Rostam Batmanglij was born on November 28, 1983 to Iranian parents and is an Iranian-American songwriter, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist of New York-based indie rock band Vampire Weekend and electro-soul group Discovery.
Batmanglij grew up in Washington D.C. His mother is the distinguished Persian cookbook author Najmieh Batmanglij while his father is a publisher. His parents are both Iranian and arrived in D.C. in 1983. His brother is independent filmmaker Zal Batmanglij. The two collaborated on the recently released film, Sound of My Voice, which Rostam scored and which Zal directed and co-wrote. Rostam also composed an original piece for piano that will be featured in Zal’s latest project The East which was released on May 31, 2013.
Rostam majored in music at Columbia University where Vampire Weekend formed in 2006. He produced the bands follow up album, Contra which sold 124,000 copies in its first week. Batmanglij plays guitar, keyboard and sings in the band.
Rostam has participated in several successful albums such as “All Summer”(2010) and some of his major solos are “Wood”(2011) and “Don’t let it get to you”(2011).
In December 2014, Batmanglij along with Diplo and Ed Droste remixed Ty Dolla Sign’s “Stand For” into a new song titled “Long Way Home”
