Rostam reimagines American music

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music, Music Interviews, Music History, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The pedal steel and the saz both live in the spaces between equal-tempered notes, and that gap is where Rostam built American Stories. Rostam joined Vampire Weekend at Columbia in 2006, produced the band's first three albums, and after leaving in 2016 made records with Clairo and Haim you can identify as his within a few bars. His solo album, American Stories, reflects his experience as an American whose family is from Iran. He came into the studio this past March, just after the United States launched military operations there. It's a record that asks us to listen between two cultures. SONGS DISCUSSED Rostam "Like a Spark" Wilco "What Light" HAIM "Summer Girl" Rostam "Back of a Truck" Bob Dylan "Like a Rolling Stone" Bob Dylan "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" The Supremes "You Keep Me Hangin' On" Lou Reed "Perfect Day" Rostam "Forgive Is to Know" Rostam "Hardy" (ft. Clairo) Clairo “Sophia” Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam “A 1000 Times” David Bowie "I Can't Give Everything Away" Rostam "The Road to Death" Rostam "Come Apart" Rostam "Campus (Original Version)" Rostam "The Weight" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Switched on Pop. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding.
0:11.0	I've been listening to Rostom's music since at least college.
0:14.9	Back in 2006, he was a college student as well.
0:17.5	He was at Columbia University where he joined the band Vampire Weekend, one of the
0:22.2	groups that defined the 2000s New York City indie scene. I feel like their music spoke to me as
0:28.3	an aspirational musician because there was so much joy and enthusiasm, and frankly, their music
0:35.9	often reflected my own experience in their songs like campus.
0:39.7	I see you, you're walking across the campus,
0:42.6	call you professors studying romances.
0:45.5	How am I supposed to pretend?
0:48.5	I never want to see you again.
0:51.5	How am I supposed to pretend?
0:53.5	I never want to see you again.
0:58.4	Rostom produced three albums as a member of Vampire Weekend before leaving the band in 2016,
1:04.2	and he went on to produce hit records for artists like Claro and Hime that have just such a distinct
1:09.4	Rostom sound.
1:11.4	He also has his own project under his name and a new album out today called American
1:16.4	Stories about his experience as an American whose family is from Iran.
1:20.6	Because some of us are dying salty and some of us A damn faster
1:27.8	Of a Christmas cheese in the Christmas market
1:32.7	I hope a night in last year
1:36.0	We originally recorded this conversation
	...

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