Quotes from Rostam Batmanglij

It's always my mission to try to do something that hasn't been done before, whether that's musically, lyrically or in terms of mixing.

I always want to be somewhat uncomfortable. But at the same time I want to make music that you react to viscerally.

I like that I can write my name in Persian, and it's a small unit, like a graphical unit. I feel the same way about my name in English, it's a graphical unit.

The most exciting songs to me are the unlikely hits, when you think, 'I love this, but why is it on the radio?'

A lot of people get a high from being onstage. I found ways to enjoy it. But I get it from being in the studio.

What I love is the openness of collaboration.

There's a bunch of rules that I want to break. I have a rule-breaking streak.

I think that for a lot of us gay people, we do feel that pop is our music. We identify with it and its iconography, and that's been a tradition.

Some of the journalists who've ended up writing about our band - and this is disappointing to say - have a very narrow outlook. And because of that they fundamentally misunderstand us.

I feel like I've had this ability to infiltrate, as an outsider and an insider, different groups.

It's hard to say how time factors into your work, because sometimes things will come to you very quickly, but it will take years for the ideas to be gestating in your mind.

When I moved to New York, I remember thinking, 'I'm never going to live anywhere else.'

I would hope to make a record that interacts with culture in a macro sense. That is something to aspire to.

Only a straight white person would have no concept of what visibility is. They've never contended with anything but visibility.

The original 'Don't Let It Get to You' started with a beat. The drums came first. All the musical and lyrical elements were written over those drums.

In some ways, the more that I write songs, the more I feel that telling a story is the most important thing; just being able to close your eyes when you hear some lyrics and go somewhere.

We've always said that our band is pretty much an open system and there's no rules governing anything... so who knows what the future will hold?