Rostam: 'I want to speak to Iranians in America, to nonwhite people, to queer people'
When Rostam Batmanglij was a kid growing up in Washington, D.C. — "must have been 13 or 14," he figures — he used to ride around in his older brother's car listening to a collection of Bruce Springsteen's greatest hits. So it was probably inevitable that the musician and producer (and former Vampire Weekend member) would end up decades later with a song like "4Runner" from his mesmerizing new album.
A sexy-dreamy bop about two lovers' road trip up the West Coast, "4Runner" carries some big Boss energy — the propulsive tempo, the images of "stolen plates" and a "blanket on the backseat," the very "I'm on Fire" falsetto at the end of the tune. Asked if he hears it too, Rostam smiles and reveals that it wasn't just that formative experience at play: Throughout the process of making his "Changephobia" LP, he was listening intermittently to the audiobook of Springsteen's memoir, "Born to Run."
"It's a fun thing to pick up and put down because you can take the time to listen to the records he's talking about," says
