"Kiosk" Arrives with Its Ninth Album; "Stereo Tal"

The Iranian rock band Kiosk may not need an introduction after nearly eleven to twelve years of continuous activity. Especially since over these years, they have released eight albums, which is not an easy task in the prevailing music scene. Ibrahim Nabavi has also published a book titled "Kiosk" from a series of conversations with Arash Sobhani, the composer, singer, and lyricist of this group, which introduces the band better than before. Kiosk is considered one of the most active and prominent music groups in Iran and has released a new album every year since 2010. They are currently preparing to deliver their latest and ninth album to their fans, which is the best excuse for us to sit down once again with Arash Sobhani and hear more about this album, which seems to have significant differences in some sections compared to the other works of this group. Arash Sobhani, thank you for accepting our invitation during these busy days. We are all waiting to hear about the new album. The songs, as we have heard, are created based on a different story. I appreciate you inviting me to your program. This latest album is different in terms of its formation and structure compared to previous ones, and I am curious to see how the audience reacts to an album like this. Especially since the album format is generally being set aside, and more singles are being produced than albums. The motivation within Kiosk is interesting. First of all, it is rare to see an Iranian band that can work together for consecutive years and release nine albums or at least one new album each year. This is interesting in itself, and I wonder why you still adhere to this traditional system of album release or why the group is committed to it? I think more than anything, apart from our traditional background, we are talking about rock music. For each of us, when we start creating a work, it is a period or season of our lives that we want to have a clear beginning and end, and we define these in an album. It is like the difference between writing a blog and writing a novel. Although writing novels is gradually becoming obsolete, it captures a certain mood and period, and I think this does the same, capturing a period rather than a moment. In the days leading up to the release of our ninth album, which we are also discussing the name of, you published an image on your Facebook page about the atmosphere the group experienced for the works of this album, and I think two members are missing from this image. I see Ardalan Payvar, Mohammad Talani, Ali Kamali, and yourself. However, Tara Kamangar and Shahrooz Molaei, the drummer, are not in this picture. Did you not collaborate with them on this album? No, it was planned beforehand that Shahrooz Molaei would not be in the album. He was also not in the previous album. For almost a year or two, due to personal commitments, he could not spend time with the group as he wished, whether in rehearsals, recordings, or concerts. He apologized, and we agreed that he could return whenever he wanted. Tara Kamangar also wanted to work on the piano for about a year and a half. You know that Tara is a professional pianist, and playing the violin in Kiosk was actually a pastime for her. She felt it was taking too much of her time, and she had to give up composing on the piano and performing it, spending more time with Kiosk in concerts and album recordings. So, we thought that if she is not there, it would put less pressure on her, and she is gradually going to retire from Kiosk until she feels she has more time. The name of the new album is "Stereo Tal." As you mentioned, Tara was not with you in creating the pieces of this album. I think Tara's absence, in addition to the enjoyment of her musicianship and the impact she had on your works, has brought you closer to the Kiosk atmosphere that had been changing for several years. Some of the songs remind one of Kiosk's older songs when the sound of the violin, which occasionally added influences from Romani music to your works, is not present. First, tell us about the name of this album, where it came from, and if there is a story behind it, we would love to hear it from you. Stereo Tal was an organization that distributed unauthorized music in Iran during the 60s and 70s. What they did was to bring world music into Iran through various tricks when there were no satellites and the internet, and shortwave radios were much fewer. They filled cassettes and delivered them to music lovers. There were several organizations like this, but I think Stereo Tal was the most prominent and organized among them. I believe the duration of their activity was the longest until someone from the committee and the IRGC arrested the person who ran this organization, shut it down, and burned the archive, doing what they do. The overall story of this organization seems very familiar in terms of the artistic fate of Iranians. But the nuances and details in running this organization and the relationship we had in that period when we were growing up, we used this archive and saved our pocket money to buy the latest cassettes to see what was happening in the world. This is the story behind the album. In fact, the album narrates the story of Kamran Malat, who led this organization, from the time he started until he was arrested and the organization was shut down. He was imprisoned. This character, Kamran Malat, is still alive, and did your acquaintance with him in any way inspire you to think about writing such pieces for such an album? Tell us about your acquaintance. They would give the list to someone they trusted in each neighborhood, and that person would distribute the list among the kids, and we would mark the albums we wanted. We would pay the money, and the following week the cassette would be delivered neatly with a cover and typed. Yes, Kamran is now in Germany, and a couple of years ago, I was reflecting on those who directly and indirectly influenced our music and shaped our musical taste. Kamran is one of those important figures. I had only seen Kamran once because of the nature of his underground work; he had to keep a low profile. There were a few people who had the Stereo Tal list, and I think because of Kamran's admiration for the band Jethro Tull, he named the organization Stereo Tal. They would give the list to someone they trusted in each neighborhood, and that person would distribute the list among the kids, and we would mark the albums we wanted. We would pay the money, and the following week the cassette would be delivered neatly with a cover and typed. There were no printers or computers at that time. He had typed everything and organized it very neatly. I had become very curious to meet him because the list he had was very attractive, and the money we had was always limited. Once he agreed to meet me in person and gave me some advice on what to listen to and what not to listen to improve my musical taste. This was my only close encounter. But a couple of years ago, I wrote on Facebook in New York asking if anyone had news of Kamran. After the internet and satellite came, we lost track of him to see what happened to him. Someone who knew him connected us, and I asked what happened to this organization, and then he started telling the story, and I realized it was really something like "Schindler's List" in music. This tireless and devoted effort that Kamran made to deliver music to Iranian kids over the years. I think it has not been without impact. Kamran, by introducing some bands, certainly influenced your musical taste. I am sure he recommended a lot of Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler to you! In previous interviews, you have talked more about the influences you received from Knopfler and Dire Straits. I think many of your fans know that a lot of your works are directly influenced by Knopfler's works. On the poster you released for the new album, it is interesting that now that you explain, it becomes more understandable. There is a space from Tehran, there is Milad Tower, Azadi Tower, and the music groups that you may consider the most important from that period, from Metallica to Samantha Fox to Bon Jovi to Dire Straits and Modern Talking. When I received the album, I was thinking that perhaps in a way, each song might be influenced by one of these groups, especially because the first song is very different from the other works of Kiosk. I mean, the keyboard sound may be much less in the other songs of Kiosk, and this kind of song starts or is so prominent throughout the work... A few seconds pass, and the similarity of the first song of this album, "Shabih Bulldozer," to Pink Floyd is very noticeable and becomes clearer. Were you influenced at all, or did you try to make the songs of this album resemble the prominent works of that time and the works that Kamran was secretly distributing in Tehran and other cities? You pointed out a good point, and I am glad that it was so obvious with just one listen. First, let me explain about the first song. The lyrics of this song belong to Mehdi Mousavi, a top poet and our good friend, who was recently sentenced to twenty years in prison and left Iran with his wife, Fatemeh Ekhtesari. He kindly provided me with his poetry collection, and I was in the mood of closing the Stereo Tal album, and I wanted to have a starting point. The rebellion and the driving force that made Kamran dedicate so many years of his life to distributing music, and this song and this particular poem convey that theme. I asked him for permission to use this poem. And you are right. We unconsciously and somewhat consciously drew from classic rock music and the bands that inspired us, like Pink Floyd, J.J. Cale, Dire Straits, and all those bands that are giants of rock music. They definitely had a significant impact on shaping our songwriting. The role of "Gypsy" that we leaned towards diminished, but since the space for guitar and keyboard was more for songwriting and sound design, that's why it shows itself from the beginning. It fades away at times and then comes back. But what you said is correct; it is a direct influence of those sounds, and in the mixing of the album and the way we mixed it, we tried to get a bit closer to the 70s and used effects like that. The sound of the guitar and the vocals should have that warmth of the cassette. A fascinating difference this album has compared to your previous works is the arrangement of the ten songs, which is somewhat a concept album. It is an album where the pieces are based on a theme (except for the first song you explained) and a story placed together, and it seems you also used Kamran's real voice in this song. Tell us about this work you did and how the pieces are interconnected as track one and track two without interruption, allowing the listener to follow this path and story until the end of the album. Tell us about the difficulties of making an album in this way and using Kamran's voice in several tracks of this album. There is a story I want to be heard through music or interviews or any way possible. I think the story of Kamran Tal narrates ten to fifteen years of our lives in the form of music. For me, it was an interesting experience. A long time ago, when we had a group in Tehran, we tried to work on a concept album a couple of times with the guys, and I think it was a successful experience for those years with limited resources. But since we established Kiosk, we never had such an experience. Kamran's story motivated me a lot, and I thought we could make a film because the subject and details were interesting. In that mental space, we created these pieces of the puzzle separately, but when we wanted to put them together, we found that each of them reflected one of the key phrases that Kamran had said in various interviews in the text he had sent me. Suddenly, he had said a sentence that impressed me. That sentence became the axis of that song, and we thought that when we put them together, a visual thread was needed to connect them. And nothing is better than having Kamran himself say the story with one or two sentences. That’s why you need to listen to the collection of stories in sequence to understand what it was. There is a small explanation on the album cover, but ultimately you have to listen several times. You get the atmosphere, and you can visualize your own interpretation of the story. Kamran: One time during those times when I was arrested, and my work was halted for a long time, I wrote on the new list I gave, "Never forget. This work is always alive. Let’s keep Tehran alive." Hearing Kamran's story and his activities alongside listening to the new album gives the listener a clearer and fuller picture of this album. This is the ninth album, and it is set to be released on Saturday, August 30.