Rostam Batmanglij is leaving Vampire Weekend!

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This is the sad news of today: Rostam Batmanglij, guitarist of Vampire Weekend, has decided to leave the band for a solo career!

Vampire Weekend is the story of 4 musicology students from Columbia University, New York, who decided to form a band in 2006 : Ezra Koenig (vocals, guitar), Rostam Batmanglij (keyboard, guitar, vocals), Chris Tomson (drums) and Chris Baio (bass). They released their debut album in 2008, which contains the iconic A-Punk and Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa. Their second opus, Contra, followed in 2010 and offered us the clip of Giving Up The Gun where we can see the actor Jake Gyllenhaal and the singer Joe Jonas, former member of the Jonas Brothers,  in the middle of a tennis game. Then some time later came their third album Modern Vampires Of The City, in 2013, which was noticed with its titles Unbelievers,  Step and Diane Young.

But today, the hour is serious: guitarist Rostam Batmanglij announced on his Twitter account that he had decided to leave the band.However, he says he will continue to collaborate with Vampire Weekend on their upcoming projects and songs. He justifies this sudden break with the band by the fact that with his identity as composer and producer, he would now like to stand on his own. In other words, launch his solo career. Which he has already done quickly by releasing the EOS title.

Are you afraid it's the end of Vampire Weekend? Fear not! The leader Ezra Koenig quickly reassured us on Instagram. He posted a photo of a house where, the singer explains, a few years ago, he and Rostam Batmanglij talked about the band and their collaboration, and that despite this departure, Vampire Weekend is focusing on the recording of their fourth album which will be called Mitsubishi Macchiato.

A couple years ago, Rostam and I sat down at his house & talked abt whether our collaboration was dependent on being members of the same band. We both firmly agreed that nope, it was not. In fact, we agreed that our collaboration was more important. I'm psyched about the work we've already begun for LP4 and I'm psyched to hear anything else Rostam is a part of. Also very excited to continue playing music with CT and Baio but there will be plenty of time to talk about that later in the year. For now in the Vampire Weekend universe, it's all about recording the next album. There will be a lot of familiar faces in the studio but also some fresh, new ones. Working title is "Mitsubishi Macchiato"… for obvious reasons. Shout-out to the fans who have been waiting for new music – it's coming. Also tomorrow, we gotta talk abt Iowa. A photo posted by Ezra Koenig (@arze) on

In the end, even if the departure of Rostam Batmznglij leaves us bitter and doubtful, we can still hope that it is not the end for Vampire Weekend, because the leader Ezra Koening makes us hope for a sequel for the gang. Certainly, which will be different, but which will exist!

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