Last month, Rostam set Amanda Gorman’s now-famous Inauguration poem to music using piano arrangements. The former Vampire Weekend member is back today, this time with a dazzling original song of his own dubbed “These Kids We Knew”. Stream it below.
This new offering revolves around a musical pulse meant to reflect the innocence of youth and the impermanence of stability. According to a press release, Rostam wrote “These Kids We Knew” in a “fever-dream state” in March of last year — during which he was recovering from COVID-19 — while reflecting on the push and pull of societal responsibility.
“I was thinking of three generations while I was writing this song,” he explained. “There’s a generation of adults who don’t see global warming as their problem because they think they won’t be impacted by it. Then there’s a generation younger than mine, who will certainly have to deal with what is happening. In the song I have a fantasy of the younger generation arresting the adults and putting them on trial in the streets of cities around the world. Those are the ‘sidewalk courts’ that I sing about in the song.”
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“These Kids We Knew” follows “Unfold You” from October. Per a statement, Rostam is expected to drop “much more” new material in 2021, so stay tuned.
Rostam’s last solo record, Half-Light, came in 2017. Since then, he’s spent the past few years producing other artists’ LPs, including Clairo’s acclaimed 2019 album Immunity and HAIM’s stunning Women In Music Pt. III. That’s not too shabby of a resume to have while taking a break from your own songwriting career.
