‘My generation have deluded themselves’: ex-Vampire Weekender Rostam on pop, protest and life as an Iranian-American

Inspired in part by Zohran Mamdani’s NY mayorship, Rostam Batmanglij’s gorgeous new album fuses Americana with sounds of the Middle East. So why isn’t his mum happy? The first song Rostam Batmanglij ever learned to play on guitar was Chuck Berry’s Johnny B Goode, the quintessentially American rock’n’roll hit about being an American rock’n’roll star. “It doesn’t get more American than that,” he says, with a smile. The 42-year-old superproducer (Frank Ocean, Charli xcx, Carly Rae Jepsen) and fo...

By Shaad D'Souza