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Apr 26, 2017 Rostam By Christopher Roberts

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Rostam Batmanglij (formerly of Vampire Weekend and who just goes by his first name these days) has shared a video for a brand new song, “Gwan.” It’s not a standalone single, but is taken from his forthcoming debut solo album, which a press release simply says is coming soon. The video features Rostam singing the string-backed song as he wanders around New York City. Greg Brunkalla directed the video, which you can watch below.

Rostam had this to say about the album in a press release: “I’ve had experiences where my life will try to tell me something in a dream—and sometimes it’s something I’m not ready to hear. So I think maybe this song is about trying to listen to what your subconscious mind is trying to say to you…. I’m realizing from responses I’ve gotten that you could hear the cello parts in ‘Gwan’ in different ways. One person described it as being ‘Trad Music’—meaning Traditional Irish music—that wasn’t what I had in mind when I wrote those parts but I take that interpretation as a high compliment. Another described it as sounding ‘very Eastern.’ I’m interested in the interconnections between these musics. I grew up listening to and studying both Western and Eastern music, but at this point in my life I’m not thinking too hard about what I’m trying to accomplish musically. I’m trying to just trust my instincts.”

Last year Rostam teamed up with Hamilton Leithauser of The Walkmen and released a collaborative album, I Had a Dream That You Were Mine, via Glassnote.

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