Home
sign up| features / music feature |
 content by: editor |
 vampire weekend interview
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.Something for the Weekend. Ten minutes into Vampire Weekend’s set, frontman Ezra Koenig slips out of his brown penny loafers and darts from side to side in a pair of canary-yellow socks. As rock gestures go, it’s hardly up there with setting your Stratocaster alight or biting the head off a live bat, but it’s a fitting way for the New Yorkers to announce their arrival in London, erstwhile heart of the British Empire. (Bear with us, the colonial stuff is significant.) Vampire Weekend make pop music that is joyous, energetic and clever to boot. The crowd at the Borderline bellow along, even though many are hearing the songs for the first time. Musically, they mix familiar styles in unfamiliar combinations: New Wave pop with classical string flourishes, punky guitar stabs and African rhythms. They describe it as “Upper West Side Soweto”. Think Talking Heads, Orange Juice or The Strokes. Party music with a literary bent. “We’re looking to make new things,” explains keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij, before the show. “We want to bring things together that haven’t been brought together before.” Ezra agrees. “We don’t want to be like bands who take the most boring things about grunge or late 70s rock and then make the same music again, but with bigger-sounding drums.”  Vampire Weekend only came into existence 18 months ago, when the foursome met at Columbia University. They put out a single in collaboration with Collective-tipped art group Space 1026, and soon found themselves supporting Animal Collective (David Byrne blogged his approval) and headlining the Bowery Ballroom. Not too bad considering they have only just hired a manager. Lyrically, their songs are pretty esoteric, often referring to Ezra’s interest in colonial Africa and India. “I’ve been reading a lot of stuff from that era,” he explains. “Today I bought a book called Letters From India, written by an Anglo-Indian called Lady Wilson at the turn of last century.” All the talk of Oxford commas (look it up) might suggest a rather romanticised view of this country, but Vampire Weekend’s interest in contemporary Britain doesn’t extend much beyond a love of The Mighty Boosh. Oh, and roast dinners. “I love Yorkshire Pudding. It’s tasty,” says Rostam. He turns to his confused bandmates: “That’s what the big pie without the pudding was.”
David Jones
Vampire Weekend – Mansard Roof single is out on 05 November 07 on XL.
 conversations
Read members' comments.
If you register you can discuss this article with other users. |
 |
related info
 useful linksmyspace: vampire weekend
note: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
music  music archive Watch music sessions and interviews from 2002 to 2008. books  books and comics archive Author interviews and reviews from 2002 to 2008. |
send to a friend
animal collective
space 1026
access 1000s of articles