Rostam

Producer, singer, and songwriter Rostam goes record shopping at Amoeba Hollywood in this "What's In My Bag?" episode. The multi-instrumentalist and founding member of Vampire Weekend takes us back to 1997 -- an exceptional year for music by The Verve, Radiohead, Daft Punk & more -- and talks about the importance of always keeping an open mind. Rostam's first new solo album in five years, American Stories, is out now via Mastor Projects.

Rostam's picks:
• The Verve - Urban Hymns (LP)
• Radiohead - OK Computer (LP)
• Daft Punk - Homework (LP)
• Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill (LP)
• Tyler, The Creator - Chromakopia (LP)
• The Beatles - Complete Scores (BOOK)

Featured Artist: Rostam

Editor: Charlie McTavish Smith
Executive Producer: Rachael McGovern
Producer/Director: Craig Miller
Assistant Director: Derich Heath
Cameras: Derich Heath
Audio Recorded by: Patrick Emswiler
Assistant Editor: Patrick Emswiler

Watch Rostam's "What's In My Bag?" episode on Amoeba.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hi, I'm Rasta. I'm an amoeba in Hollywood, and this is what's in my bag. So I did grab a handful of albums from '97 because I have this theory that 1997 was a very important year for albums. I was also 14 years old in 1997. There's that classic thing of like the music that you liked between age you know 13 and 24 is the music that you carry into your life. This is called Urban Hymns. It's by the verb.

SPEAKER_04 0:45

Don't shake jack, shake jack, shake jack, shake.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

Everybody's probably heard the song Bittersweet Symphony, but the whole album is good, I promise. Um it's it's very special. I think Lucky Man is a good one. The Drugs Don't Work. Also classic sonnet. Yeah, there's a lot of great songs on here. Don't believe me. Just check it out. This one is a sort of like universally regarded 1997 classic. This is what you get when you mess with. It uses a 909 drum machine, and I bought one of those this past year. Yeah, I am a Roland 909 owner. I've made music on it. None of the music that I've made with a 909 has come out yet. Um, and none of that that music is on my knee record, but it will probably make it into future projects. Whenever I buy gear, it always takes me a little while to figure out like how to use it. And sometimes, you know, sometimes I'll have something for a few years before it ends up on a song. Revolution 909 is a song that I've listened to since I was 14. Yeah, these are just both classic albums. This album was the recording began in 97, but it came out in 1998.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

Now the joy of my wife is in Zion.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

It was her first solo album after the Fuji's.

SPEAKER_03 4:23

I must confess my destiny's manifest. There's some vortex and sweats, I make tracks like I'm homeless.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

There's so many excellent songs, but a couple of my favorites are To Zion, X Factor.

SPEAKER_03 4:36

No matter how high we grow, you always seem to let me know.

SPEAKER_04 4:42

It ain't working, it ain't working.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

And then there's an unlisted cover of You're Just Too Good to Be True. That it, yeah, it's it's not listed as one of the songs on the record, but uh I think if you listen long enough, you'll get there. The secret track is also very uh it's a very 1990s phenomenon, and we don't really have that anymore.

unknown 5:06

And let me love.

SPEAKER_04 5:09

Oh baby, let me love you, oh baby.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Okay, now that we've we've kind of done our 90s thing, I think this is a great album.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

I can't even buy a home in private. Home invaders got my brothers dying. Notice every cars driving by, I think my neighbors won't be dead. I got a cabinet underneath the bed, triple checking if I lock the door.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

I could say I was not a Tyler fan. And then I heard this album, and this is the one I connected with.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

It's getting sticky, sticky, sticky, bitch is getting sticky, sticky, sticky, bro is getting sticky, sticky, sticky.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

It's like sometimes you think you have a sense of the kind of music that an artist makes and the mood of it and what it means to you, whether whether or not you identify with it, whether or not you connect with it. I think there's always a chance to reconsider. The idea is just always keep an open mind.

SPEAKER_04 6:02

Mama chasing a girl. Do I look.

SPEAKER_02 6:11

And then my last thing is not a record. It's a book. The Beatles Complete Scores. This is not just the chord charts. It goes even deeper than that. So for Eleanor Rigby, you get the string quartet. You also get the background vocals arranged like exactly as they appear on the record. You get the piano sheet music, you get the chord charts. Like I said, you get the string quartet arrangement for people like me who, you know, just want to go as deep as possible. This is a lifetime of joy. Do you collect a lot of Beatles stuff? I do own a 1967 Hoffner, which is the quote unquote Beatles bass that I purchased on New Year's Eve 2010. So I guess I do collect some Beatles stuff, if that counts. I have some like mixed feelings about the word collector. Because I feel like I like to use the stuff that I purchased, you know, like whether that's like on a record or learning more about music or like listening to music and yeah, like I don't think I would ever buy something and just put it on my shelf and never actually listen to it. I know there are some people like that who will buy two copies and they'll have like one vinyl that you listen to and another one that you want to keep in pristine condition. I do understand the impulse to want to just preserve something. I didn't really grow up in that kind of family. Like my parents kind of their ethos was that like you know, you gotta use the stuff that you that you have. So I'm not really like a person who collects stuff. I'd rather have, you know, just enough that I can use. Thank you so much for coming in today. Thank you. We're so happy to talk to you. Thank you guys for having me.