On New Year’s Day, Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend tweeted an optimistic, if somewhat vague message about the upcoming year:
That still very well may be the case, but perhaps the emphasis should have been on the “getting shredded” part. Today, Rostam Batmanglij, a founding member and oft-referred “secret weapon” of the band, announced that he is no longer in the group.
Rostam shared the news via the all-powerful Note-screenshot on Twitter, the content of which has a few layers to it that require unpacking. First off, he’s out of the group outright. But, he states that he will continue to “collaborate” with Ezra and Vampire Weekend on future projects. Basically, this could be a gentle way of starting to rip the band-aid off, or it could be that he simply doesn’t want to be obligated to adhere to the complete demands of being a full-time member anymore, and that the music will continue to feel his influence as it always did.
Time will tell on that. Either way, it’s clear that Rostam is serious about his own career, saying, “my identity as a songwriter + producer, I realized, needs to stand on its own.” On that note, just this past week, Rostam shared a new solo track called “EOS,” which you can listen to below.
(via Paste)
Originally published January 26, 12:57 p.m.
Updated: January 26, 3:15 p.m.: First an iPhone Notes screenshot announcement, and now an Instagram text response… Welcome to 2016.
To throw a bit a water on the fire of anxious unbelievers, Ezra Koenig has posted a message about the status of Vampire Weekend. In it, he assures us all that Rostam will still be involved in the upcoming album, which is on the way—and has a working title of Mitsubishi Macchiato, “for obvious reasons.” Read the whole statement below.
