Rostam Batmanglij

Rostam Batmanglij
Background information
Birth name	Rostam Batmanglij
Born	(1983-11-28) November 28, 1983 (age 35)
Origin	Washington, D.C., U.S.
Genres	Art pop indie rock indie electronic
Occupation(s)	Musician songwriter record producer
Instruments	Piano keyboards organ vocals guitars bass guitar programming flute banjo drums percussion
Labels	XL
Associated acts	Vampire Weekend Discovery Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam Charli XCX Carly Rae Jepsen Solange Declan McKenna Boys Like Us
Website	officialrostam.com

Rostam Batmanglij (Persian: رستم باتمانقلیچ; born November 28, 1983),^[1] known mononymously as Rostam, is an American songwriter, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist of electro-soul group Discovery, and formerly of New York City-based indie rock band Vampire Weekend.

Contents

• 
  1 Early life
  


• 
  2 Musical career
  
  
  
  • 
    2.1 Vampire Weekend
    
  
  
  • 
    2.2 Discovery
    
  
  
  • 
    2.3 Solo work
    
  
  
  • 
    2.4 Collaborative work
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  3 Personal life
  


• 
  4 Discography
  
  
  
  • 
    4.1 Albums
    
    
    
    • 
      4.1.1 Solo
      
    
    
    • 
      4.1.2 Collaborations
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • 
    4.2 Singles
    
  
  
  • 
    4.3 Compositions for film and theatre
    
  
  
  • 
    4.4 Other contributions
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  5 References
  

Early life

Batmanglij was born to Iranian parents, and grew up in Washington, D.C. His mother is cookbook author Najmieh Batmanglij while his father is a publisher. His parents arrived in D.C. in 1983.^[2] His brother is independent filmmaker Zal Batmanglij. The two collaborated on the film Sound of My Voice, which Rostam scored and which Zal directed and co-wrote.^[3] Rostam also composed an original piece for piano that was featured in Zal's film The East.^[4]

Musical career

Vampire Weekend

Batmanglij (left) with Vampire Weekend

Batmanglij majored in music at Columbia University where he joined the band Vampire Weekend in 2006. "At Columbia, I would study classical harmony in classes and I would study music on my own, and I would try to re-create songs that I love in recordings...that was really how I learned."^[5] The name of the group comes from the movie of the same name that bandmate Ezra Koenig and his friends made over summer vacations. Batmanglij produced their self-titled debut album shortly after graduation while concurrently working multiple full-time jobs. He also produced the band's follow up album, Contra, which sold 124,000 copies in its first week and landed atop the Billboard 200 charts.^[6] Batmanglij plays guitar, keyboard and sings in the band but also acts as a lyricist and songwriter, co-writing the song "Diplomat's Son" on Contra. Koenig has described himself and Batmanglij as "the two main songwriters in the band."^[7]

On March 18, 2013, Vampire Weekend released two songs from their album Modern Vampires of the City, "Diane Young" and "Step". Within two weeks each song had garnered more than 1 million views on YouTube. Music for both songs is credited to Batmanglij and Koenig, and lyrics are credited to Koenig. Modern Vampires of the City is the first Vampire Weekend album Batmanglij did not produce alone; for this record he collaborated with longtime friend Ariel Rechtshaid and the two co-produced the album together. It was released May 14, 2013.^[8]

On January 26, 2016, Batmanglij announced on Twitter that he had left Vampire Weekend to pursue solo projects, but that he would continue to collaborate with Koenig on future projects and Vampire Weekend songs.^[9]

Discovery

Batmanglij began recording with Ra Ra Riot's vocalist Wes Miles on a project which was later to become Discovery. They released their debut album LP on July 7, 2009 on XL Recordings. The album features guest vocal contributions from Koenig as well as Dirty Projectors' Angel Deradoorian.^[10]

In 2015, Batmanglij produced and contributed vocals on the song "Water" for Ra Ra Riot's fourth album Need Your Light.

Solo work

In September 2011, Batmanglij released a solo track called "Wood". Time Out Chicago's Brent DiCrescenzo gave the song 4 out of 5 stars and wrote that "his voice pleasantly recalls a drowsy David Byrne".^[11] On November 1, 2011, Zane Lowe debuted another a solo song sung by Batmanglij called "Don't Let it Get to You" as the Hottest Record in the World on BBC Radio1.^[12]The Fader referred to it as "a seismic event of a song."^[13] In January 2016, Batmanglij released the song "EOS" along with its music video which he had directed.^[14] On March 11, 2016, Batmanglij released the song "Gravity Don't Pull Me" along with its music video directed by Batmanglij and Josh Goleman.^[15] The video was filmed at The 1896 and features dancers Jack Grabow and Sam Asa Pratt.

On November 27, 2016, Rostam teased his new solo album, to be released in 2017.^[16] In the spring of 2017, Rostam released two songs from that album: "Gwan," released on April 26^[17] and "Bike Dream," on June 14. With the release of "Bike Dream," Rostam revealed that his debut solo album would be titled Half-Light and released on September 8, 2017.^[18]

On September 12, 2018 Rostam self-released a new single, "In a River."^[19]

Collaborative work

In 2010, Converse released "All Summer", written by Batmanglij and featured Kid Cudi and Bethany Cosentino from Best Coast.^[20]

Batmanglij produced and co-wrote two songs for The Walkmen frontman Hamilton Leithauser's solo album, Black Hours, which was released in June 2014.^[21][22] Also in 2014, Batmanglij produced two songs for singer Charli XCX. The song "Need Ur Luv" appears on her album Sucker^[23] and the song "Kingdom" featuring Simon Le Bon appears on The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.^[24] In December 2014, Batmanglij along with Diplo and Ed Droste remixed Ty Dolla Sign's "Stand For" into a new song titled "Long Way Home".^[25] Batmanglij also wrote original music for a play by Kenneth Lonergan called This Is Our Youth, starring Kieran Culkin, Michael Cera, and Tavi Gevinson, which premiered on Broadway in 2014.

In 2015, Batmanglij worked alongside Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen on her third studio album, E•MO•TION. In an interview with Stereogum, Jepsen described working with Batmanglij as writing with a musician she admires, and said that together they had made "what’s maybe one of [her] favorite songs" on the record.^[26] Batmanglij produced and co-wrote the fourth single, "Warm Blood", which was released on July 31, 2015.^[27]E•MO•TION was released worldwide on August 21, 2015.^[28]

In 2016, he formed Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam with Hamilton Leithauser of The Walkmen. They released the single "A 1000 Times" in July 2016, which they performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on September 12, 2016.^[29] Their song "In a Black Out" was featured in a commercial for the Apple iPhone 7. Their debut album, I Had a Dream That You Were Mine was released on September 23, 2016.^[30]

Batmanglij produced and co-wrote the song "Listen to Your Friends" from English singer Declan McKenna's debut album What Do You Think About the Car?, which was released in July 2017.^[31][32]

Personal life

Batmanglij is openly gay and talked about his sexual orientation in the magazine Out.^[33] In an Instagram post in 2015, he said that Ed Droste of the band Grizzly Bear influenced his decision to publicly come out.^[34]

Discography

Albums

Solo

• 
  Half-Light (2017)

Collaborations

• 
  Vampire Weekend (as a part of Vampire Weekend) (2008)


• 
  LP (as a part of Discovery) (2009)


• 
  Contra (as a part of Vampire Weekend) (2010)


• 
  Modern Vampires of the City (as a part of Vampire Weekend) (2013)


• 
  I Had a Dream That You Were Mine (with Hamilton Leithauser) (2016)

Singles

Title	Year	Album
"Wood" (commercially reissued in 2016)	2011	Half-Light
"Don't Let It Get To You"
"EOS"	2016
"Gravity Don't Pull Me"		non-album single
"Gwan"	2017	Half-Light
"Bike Dream"
"Half-Light" (featuring Kelly Zutrau)
"In A River"	2018	non-album single

Compositions for film and theatre

• 
  Sound of My Voice (2011) – film score


• 
  The East (2013) – "Doc's Song" (original piano composition for the film)


• 
  This Is Our Youth (Steppenwolf production on Broadway, fall 2014) – original score


• 
  The OA (television series) (2016) – main theme and score

Other contributions

Title	Year		Lead artist	Album	Credit(s)
					Writing	Production	Instrumentation	Vocals	Arrangement	Engineering	Mixing
"Two Young Sheeps"	2006		Dirty Projectors	New Attitude			Flute, percussion
"You and Your Heart (Boys Like Us Remix)"	2010		Jack Johnson	To the Sea		Remix
"What To Say (Boys Like Us Remix)"			Born Ruffians	Say It		Remix
"Boots of Danger (Boys Like Us Remix)"			Tokyo Police Club	Champ		Remix
"White Knuckles (Boys Like Us Remix)"			OK Go	Twelve Remixes of Four Songs		Remix
"The Trick"	2011		Das Racist	Relax		Yes
"Robin Egg Blue (Gun Drum Mix)"			Cass McCombs	Humor Risk		Remix
"Completely Not Me"	2014		Jenny Lewis	Girls, Volume 2: All Adventurous Women Do…	Yes
"Alexandra"			Hamilton Leithauser	Black Hours	Yes	Yes	Acoustic guitar, harmonica, piano, harpsichord, tambourine, shaker	Backing		Yes
"I Retired"					Yes	Yes	Slide guitar, piano, electric bass, harpsichord, tambourine, shaker	Shoo-bi-do-waps		Yes
"Wedding Day"			Anand Wilder & Maxwell Kardon	Break Line				Backing	Additional
"Kingdom" (featuring Simon Le Bon)			Charli XCX	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack	Yes	Yes
"Need Ur Luv"				Sucker	Yes	Yes
"Die Tonight"					Yes
"Warm Blood"	2015		Carly Rae Jepsen	Emotion	Yes	Yes	Drum and synth programming, keyboards, piano			Yes
"Water"	2016		Ra Ra Riot	Need Your Light	Yes	Yes	Drum and synth programming, synthesizer, percussion, arrangement		Yes	Yes	Yes
"I Need Your Light"					Yes	Yes	Drum and synth programming, hi-hat, bass, guitar			Yes	Yes
"Big Boss Big Time Business"			Santigold	99¢	Yes	Additional
"Chasing Shadows"					Yes	Yes					Yes
"Outside the War"					Yes		Keyboards
"Run the Races"					Yes	Co
"Who I Thought You Were"							Synthesizer, programming
"Beating Myself Up"			CuckooLander	non-album single	Yes	Yes	Guitar, drum and synth programming, keyboards, piano, tambourine		Yes	Yes	Yes
"Ivy"			Frank Ocean	Blonde		Yes			Yes
"Seigfried"					Yes		Keyboards
"Comeback"			Francis and the Lights	Farewell, Starlite!	Yes	Yes
"My City’s Gone"					Yes	Yes
"Friends"					Yes	Yes
"My House"			Tokyo Police Club	Melon Collie and the Infinite Radness: Part Two		Yes	Keyboards	Backing			Yes
"F.U.B.U."			Solange	A Seat at the Table		Additional horn	Piano, organ, shaker
"Hand in the Fire" (featuring Charli XCX)			Mr. Oizo	All Wet	Yes
"Little of Your Love"	2017		Haim	Something to Tell You		Additional
"Kept Me Crying"					Yes	Yes	Synthesizer, piano			Yes
"Found It in Silence"						Additional	Synthesizer, acoustic guitar
"Walking Away"					Yes	Yes	Drum programming, synthesizer, organ	Backing		Yes
"Water’s Running Dry"					Yes	Yes	Synthesizer, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, Moog bass		String
"This Song" (featuring Rostam)			RAC	EGO	Yes	Yes		Featured		Yes
"Listen to Your Friends"			Declan McKenna	What Do You Think About the Car?	Yes	Yes
"Deadstream (Rostam version)" (featuring Charli XCX)			Jim-E Stack	It’s Jim-ee		Yes		Yes
"Moments Noticed"						Additional
"Cane" (featuring Ibeyi)	2018		Everything is Recorded	Everything is Recorded by Richard Russell			Synthesizer
"Hard Rain"			Lykke Li	So Sad So Sexy	Yes	Yes	Piano, programming, synthesizer	Backing
"Fallingwater"			Maggie Rogers	Template:Heard It In A Past Life	Yes	Yes	Piano, drums, programming, synthesizer, guitar, shaker	Backing		Yes
"Do You Wanna Dance"			Cosha	R.I.P. Bonzai	Yes	Yes	Guitar, programming, synthesizer	Backing		Yes	Yes
"Luv"					Yes	Yes	Guitar, programming, synthesizer	Backing		Yes	Yes
"You're Not Wrong"			Wet	Still Run		Yes	Synthesizer, piano, electric guitar, bass			Yes
"This Woman Loves You"						Acoustic guitar, drums, electric guitar, Mandolin, slide guitar, synthesizer			Yes
"Harmony Hall"	2019		Vampire Weekend	Father of the Bride		Additional

References

1. 
   ^ HAPPY BIRthDAY Hottie Rostam Batmanglij « LaurenSList. Laurenslist.wordpress.com (November 28, 2009). Retrieved on 2012-05-12.
   


2. 
   ^ Iranian American Guitarist of Vampire Weekend, Rostam Batmanglij, Comes Out | MTV IGGY. Blog.mtviggy.com (February 25, 2010). Retrieved on 2012-05-12.
   


3. 
   ^ Q&A: Brit Marling, Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij, and Director Zal Batmanglij on Sound of My Voice. www.vanityfair.com (April 17, 2012). Retrieved on 2012-05-12.
   


4. 
   ^ Jen, Vineyard. "Tom Hiddleston Describes The "Wounded Soul" Of Loki & Ralph Macchio, Toby Kebbell & More Chat at NYC Premiere Of 'War Horse'". Indie Group..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
   


5. 
   ^ Levine, Mike. "Back for a Second Bite". Electronic Musician.
   


6. 
   ^ Brahms, Stephan. "Vampire Weekend Lands First No. 1 Album". Billboard.
   


7. 
   ^ The Artful Dodgers: Santigold & Vampire Weekend :: Music :: Features :: Paste. Pastemagazine.com (January 5, 2010). Retrieved on 2012-05-12.
   


8. 
   ^ ELISCU, Jenny. "Vampire Weekend on Their Adventurous New Album".
   


9. 
   ^ Gajanan, Mahita (January 27, 2016). "Vampire Weekend founding member Rostam Batmanglij quits band". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 27, 2016. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
   


10. 
    ^ "Discovery (Vampire Weekend/Ra Ra Riot Side Project) Album Details Revealed". Pitchfork.com. May 20, 2008.
    


11. 
    ^ DiCrescenzo, Brent. "Dum Dum Girls + Rostam | Track review". TimeOut Chicago.
    


12. 
    ^ Lowe, Zane. "Hottest Record – Rostam – Don't Let It Get To You". BBC.
    


13. 
    ^ Bruce, Parker. "Stream: Rostam, "Don't Let It Get To You"". The Fader.
    


14. 
    ^ Minsker, Evan (January 14, 2016). "Vampire Weekend's Rostam Releases "EOS"". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on January 29, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
    


15. 
    ^ "Rostam (Ex-Vampire Weekend) Shares "Gravity Don't Pull Me"". Pitchfork Media. 2016-03-11. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
    


16. 
    ^ Rostam [@matsoR] (28 November 2016). "new rostam music in 2017" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
    


17. 
    ^ Rostam (2017-04-26), Rostam - Gwan (Official Video), retrieved 2017-06-23
    


18. 
    ^ Rostam (2017-06-14), Rostam - Bike Dream (Lyric Video), retrieved 2017-06-23
    


19. 
    ^ Rostam (2018-09-11), Rostam - "In a River" (Official Animation Video), retrieved 2018-09-12
    


20. 
    ^ "Kid Cudi, Best Coast, Rostam Batmanglij Collaborate for Converse Track". pastemagazine.com. July 19, 2010.
    


21. 
    ^ Batmanglij, Rostam (August 22, 2013). "I co-wrote two songs with The Walkmen's Hamilton". Batmanglij's blog. Retrieved August 22, 2013.
    


22. 
    ^ Pelly, Jenn (August 21, 2013). "Walkmen's Hamilton Leithauser Working on LP With Members of Vampire Weekend, the Shins, Fleet Foxes". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved August 22, 2013.
    


23. 
    ^ O'Mance, Brad. "The song Charli XCX did with the bloke from Vampire Weekend is called 'Need Your Love'". Popjustice.com.
    


24. 
    ^ Rettig, James. "Charli XCX – "Kingdom" (Feat. Simon Le Bon)". Stereogum.com.
    


25. 
    ^ Gordon, Jeremy (December 11, 2014). "Diplo, Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste, Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij Turn Ty Dolla $ign's "Stand For" Into New Song "Long Way Home"". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on January 1, 2015. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
    


26. 
    ^ Rettig, James. "Q&A: Carly Rae Jepsen On Her All-Star Indie Collaborators And Really, Really, Really Anticipated New Album". Stereogum. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
    


27. 
    ^ Joyce, Collin. "Carly Rae Jepsen Shares Woozy 'Warm Blood' Single". Spin. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
    


28. 
    ^ Geffen, Sasha. "Carly Rae Jepsen – Emotion". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
    


29. 
    ^ Kaye, Ben. "Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam make late-night debut with "1000 Times" on Colbert — watch". Consequence of Sound. September 13, 2016. Accessed September 21, 2016.
    


30. 
    ^ "HITS Daily Double - Rumor Mill". September 19, 2016. Accessed September 21, 2016.
    


31. 
    ^ "Declan McKenna's Debut Album 'What Do You Think About the Car?' Is Out In July!". DIY. April 13, 2017. Archived from the original on July 23, 2017. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
    


32. 
    ^ Watson, Elly (July 19, 2017). "Declan McKenna". Wonderland. Archived from the original on July 23, 2017. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
    


33. 
    ^ Goodman, Elizabeth. "Rostam Batmanglij: Interview with a Vampire". Out. Here Media Inc. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
    


34. 
    ^ Panisch, Alex. "Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij Thanks Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste for Helping Him Come Out". Out. Here Media Inc. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
    

v t e Vampire Weekend
Chris Baio Ezra Koenig Chris Tomson Rostam Batmanglij
Studio albums	Vampire Weekend Contra Modern Vampires of the City Father of the Bride
Singles	"Mansard Roof" "A-Punk" "Oxford Comma" "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" "The Kids Don't Stand a Chance" "Horchata" "Cousins" "Giving Up the Gun" "Holiday" "White Sky" "Run" "Diane Young" "Ya Hey" "Step" "Unbelievers" "Harmony Hall" / "2021"
Related articles	Discography Awards and nominations Discovery I Had a Dream That You Were Mine Time Crisis with Ezra Koenig

v t e Dirty Projectors
David Longstreth Nat Baldwin Rostam Batmanglij Olga Bell Amber Coffman Haley Dekle Angel Deradoorian Adam Forkner Brian McOmber Mike Johnson Ezra Koenig
Studio albums	The Glad Fact Morning Better Last! Slaves' Graves and Ballads The Getty Address Rise Above Bitte Orca Swing Lo Magellan Dirty Projectors Lamp Lit Prose
EPs	New Attitude Mount Wittenberg Orca (with Björk) About to Die
Related articles	The Graceful Fallen Mango Mind Raft The Expanding Flower Planet Eternal Recurrence

Authority control	BIBSYS: 10040515 ISNI: 0000 0001 3139 7133 LCCN: no2014047005 MusicBrainz: 66a7117a-4b67-4a85-83bf-94491340d22d VIAF: 308181314 WorldCat Identities (via VIAF): 308181314

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