Best known for his work with Vampire Weekend, Rostam has announced his debut record “Half Light” available through Nonesuch Records on September 8, 2017.

(Press Photo via Claire Vogel)

After his tenure with Vampire Weekend, Rostam went on to having his own success as a producer on Frank Ocean’s “Blonde” and Carly Rae Jepsen’s “E•MO•TION.” Having released a slew of singles following his departure from the group like “EOS” and “Don’t Let It Get To You”, this marks the first major project for Rostam.

The title of the record itself is inspired by the idea of duality, with ‘half-light’ referring to both sunrise and sunset. About this idea, the musician states in a press release:

“I was also struck by the fact that it was a word with a double meaning. That felt important to this record. It made me think back to a friend in Japan who told me that the word ’double’ was becoming more and more popular than ’half’ for people to describe their split ethnicities. Any person growing up in America with immigrant parents experiences this dichotomy, of feeling both double and half. It’s something a lot of us who identify as queer experienced growing up as well, slipping between straight and gay worlds, code-switching. I say experienced in the past tense because I don’t know that that’s the experience today’s kids will have. Things are changing,” he continues.

“I think what draws me to dawn and dusk as a songwriter is that those are the moments where we feel change deepest in a day. Those are the moments where I seem to experience the onset of a realization and the strongest feelings of optimism about the future. With this record, I’m trying to share some of those realizations and some of that optimism.”

The singer-songwriter has been on tour for the past year promoting the upcoming record playing venues such as The Bowery Ballroom in New York and 9:30 Club in DC, and will be touring “throughout 2017 into 2018.”

Half-Light Tracklist:
01. Sumer
02. Bike Dream
03. Half-Light ft Kelly Zutrau
04. Thatch Snow
05. Wood
06. Never Going To Catch Me
07. Don’t Let It Get To You
08. I Will See You Again
09. Hold You ft. Angel Deradoorian
10. When
11. Rudy
12. Warning Intruders
13. EOS
14. Gwan
15. Don’t Let It Get To You (Reprise)

“Half-Light” is available for pre-order via iTunes and Nonesuch Records on September 8 with “Gwan” and “Bike Dream” for instant download.