QUOTES by Rostam Batmanglij
Find most favourite and famour Authors from A.A Milne to Zoe Kravitz.
Some of the journalists who've ended up writing about our band - and this is disappointing to say - have a very narrow outlook. And because of that they fundamentally misunderstand us.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
The whole point of Lady Gaga is that anyone can do it. A few years ago she was a nobody. She talks about how it's important for people to know that by sheer force of will they can bring about anything they want in their lives.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
It's always my mission to try to do something that hasn't been done before, whether that's musically, lyrically or in terms of mixing.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I don't believe in expertise. I don't believe that a film critic feels a film more deeply than any person who walks into a theater. I don't believe that.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
Well, I think that I have a complicated relationship with whiteness because oftentimes, I pass as white, and I recognize that. I would be disingenuous to pretend that I don't pass as white.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
Honestly, I never felt like I wasn't an artist on my own. I always felt like the music I made was mine, whether it was part of a collaboration with people.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I work on music with different people, and I work on music on my own. That's my life.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I don't think teenagers in 2017 identify with heterosexuality, and that's a positive.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I feel like there's no one kind of person who comes to my shows. Sometimes I've been surprised by the people who will stop me on the street to tell me that they're into my music.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
It's easier for me to remember things based on the releases of albums. The year is such an arbitrary thing.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I'm trying to get to a point where I tell people, if you want to get in touch with me, please don't rely on email. I don't want to be a slave to it.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
As a kid I had gone to New York a handful of times with my family. I definitely think it planted a seed in me.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I like the idea that a song can be about a romantic relationship, but it can also about a relationship to your career, or a relationship to your city.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
Throughout college I was getting better and better at making recordings, producing songs, making different kinds of beats.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I made a quote-unquote 'album' for my senior project of high school. As soon as I finished making it I realized it wasn't the kind of music I wanted to make.
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My parents left Iran in 1979 and moved to France and then moved to the U.S. My brother was born in France and I was born in New York, and then we moved to D.C.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
The most exciting songs to me are the unlikely hits, when you think, 'I love this, but why is it on the radio?'
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I certainly think that my music is a response to my experience as a person who doesn't identify as straight, as a person who grew up American.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
Because of who I am, and how open I am, there's something inherently political about just writing love songs.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I think that's kind of the perfect mix, where you do something that you're not sure about, you feel like you're taking a risk, and then you turn around and look at the artists that you're collaborating with and you can read the expression on their face if they like it or they hate it.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I think as a producer, you're always sort of questioning if what you're contributing is something that an artist loves and elevates a song.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
Even though I've been making electronic music since I was 14, it's hard for people to see you as a producer with a musical identity when you're contextualized in a band that performs on a stage.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I admire Brian Eno so much in how he seems to push the idea of less being more - his touch is to crack open a window and let the light in.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I want to live in a world that is less white supremacist, straight supremacist, male supremacist.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I think the music that speaks to me the most is music that is personal. And that's the music that I'm trying to make.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
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.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
When I moved to New York, I remember thinking, 'I'm never going to live anywhere else.'
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I don't identify as white. I have a complex relationship with whiteness.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
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.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
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.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I'd like to release solo songs on a regular basis, but it's pretty difficult for me to finish them.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I was listening 'Plastic Ono Band,' the John Lennon album a lot, and that might have had some inspiration on me.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
As a person who doesn't identify as straight, any love song I write is contextualized by a queer identity.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
When my mom was pregnant with me, my parents moved from France to America.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
Films should involve a director's idiosyncrasies as much as possible I think.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I'm always making beats, and when I can hear Ezra singing on one of them in my head, I send it to him. That's one of the ways that we've always worked together.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
Classical music can be catchy, so can African instrumental guitar music. It's not just pop songs that are catchy. Rhythms can be catchy, too.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
The idea of the gay experience, it feels like a relic. I felt like in the '90s when we were watching the gay characters on 'The Real World,' there was definitely a gay experience that was distinct from a straight experience. If you talk to high schoolers in 2017, I don't know that is as much a part of how they experience a social dynamic.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
A lot of what being a producer is, is giving people space. Like psychologically being there to help them realize what they're trying to do.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I am a very big fan of Brian Eno, of his work as an artist and making his music, and as a producer. In some ways, I have looked to his career as a model for my own.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
When an old tape machine makes pitch wobble, some people would say that compromises fidelity and would try to get rid of it. But to me that wobble adds richness, it instantly brings back the feelings you associate with old recordings.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij
I'd like to make an album with Slack one day. I'd like to use it as a collaborative tool. I know about it because I have friends that work in tech, and I guess you can use it in any job.
Quote by -Rostam Batmanglij