Rostam Batmanglij exits Vampire Weekend, breaks a generation’s heart

Vampire Weekend multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij announced Tuesday via Twitter that he is no longer a part of the band.

“My identity as songwriter and producer, I realized, needs to stand on its own”, he wrote on Twitter. “Ezra [Koenig, the band’s lead singer and lyricist] and I will continue to collaborate on future projects and future VW songs”.

Batmanglij has played guitar and keyboard for Vampire Weekend since co-founding the band at New York’s Columbia University in 2006.

“I can’t even begin to express the joy I get from writing songs, both on my own and with others, I hold it all sacred”, the statement continued. He split production duties with Ariel Rechtshaid on the band’s latest album, 2013’s Modern Vampires Of The City. It’s an exciting time.

Batmanglij wasn’t as prominent a figure in the band as Koenig, but he had just as large an impact on its erudite, gentle sound.

Yet some of Batmanglij’s lesser-known, and perhaps therefore under-appreciated, solo material came in the form of two singles released in 2011 – “Wood” and “Don’t Let It Get To You”.

Though Batmanglij didn’t offer up the specifics on any immediate projects, the last few years have seen him working with a number of collaborators outside of Vampire Weekend.