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Rostam revealed<\/a> back in November that his third studio album called American Stories<\/em> was arriving this year, and today it’s finally being officially announced. It’s set for release in May, and the lead single “Like A Spark” is out now.<\/p>\n American Stories<\/em> is his first new record since 2021’s\u00a0Changephobia<\/a><\/em>. “At some point in making this record I realized the album I wanted to make was one that reflected my identity as both Iranian and American,” he says. “Pushing the most Iranian elements right up against the most American ones brought me a certain kind of joy. The first time I put microtonal saz melodies over Western guitar chords, I was thrown off by the way the two rubbed together. But the more I listened the more I became drawn to that rub. I became addicted to it.”<\/p>\n About the artwork, he adds, “The presentation of the flag upside down is something that the Left, the Right, and the Native American Land Back movement have all made use of. It\u2019s a symbology that\u2019s shared by all these groups and yet could mean different things to each of us. I\u2019m interested in that conversation; that conversation is fundamentally American.”<\/p>\n The self-produced record features\u00a0Clairo\u00a0on vocals; Yaghmai\u00a0on saz, violin, and guitar;\u00a0Daniel Aged\u00a0on upright bass and pedal steel;\u00a0Paul Cartwright\u00a0on violin; Gabe Noel\u00a0on cello and upright bass;\u00a0Hamilton Berry\u00a0on cello; Henry Solomon\u00a0on flute and clarinet;\u00a0Andrew Tachine\u00a0and\u00a0Joey Messina-Doerning\u00a0on\u00a0<\/strong>drums; and Tobias Jesso Jr.\u00a0on co-writing for some tracks.<\/p>\n “Like A Spark” is accompanied by a music video taken from American Stories: A Concert Film<\/em>, which premieres later this spring. Check it out below along with the tour dates (and his recently launched Substack<\/a>).<\/p>\n