Rostam Batmanglij has shared a brand new video and song, entitled “Gwan”. The song is not a stand-alone single, but part of a full length album from Rostam. Details and release date to be determined.

“I’ve had experiences where my life will try to tell me something in a dream–and sometimes it’s something I’m not ready to hear. So I think maybe this song is about trying to listen to what your subconscious mind is trying to say to you” says Rostam of “Gwan.”

“I’m realizing from responses I’ve gotten that you could hear the cello parts in ‘Gwan’ in different ways. One person described it as being ‘Trad Music’–meaning Traditional Irish music–that wasn’t what I had in mind when I wrote those parts but I take that interpretation as a high compliment,” he says.
“Another described it as sounding ‘very Eastern.’ I’m interested in the interconnections between these musics. I grew up listening to and studying both Western and Eastern music, but at this point in my life I’m not thinking too hard about what I’m trying to accomplish musically. I’m trying to just trust my instincts.”

The son of Iranian refugees, Grammy Award-winning producer and songwriter Rostam Batmanglij was born in Washington, DC in 1983. He attended Columbia University where he studied classical music and simultaneously focused on songwriting, recording, and production in his own time. In his last year there he began producing the first full-length album of his career, Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut, which would be the first of three gold records with Rostam as producer.

Rostam announced his departure from Vampire Weekend in the beginning of 2016, with a door left open to further collaboration in songwriting and production. Rostam released new solo music that same year, including the songs “EOS,”, “Wood,” and “Gravity Don’t Pull Me.”

Rostam also contributed songwriting and production to several of the most important albums of 2016; a playlist of his entire discography is available below on Spotify and Apple Music. Rostam will perform solo as well as in several unexpected collaborations on tour this spring (dates below). These are his first dates since opening for Brian Wilson at Brooklyn’s Northside festival and headlining a sold-out outdoor show at L.A.’s Broad Museum in the summer of 2016.

TOUR DATES:
5-02 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club ≈
5-03 – NYC – Bowery Ballroom ≈
5-06 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer ≈
5-07 – Providence, RI – Fete Music Hall ^
5-08 – Boston, MA – The Sinclair ^
6-12 – Los Angeles, CA – The Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever
6-14 – San Francisco, CA – The Independent

≈ w/ Deradoorian
^ w/ Nat Baldwin