Rostam Batmanglij

I started playing guitar when I was 14.

— Rostam Batmanglij

Sometimes the hangover provides inspiration.

— Rostam Batmanglij

I like there to be some secrets.

— Rostam Batmanglij

What I love is the openness of collaboration.

— Rostam Batmanglij

My music is about identity.

— Rostam Batmanglij

Whenever I work on a project I put all of myself into it.

— Rostam Batmanglij

I'm very aware of what, say, electric guitar recordings in the '60s sounded like.

— Rostam Batmanglij

I'm very conscious of the fact that I devoted my life to recording music, recordings and writing songs.

— Rostam Batmanglij

I would hope to make a record that interacts with culture in a macro sense. That is something to aspire to.

— Rostam Batmanglij

Radio or no radio, I just like the way records sound when the drums and vocals are loud.

— Rostam Batmanglij

There's a bunch of rules that I want to break. I have a rule-breaking streak.

— Rostam Batmanglij

I've always had a complex relationship towards my identity as an American.

— Rostam Batmanglij

Films should involve a director's idiosyncrasies as much as possible I think.

— Rostam Batmanglij

I figured out that it was important for me to have my identity, just live independently and like being myself, musically.

— Rostam Batmanglij

Whatever you are making, whether it's a song, an album, a painting, a film, you're connecting with a tradition, and I do…

— Rostam Batmanglij

On the song 'Step,' the chorus is Ezra is singing into my laptop with the laptop microphone, and you can hear the…

— Rostam Batmanglij

'Unbelievers' was a song that we felt like we could tackle, so that's one of the reasons we wanted to start playing…

— Rostam Batmanglij

You want the personality of each performer - whether it's singing or bass or drums or piano - to be intact. In…

— Rostam Batmanglij

I am a very big fan of Brian Eno, of his work as an artist and making his music, and as a…

— Rostam Batmanglij

There's a joy I get from collaborating with other artists, and there's a joy I get from making songs on my own.

— Rostam Batmanglij

I feel like there's no one kind of person who comes to my shows. Sometimes I've been surprised by the people who…

— Rostam Batmanglij

I was lucky to have a guitar teacher who asked me what I wanted to learn. I brought in "High & Dry"…

— Rostam Batmanglij

As far as the lyrics go, I think I was negotiating a moment in my life where I didn't feel happy. I…

— Rostam Batmanglij

One of the things that we talked about was this idea of 'Memento Mori' - like the reminder of our own mortality…

— Rostam Batmanglij

Shangri-La is one of the few studios in which you can sit in the control room and open a window behind you.…

— Rostam Batmanglij

The idea of the gay experience, it feels like a relic. I felt like in the '90s when we were watching the…

— Rostam Batmanglij

When an old tape machine makes pitch wobble, some people would say that compromises fidelity and would try to get rid of…

— Rostam Batmanglij

Throughout college I was getting better and better at making recordings, producing songs, making different kinds of beats. I was starting to…

— Rostam Batmanglij

I love working with Angel Deradoorian, she's a joy to work with. She's fab at singing and she has a real... she…

— Rostam Batmanglij

I guess I have some kind of a visceral connection with drums. I'm looking to create music that people can react to…

— Rostam Batmanglij

My parents left Iran in 1979 and moved to France and then moved to the U.S. My brother was born in France…

— Rostam Batmanglij

I'd like to release solo songs on a regular basis, but it's pretty difficult for me to finish them.

— Rostam Batmanglij

Yeah, I'd always wanted to do a song with finger-picked, nylon-string guitar.

— Rostam Batmanglij

I don't have to just have one kind of life. I can have several different creative lives.

— Rostam Batmanglij

When my mom was pregnant with me, my parents moved from France to America.

— Rostam Batmanglij

The thing I love about car design is that it's sculpture everybody appreciates, everybody has access to.

— Rostam Batmanglij

I took one piano lesson and hated it and then didn't take any piano lessons until I was 18.

— Rostam Batmanglij

I feel like I've had this ability to infiltrate, as an outsider and an insider, different groups.

— Rostam Batmanglij

I'm as guilty as anyone else of listening to music track by track.

— Rostam Batmanglij

The first Vampire Weekend record was the first full-length album that I produced.

— Rostam Batmanglij