new intellectual property and best supporting and leading roles.
Compared to John Carpenter’s 1980 sci-fi horror The Thing but on a Scottish oil rig, the game sees players take on the role of an electrician trapped on a damaged facility while being pursued by monsters.
Still Wakes The Deep. Pic: Sumo Digital Limited
Developer The Chinese Room has been praised for using home-grown talent to voice the characters, including comedian and actress Karen Dunbar, who picked up best performer in a supporting role for voicing Finlay.
“I’ve been nominated for quite a few BAFTAs in my time in Scotland, and I’ve never won one,” said Dunbar.
“It was such a great category, so many great performances. When they shouted my name, I think I started clapping for someone else!”
Read more: See full list of winners
Still Wakes The Deep star Karen Dunbar won best performer in a supporting role. Pic: BAFTA
Meanwhile, best multiplayer game went to Helldivers II – a satirical, sci-fi shooter that sees players fight bugs, aliens and robots with the gumption and gullibility of the characters in Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers.
It has gained a cult following since launching in February 2024 with so much initial interest it created server problems.
“Games for me are about connecting people and forging those bonds of friendship and the multiplayer award is exactly what it stands for,” said Johan Pilestedt, chief executive of Arrowhead Game Studios.
Helldivers II. Pic: Arrowhead/Sony
From outer space to a fictional Yorkshire town called Barnsworth. Thank Goodness You’re Here! – a cartoonish, comedy platformer – won Best British Game. Like Still Wakes The Deep, it has won praise for the authenticity of its actors and setting.
“I think it’s been a real privilege to be able to represent Barnsley on the silver screen,” said Will Todd, who is from the town and one of two game designers behind the project.
Thank Goodness You’re Here! Pic: Coal Supper/Panic Inc
Co-creator James Carbutt added: “Me and Will wrote everything in our tone of voice, quite literally. The further along development we got, the more we lent into it. I think the voices from different parts of the UK and different voices in gaming are super important, and hopefully we’re one of them.”
By the time the BAFTAs wrapped up, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II was only handed one of the 11 BAFTAs it was nominated for, technical achievement.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. Pic: Ninja Theory
But developers Ninja Theory are already adding this year’s win to a tally of five BAFTAs they were awarded for the first game in the series, which created a protagonist with psychosis by drawing on clinical neuroscience and the experiences of people living with the condition.
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