100 Quotes by Rostam Batmanglij

In the West we are constantly hit with music of Middle Eastern descent signifying terror, intrigue or sorrow.

You want the personality of each performer - whether it's singing or bass or drums or piano - to be intact. In some ways it's much more challenging to preserve that and to also make music that sounds modern.

I'd like to release solo songs on a regular basis, but it's pretty difficult for me to finish them.

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.

Whatever you are making, whether it's a song, an album, a painting, a film, you're connecting with a tradition, and I do feel connected to New York music.

I don't identify as white. I have a complex relationship with whiteness.

When I moved to New York, I remember thinking, 'I'm never going to live anywhere else.'

It's hard to make music that's sexy that's not cheesy.

I like that I can write my name in Persian, and it's a small unit, like a graphical unit. I feel the same way about my name in English, it's a graphical unit.