Quotes from Rostam Batmanglij

I certainly think that my music is a response to my experience as a person who doesn't identify as straight, as a person who grew up American.

I never identified with 'indie,' I don't like that word.

Because of who I am, and how open I am, there's something inherently political about just writing love songs.

I think that all music is inherently political, and, at the same time, I'm interested in the politics of inclusion not exclusion. So I think that my goal is to make music that anybody can hear and feel moved by.

Classical music can be catchy, so can African instrumental guitar music. It's not just pop songs that are catchy. Rhythms can be catchy, too.

I thought it would be interesting to play classical music on rock instruments.

I'm not interested in anyone who would want me for the wrong reasons.

On the song 'Step,' the chorus is Ezra is singing into my laptop with the laptop microphone, and you can hear the trains going by my apartment, but we liked the quality of that recording.

There is a sense of tranquility that I think people can get from being in an organized group, where a singular leader handles the responsibilities of individual thinking.

Films should involve a director's idiosyncrasies as much as possible I think.

My parents left Iran in 1979 and moved to France and then moved to the U.S. My brother was born in France and I was born in New York, and then we moved to D.C.

The whole point of Lady Gaga is that anyone can do it. A few years ago she was a nobody. She talks about how it's important for people to know that by sheer force of will they can bring about anything they want in their lives.

I love being able to record in a room that's surrounded by trees.

I'd like to release solo songs on a regular basis, but it's pretty difficult for me to finish them.

It's interesting because neither of my parents play instruments. They both love music, but neither of them are musicians. Somehow, I was drawn to it.

It doesn't matter if you record with a microphone on a laptop or at a friend's house. Now it's more of a danger of things sounding too high-fi than sounding too low-fi.

I can pass as a lot of things: people meet me and don't think I'm gay and speak about gay people in a certain way or they don't know I'm Middle Eastern and do the same.

Honestly, I never felt like I wasn't an artist on my own. I always felt like the music I made was mine, whether it was part of a collaboration with people.

At some point I decided I didn't want to learn any more guitar technique. I was at that level where the next mountain there was to climb was Van Halen and I didn't really like Van Halen.

Sometimes the hangover provides inspiration.

I think that's kind of the perfect mix, where you do something that you're not sure about, you feel like you're taking a risk, and then you turn around and look at the artists that you're collaborating with and you can read the expression on their face if they like it or they hate it.

I like to be able to work quickly, to capture the spark of an idea before it goes out.

I think the music that speaks to me the most is music that is personal. And that's the music that I'm trying to make.

I figured out that it was important for me to have my identity, just live independently and like being myself, musically.