Rostam Batmanglij, the 42-year-old superproducer and former Vampire Weekend member, has released his third solo album, American Stories, which fuses Americana with Persian music. The album explores themes of identity, politics, and his experience as an Iranian-American. Batmanglij, who learned his first guitar song from Chuck Berry, says he has always been fixated on US culture, despite his parents being born in Iran and his brother in France.
The album was partly inspired by the 2025 election of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim Indian democratic socialist. Batmanglij, who lived in New York City for many years, says Mamdani's election 'is an expansion of what is part of American leadership.' He sees it as a challenge to the idea that there is an agenda to define what is and isn't American.
While the album was written before the US and Israel's war with Iran, some songs obliquely reference the conflict in Gaza. On Come Apart, Batmanglij sings about burning olive trees, and on The Weight, he addresses student protesters. He wears an Artists4Ceasefire badge but declines to explain specific meanings, preferring listeners to discover them on their own.
Batmanglij, who has worked with Gen Z artists like Clairo, believes younger people have more clarity about the world. He says many in his generation 'have deluded themselves.' Since leaving Vampire Weekend over a decade ago, he has pursued solo work, embracing the freedom to explore unusual ideas. One track, Hardy featuring Clairo, took years to complete after he made the beat in 2012.
