Has anybody endured extra for metallic? In November 2015, Confess singer/guitarist Nikan Khosravi and DJ Arash Ilkhani have been jailed of their native Iran for making heavy music. The pair spent 18 months in jail, together with three in solitary confinement, earlier than getting out on bail and smuggling themselves overseas.
Reuniting and reactivating the band in Norway, Confess launched their third album, Revenge At All Prices, in 2022, chronicling their experiences. With follow-up Vacation spot Dependancy now on the earth, Nikan affords Hammer the teachings he’s picked up to this point.
Creativity by no means dies
“My dad was an accountant. However earlier than the Iranian Revolution, he labored within the style trade. I see him as one other model of me from many years in the past, born within the fallacious place and fallacious time. To supply for his household, he had to make use of his diploma and grow to be an accountant, however he was all the time making attire for my sister, for my mum, for anybody within the household. He was an enormous rock fan. When he was working from residence on the weekend, you’d all the time hear Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix or Tina Turner.”
“Steel felt very recent and really new after I first heard it. The very first thing I heard was Metallica’s Wherever I Might Roam, and that melody caught with me. A pair years later, a faculty pal gave me a CD with music by the massive bands from the early 2000s: Linkin Park, Slipknot, Korn, System Of A Down. One thing in that sound actually spoke to me.”
…However not everybody understands it
“Being a metalhead in Iran was fairly lonely. You’re probably not needed by the federal government, and folks don’t actually know what you might be. You want music that’s actually loud and aggressive, they usually don’t perceive it.”
Typically it’s a must to break up your character
“In Iran, we had, like, two completely different existence. One was with pals and the folks that have been on social media, and the opposite was the surface. You needed to observe the agenda and legal guidelines. It wasn’t simple to attach with different individuals [who liked what you liked], however you continue to knew you weren’t the one one. In highschool after which in college, I used to be rising up and will see, like, ‘OK, there are individuals on the market curious about the identical stuff that I’m.’”
By no means censor your self
“Confess by no means performed stay in Iran. You needed to get permits and we have been in opposition to that – you’d should censor your self and decrease the standard of your efficiency. It’s like a wolf: take its tooth out and it has nothing. Additionally, in so many instances, whether or not they had a allow or it was utterly underground, exhibits have been stopped mid-gig. Individuals have been arrested, or at the least taken to the station for a pair hours. It was discouraging.”
You don’t have to play by different individuals’s guidelines
“Confess by no means stopped. My character and mindset on the time was like, ‘That is my private journey and that is my voice.’ I felt, from the very starting, that that is my manner of talking with individuals on the market. It’s a bit like writing a letter, placing it in a bottle and simply throwing it on the market, hoping any person will learn it and perceive. I believe my curiosity overcame my worry one way or the other. The concept of me making use of to the principles that have been handed to me, that wasn’t one thing I might stay with.”
Belief your intestine feeling
“In 2014, I felt like my cellphone had been tapped. Each time I used to be speaking, I might hear a clicking sound within the background. In early 2015, I had this expertise of being stalked by somebody on the street. After just a few hours, I might nonetheless see this individual stalking me. I used to be with my girlfriend, I confronted this man, and he acted sort of loopy and took off. In that second, I used to be like, ‘One thing is about to occur.’”
It’s not paranoia in the event that they’re out to get you
“I knew I used to be being watched, however I carried on making music as a result of I used to be too courageous… or too silly. I don’t know! I had an goal, I knew what I used to be going for, and it didn’t matter who was standing in entrance of me. It wouldn’t have modified something. One in every of my interrogators in Evin jail advised me they’d been constructing a case in opposition to me for a yr and a half. Which means the entire thing began in 2013.”
Don’t let anybody offer you a false sense of safety
“Once I obtained arrested, my mum was residence. It was 8 or 9am, somebody rang the doorbell and he or she went downstairs. She got here to my bed room and her face had utterly modified. I obtained away from bed and noticed 10 individuals in the lounge. It was surreal! They confiscated my PC, devices, books, all the things. It took two or three hours, however I cooperated. I used to be like, ‘I don’t have something to be afraid of, I’m only a musician.’ I requested, ‘Ought to I’m going someplace with you guys?’ One in every of them mentioned, ‘For a couple of minutes, we gotta go someplace.’ My mum requested, ‘The place are you taking my son?’, they usually mentioned, ‘Evin jail.’ That was the second the place I used to be like, ‘OK, that is one thing manner greater [than I’d imagined].’”
Solitary confinement is torture
“I used to be in solitary confinement for 23 hours per day. You get half an hour for a cup of tea within the morning, with a blindfold. They blindfold you all the time you’re not in solitary. In the event you’re cooperative, you would possibly get one other half-hour round sundown, proper earlier than dinner.”
And it adjustments you endlessly
“Solitary marks you. You’ll by no means be the identical individual ever once more. I used to be by no means tortured bodily, but it surely tortures your soul. You’re residing day-by-day in worry and uncertainty. One man advised me they faked his execution 3 times. They took him out, put a noose round his neck, then left him standing on a chair for 45 minutes. They’d come again and say, ‘We’ll do it one other time.’”
![Confess - Slaughterhouse (feat. George Kollias) [Official Music Video] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/boEilBNMwcM/maxresdefault.jpg)
Don’t allow them to grind you down
“My bail was about $40,000, one other $40,000 for my bandmate. My dad and mom put their home as much as pay bail, however the jail wasn’t accepting it. They’d preserve saying, ‘The prosecutor is at a gathering’, ‘He’s not right here right now’, ‘He’s on trip.’ No matter! They saved suspending, and the explanation for that was they needed to destroy your character, your mentality, your loved ones. All the pieces you’ve got is on the road. It was a really troublesome, darkish time.”
Don’t be intimidated
“Round December [2016], we heard that bail had been accepted. Once we have been popping out of jail, the interrogator got here to the door and mentioned, ‘I simply needed to let you know, don’t inform anybody [about your experience] should you don’t need your case to grow to be worse.’ As quickly as I obtained out, I seemed again at this enormous entrance and thought, ‘I’m by no means coming again.’”
Know when to go away
“I went to courtroom they usually gave me a sentence of six years. My household was like, ‘It’s important to go away.’ I used to be smuggled to Turkey, as a result of my passport was taken and I used to be banned from travelling. I principally lived there on my own for 15, 16 months and, throughout this time, ICORN [International Cities Of Refuge Network] and Freemuse, these organisations who work with persecuted artists to maneuver them someplace protected, reached out. By that course of, I obtained an invite to return to Norway.”
Use the platform you’re given
“Some individuals right here in Norway take loads with no consideration. Artists have a lot and don’t know the way invaluable it’s. You see artists get so huge and don’t actually say something. There are numerous others who don’t get half the eye, however their music, artwork, films or no matter might change one thing for the higher.”
pal could make all of the distinction
“Arash [Ilkani] shared my expertise and sacrificed the identical as me to have the ability to pursue his goals. Being in Norway with him has a lot worth, I can’t put a worth on it. Everybody has that buddy that generally you don’t actually need to talk to, you simply want to take a look at them. It’s helped me loads in jail, after jail, after Iran. It helped me address numerous my ideas and helped me to maintain going. You don’t really feel utterly alone, as a result of you possibly can look over and see somebody who’s been by the identical factor, even when we don’t actually speak about it.”
Confess’ new album Vacation spot Dependancy is out now by way of Evin productions
