Rostam Batmanglij doesn’t believe in clean breaks, which is why even after leaving Vampire Weekend, his artistic DNA still lingers in the band’s ecosystem—and vice versa. “Me and Ezra have worked on new music together,” he says carefully. “Our creative relationship continues… and our friendship endures.” It’s a calm, confident line delivered by someone who has nothing left to prove, and everything left to explore.
We were talking around the release of his single “In a River,” a track that had been a staple of his live shows throughout 2018. “Every time we played it, we just got this incredible response,” he says. “So I felt this obligation to finish the recording and put it out into the world.” The song is rhythmic and hypnotic, rooted in acoustic repetition and backed by claps and vocal loops—if “Half-Light” was a slow-burning collage, this is Rostam walking right into the water.
It’s also one of the first songs written post-Half-Light, his solo debut, which collected tracks written over a decade and gently shuffled them into a cohesive narrative. “Some of those songs took a long time to finish,” he says. “I would start a song in 2011 and write everything except the bridge. It didn’t feel finished until I had it exactly right.” There’s something obsessive in that—the kind of perfectionism that turns a love song into a philosophical argument about politics and sensuality.
Because make no mistake: Rostam believes all music is political. “Even a love song,” he says, “can say something politically honest and true.” And he doesn’t mean sloganeering. He means the simple act of writing a song about queer love, or immigrant identity, or any number of things that certain corners of the internet still find controversial. “Some people try to say music shouldn’t be political, and I really disagree with that,” he says. “Even trying to make music that’s devoid of politics is a political act—and one I wouldn’t agree with.”
So when you hear him sing about longing, about tenderness, or even about Madonna, it’s not just aesthetics—it’s intent. “There are things I can only say in my solo songs,” he admits. And that specificity—the thing that’s too personal or too stylistically weird for a band context—is what makes his music connect.
He’s also deep in what he calls “Drum World,” which is less a metaphor and more of a daily lifestyle. “I’m kind of obsessed with drums right now,” he laughs. “I’ve been pushing myself to make a beat-driven record. It has kind of a ‘90s vibe. A lot of big drums.” That means making three or four beats a week, a rhythm that’s pulled him back into an earlier version of himself. “It feels very healthy to be in Drum World,” he says.
Despite all this solo work, Rostam hasn’t given up on collaborations. He just chooses them carefully. “Most of the sessions I do are with friends,” he says. “It’s really casual. Like, meet up for breakfast, and then someone says, ‘Hey, wanna get in the studio?’” It’s low-stakes creativity with high-end results—no label pressure, no release timeline, just people making music together because it feels good.
Even his live show is structured around surprise. Every set includes a string quartet. “I don’t think anybody has a live show like mine,” he says. “It’s fun for me to listen, not just to perform. There’s some kind of magic in the air.” It’s a small-scale reinvention every night—his own personal Achtung Baby moment. Fitting, considering that was his entry point into U2 and his template for how a band (or solo artist) can shift styles without losing their center.
And even as he remixes himself—literally, with a recent Half-Light remix album—he’s more interested in perspective than polish. “It’s fun to hear someone else take your song and filter it through their own brain,” he says. One remix felt like “you were walking down the street and hearing the song through café windows,” which, if you’ve heard Half-Light, sounds about right.
Whether it’s beats, strings, or whispered politics in a love song, Rostam’s solo work feels less like a departure and more like an expansion. It’s not a side hustle. It’s not a reset. It’s just him, uninterrupted.
Listen to the interview above and then check out the video below!
