Quotes from Rostam Batmanglij

I can't even begin to express the joy I get from writing songs, both on my own and with others, I hold it all sacred.

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

I like there to be some secrets.

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

When I work with other artists, I really want to bring out the most in their voices and I want to hold myself to the same standard.

I made a quote-unquote 'album' for my senior project of high school. As soon as I finished making it I realized it wasn't the kind of music I wanted to make.

I'm always making beats, and when I can hear Ezra singing on one of them in my head, I send it to him. That's one of the ways that we've always worked together.

I was fascinated by the word 'Rudy,' which is connected to the Jamaican term 'rude boy,' which migrated from Jamaica to London. I was also fascinated by that name, because it exists in Persian culture and Iranian culture. There is actually a place called Rudy in Iran, and there's Iranians that I know with the name Rudy.

I don't believe in expertise. I don't believe that a film critic feels a film more deeply than any person who walks into a theater. I don't believe that.

I feel like there's no one kind of person who comes to my shows. Sometimes I've been surprised by the people who will stop me on the street to tell me that they're into my music.

It's hard to make music that's sexy that's not cheesy.

As a kid I had gone to New York a handful of times with my family. I definitely think it planted a seed in me.

I was listening 'Plastic Ono Band,' the John Lennon album a lot, and that might have had some inspiration on me.

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

Whatever you are making, whether it's a song, an album, a painting, a film, you're connecting with a tradition, and I do feel connected to New York music.

What's interesting about Vampire Weekend, everyone in the band, except for me, had a band in high school in which they were the lead singers. And I'm the one who never had that experience.

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

I never felt like there were things I couldn't express lyrically in Vampire Weekend. I was always proud of everything that we wrote together.

Well, the announcement to say that I was no longer a member of Vampire Weekend was something that was in the works for a long time. I knew that it was the right choice for me.

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

You want the personality of each performer - whether it's singing or bass or drums or piano - to be intact. In some ways it's much more challenging to preserve that and to also make music that sounds modern.

When an old tape machine makes pitch wobble, some people would say that compromises fidelity and would try to get rid of it. But to me that wobble adds richness, it instantly brings back the feelings you associate with old recordings.

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

Even though I've been making electronic music since I was 14, it's hard for people to see you as a producer with a musical identity when you're contextualized in a band that performs on a stage.