How Rostam Went From One Of The Biggest Bands In The World To Making His Most Personal Project Yet

  • How Rostam Went From One Of The Biggest Bands In The World To Making His Most Personal Project Yet
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    Rostam’s got more credentials than most do when they release their debut album. He scaled the heights of alt-rock on three albums with Vampire Weekend and has written and produced with the likes of Charli XCX, HAIM and Frank Ocean. Despite all that though, he’s somehow managed to deliver a debut that sounds like one.

    Half-Light is an intimate, experimental and personal statement that sounds like the first time we truly get to know him. Lyrically, he’s poignant at times and ambiguous at others. Musically, he oscillates between the impressively contained and the wildly experimentally. It’s diverse but distinctively Rostam. Straight from the mind of a wild creative that’s made a career out of breaking rules and remaining earnest.

    We jumped on the phone with Rostam the week he released the album as he was wandering round the LA neighbourhood of Beachwood Canyon. He took us through specific moments on the album, how he wanted it to be organic and what’s next for the songwriting maestro.

    What’s the feeling like now your album has dropped?

    It kind of feels like it’s building in a nice way. In some ways the first day that an album is out signifies a beginning of that chapter in your life. Especially on the first album.

    The last couple of records you’ve released with Vampire Weekend there’s been a considerate amount of hype around it. Do you feel more relaxed about releasing this one?

    Yeah, I feel like I have actually put some pressure on myself to pay attention to my career with this album because I feel like I really care about this record. I feel like some of the things I’m trying to say with this album musically and lyrically, they’re important to me. I want to take the time to go out into the world, perform the songs and connect with people.

    It’s a record with so many different layers to it. Is this an album that’s going to take many different forms for people as they listen to it in different settings and see it live?

    Yeah. I’ve already started to feel it with the song Bike Dream. I’ve started to perform it with a harmonica and an acoustic guitar at small radio sessions and record store performances. I feel like these songs, they can live in different ways and I’m excited to explore all these different ways.

    Your work has always been very collaborative but this album feels like just you. Was that a conscious decision to keep it internal?

    No, it wasn’t a conscious decision but these songs came out of a lot of moments like late at night listening to a track I’ve made. Gearing a melody and lyrics in my head that I wanted to go with it. In that way I think you’re right that it’s personal and inherently the music I’m interested in making it intimate.

    You’ve done some very immediate pop work but this album is quite complex. Was there ever a temptation to make a big pop record that translates immediately?

    Yeah, maybe I have to do that on the next album. Yeah, for me this is kind of like...what’s that expression...the kids are running the house. I can’t remember, it’s been a busy week. The parents left the kids in charge. I guess, I’m always trying to break rules whether I’m working on music with other people or on my own. It’s possible that in working on this album I was really trying to push myself to. But I don’t want to pigeonhole my career and say this is what I make on my own and this is what I make with other people. I generally see it as one thing.

    The list of collaborators you’ve worked with is so diverse and this album has these beautiful pop melodies but with an instrumental that sweeps in and takes you somewhere different. Did the songs start quite simply?

    I think a lot of the songs started with instruments. They started with building beats on the computer and then listening to the beat over and over again and trying to figure out what to sing on it. Could you point to a specific song?

    Yeah Half-Light and Bike Dream both have unpredictable moments.

    Half-Light is a song that started as a piano and voice memo in my iPhone. It was just me sitting at the piano and improvising. Basically, trying to write a song from thin air. It sat in my phone and I kept going back to it and then was like, “that’s a good song, isn’t it?” I had the lyrics, “somewhere in the half-light I could feel it coming through.” It wasn’t the first lyric, it was maybe one of the last. It was kind of like the outro of this very ELO idea that I had. It ended with this outro that became the song Half-Light. I guess in the process of recording it I was like, “OK what do you want to happen here?” At first, the guitar solo was a joke because I’d never done a rock guitar solo with distortion and stuff. It made me laugh. I remember I was working with an engineer. I did it and then I asked if we could mute it. I remember three months later we re-opened the song and I asked to hear the guitar solo again. It made a lot more sense. I decided that it wasn’t garbage. Maybe I decided it was a trashy in a way that I like.

    I love that the meaning of the album title came to you after you’d come up with the word. Is that cool to discover meaning in your songs you didn’t know was there?

    I must’ve known subconsciously. I’m interested in that idea in songs in general that there’s what’s at the forefront of your mind and what’s at the back and you have those things interacting. That’s important for me to explore as a songwriter.

    When you go into a debut album you have a basic idea of what it will sound like. Were there any songs that came out of you that surprised you?

    Maybe the song I Will See You Again. A couple of friends have texted me that it was their favourite. Just the fact that I could write a song as simple as that one and want it to be on the album and think it was important to be on the album. Maybe that surprises me.

    When someone like you writes so much music, how do you decide what to put on the album? For example, the single Gravity Don’t Pull Me was left off the album.

    That song felt like it was working with a different palette of musical material. Sonically, it felt much more like pure electronic music and I don’t think the rest of the album can be categorised that way. I felt like I wanted at least a cohesion of every song being more about the organic tones, the organic instruments. That’s important to this album.

    What’s next for you? Are you just touring as Rostam or working with some other people?

    I’m working with some really exciting young artists. There’s a couple of new songs that will come out before the end of the year or next year that I did with some amazing work younger talent. I feel like we’ve been able to capture a moment in time that feels very exciting. I’m excited about working with younger artists.

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Rostam’s got more credentials than most do when they release their debut album. He scaled the heights of alt-rock on three albums with Vampire Weekend and has written and produced with the likes of Charli XCX, HAIM and Frank Ocean. Despite all that though, he’s somehow managed to deliver a debut that sounds like one.

Half-Light is an intimate, experimental and personal statement that sounds like the first time we truly get to know him. Lyrically, he’s poignant at times and ambiguous at others. Musically, he oscillates between the impressively contained and the wildly experimentally. It’s diverse but distinctively Rostam. Straight from the mind of a wild creative that’s made a career out of breaking rules and remaining earnest.

We jumped on the phone with Rostam the week he released the album as he was wandering round the LA neighbourhood of Beachwood Canyon. He took us through specific moments on the album, how he wanted it to be organic and what’s next for the songwriting maestro.

What’s the feeling like now your album has dropped?

It kind of feels like it’s building in a nice way. In some ways the first day that an album is out signifies a beginning of that chapter in your life. Especially on the first album.

The last couple of records you’ve released with Vampire Weekend there’s been a considerate amount of hype around it. Do you feel more relaxed about releasing this one?

Yeah, I feel like I have actually put some pressure on myself to pay attention to my career with this album because I feel like I really care about this record. I feel like some of the things I’m trying to say with this album musically and lyrically, they’re important to me. I want to take the time to go out into the world, perform the songs and connect with people.

It’s a record with so many different layers to it. Is this an album that’s going to take many different forms for people as they listen to it in different settings and see it live?

Yeah. I’ve already started to feel it with the song Bike Dream. I’ve started to perform it with a harmonica and an acoustic guitar at small radio sessions and record store performances. I feel like these songs, they can live in different ways and I’m excited to explore all these different ways.

Your work has always been very collaborative but this album feels like just you. Was that a conscious decision to keep it internal?

No, it wasn’t a conscious decision but these songs came out of a lot of moments like late at night listening to a track I’ve made. Gearing a melody and lyrics in my head that I wanted to go with it. In that way I think you’re right that it’s personal and inherently the music I’m interested in making it intimate.

You’ve done some very immediate pop work but this album is quite complex. Was there ever a temptation to make a big pop record that translates immediately?

Yeah, maybe I have to do that on the next album. Yeah, for me this is kind of like...what’s that expression...the kids are running the house. I can’t remember, it’s been a busy week. The parents left the kids in charge. I guess, I’m always trying to break rules whether I’m working on music with other people or on my own. It’s possible that in working on this album I was really trying to push myself to. But I don’t want to pigeonhole my career and say this is what I make on my own and this is what I make with other people. I generally see it as one thing.

The list of collaborators you’ve worked with is so diverse and this album has these beautiful pop melodies but with an instrumental that sweeps in and takes you somewhere different. Did the songs start quite simply?

I think a lot of the songs started with instruments. They started with building beats on the computer and then listening to the beat over and over again and trying to figure out what to sing on it. Could you point to a specific song?

Yeah Half-Light and Bike Dream both have unpredictable moments.

Half-Light is a song that started as a piano and voice memo in my iPhone. It was just me sitting at the piano and improvising. Basically, trying to write a song from thin air. It sat in my phone and I kept going back to it and then was like, “that’s a good song, isn’t it?” I had the lyrics, “somewhere in the half-light I could feel it coming through.” It wasn’t the first lyric, it was maybe one of the last. It was kind of like the outro of this very ELO idea that I had. It ended with this outro that became the song Half-Light. I guess in the process of recording it I was like, “OK what do you want to happen here?” At first, the guitar solo was a joke because I’d never done a rock guitar solo with distortion and stuff. It made me laugh. I remember I was working with an engineer. I did it and then I asked if we could mute it. I remember three months later we re-opened the song and I asked to hear the guitar solo again. It made a lot more sense. I decided that it wasn’t garbage. Maybe I decided it was a trashy in a way that I like.

I love that the meaning of the album title came to you after you’d come up with the word. Is that cool to discover meaning in your songs you didn’t know was there?

I must’ve known subconsciously. I’m interested in that idea in songs in general that there’s what’s at the forefront of your mind and what’s at the back and you have those things interacting. That’s important for me to explore as a songwriter.

When you go into a debut album you have a basic idea of what it will sound like. Were there any songs that came out of you that surprised you?

Maybe the song I Will See You Again. A couple of friends have texted me that it was their favourite. Just the fact that I could write a song as simple as that one and want it to be on the album and think it was important to be on the album. Maybe that surprises me.

When someone like you writes so much music, how do you decide what to put on the album? For example, the single Gravity Don’t Pull Me was left off the album.

That song felt like it was working with a different palette of musical material. Sonically, it felt much more like pure electronic music and I don’t think the rest of the album can be categorised that way. I felt like I wanted at least a cohesion of every song being more about the organic tones, the organic instruments. That’s important to this album.

What’s next for you? Are you just touring as Rostam or working with some other people?

I’m working with some really exciting young artists. There’s a couple of new songs that will come out before the end of the year or next year that I did with some amazing work younger talent. I feel like we’ve been able to capture a moment in time that feels very exciting. I’m excited about working with younger artists.

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