You may know Rostam Batmanglij as a founding member of Vampire Weekend. His work producing the band’s massively successful early albums helped make him one of the most sought-after producers in indie music after he left the group in 2016.
Even before his departure, Rostam was releasing solo music, while also contributing to albums by artists including Carly Rae Jepsen, Hamilton Leithauser, Haim and Clairo.
His new solo album, American Stories, blends classic Americana sounds with Middle Eastern instrumentation inspired by his Persian heritage. Today, Rostam talks about the album, the musical influences behind it and the stories he set out to tell.
Plus, he performs a stripped down set, live for World Cafe.
This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.
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