It’s been three years since Vampire Weekend released their most recent full-length Modern Vampires in the City, but multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij has kept plenty busy in the intervening years, working behind the scenes on a string of high-profile records. He’s also dropped a handful of standalone solo singles along the way, and today (Jan. 14), he’s added another to the mix.

Batmanglij has unveiled a lyric video for the soaring, piano-tinged “EOS,” which you can watch at the top of the page. Batmanglij directed the clip, while Jon Race created the animation. The song will be issued as a 7” single in February via XL Recordings; check out the single artwork at the bottom of the page.

In a statement, Batmanglij revealed “EOS” is inspired by a 25-second exposure photo taken near Jaisalmer, India. He also expounded on making the song with engineer Shane Stoneback:

I invited engineer Shane Stoneback to live with me for five day stretches to work on recordings. On the last day of his first trip I was fatigued from all the songs we’d worked on and wanted to start recording something new. I had this one idea from a while back stored as a voice memo on my phone. It was the chorus of ‘EOS’ and it had come out of me all at once: melody, lyrics and chords. It’s rare that that happens for me — I’m always collecting ideas on my phone but usually it’s individual building blocks of a song, this was the essential elements all coming out together. The rest of the song started to take shape because what I recorded kept reminding of a very specific place and time in my life. I wanted to capture that feeling, and finishing the song became about chasing it down.

Since Modern Vampires in the City, Batmanglij has worked with Charli XCX and Carly Rae Jepsen. He’s also contributed to forthcoming albums from Haim and Ra Ra Riot.

Rostam Batmanglij
XL
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