LISTEN: “In A Black Out” by Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam
“In A Black Out” by Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam, from their debut album, I Had A Dream That You Were Mine (due out September 23rd via Glassnote Records).
“In A Black Out” by Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam, from their debut album, I Had A Dream That You Were Mine (due out September 23rd via Glassnote Records).
“In the spirit of collaborations, not unlike those of David Byrne and Brian Eno, each musician’s individuality remains in tact, while in fact, both Hamilton’s identity as a singer and Rostam’s as a producer seem to reach new heights”.
“A 1000 Times” started with a beat I made while Hamilton and I were working out of my studio in LA. We picked it back up in New York and finished writing it in Washington, DC. I wanted us to do a song where the snares would crack as hard as Hamilton’s voice. To me, the song became about that interaction between the vocals and the drums. – Rostam
“On that first trip we got so much more done than the 1-2 tracks we’d talked about…we had big parts of maybe 5-6 songs. We knew we liked it all, but we hadn’t discussed the amount we wanted to make together. It was kind of a funny moment…like a ‘how far are we taking this relationship?’ kind of thing. I don’t think we made a decision until a few months later, when our next session went well again. At that point it was definitely going to be a lot more than a few tracks on my next solo record.” – Hamilton Leithauser
Looking for a new playlist? Check out Indie Music Filter’s “Best Of March 2016” playlists below.
March is statistically such a great time for new music, as you can tell by the size of this months’ group. I had to trim a few from the list, but what’s left, is the cream of the crop from the blogs last month. Tons of new discoveries including Romes, WILDES, Rostam, Teleman plus new tracks from IMF faves Anna Of The North, M83, Oyster Kids, Still Parade and Great Good Fine OK.
Something for everyone. Listen on (Soundcloud) / (Spotify) / (Youtube)
This new Rostam tune has really grown on me. “Gravity Don’t Pull Me”, via the music video co-directed by Rostam and Josh Goleman below, is part of a collection of singles coming out this year on XL Recordings.
The video was in some ways years in the making. Rostam explains:
“After the release of the Discovery LP in 2009 I began to see people posting videos of themselves choreographing sections of songs from the album. It was then I realized I really wanted to make a dance video.
In 2010 I came across a YouTube video Jack Grabow posted when he was a senior in high school of himself improvising dance to the song “I Think Ur a Contra.” I was really proud of the drum parts I’d written for the end of the song and I felt like he was able to capture those rhythms in a serious way—I got a feeling he understood what I was getting at in a way that I wondered if anyone ever would.
In 2012 I finally got in touch with him about collaborating on a project. He was really into the idea, but I didn’t know what the right song could be at that time.
When I finished a version of “Gravity Don’t Pull Me” in the fall of 2015, Jack was one of the first people I sent it to. I was pretty clear on what I wanted – Jack to choreograph a dance to be mirrored by another dancer for a symmetrically shot performance on camera. He chose to bring in Sam Asa Pratt. The two had been in the same dance club in high school and I recognized Sam from a video he’d posted of himself dancing to the song “Osaka Loop Line” from the Discovery album.
The final version of “Gravity Don’t Pull Me” includes Sam and Jack performing the choreography they collaborated on and also improvised sections of the dance.
Take a look at “Gravity Don’t Pull Me”.