Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij and The Walkmen’s Hamilton Leithauser have premiered new collaborative single “A 1000 Times”. The track marks the first official release of the duo’s new project, Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam. Batmanglij previously featured on Leithauser’s debut solo LP, Black Hours.
“A 1000 Times” is heavily indebted to Leithauser’s particular production sensibilities, featuring alternatingly pensive and strained vocals over simple, classic rock influenced instrumentation. Leithauser opens the track crooning over twinkling, subtle piano. He then shifts into his trademark yelp, while drums, guitar, and bass flesh out the mix. The single bares little in common with previous Batmanglij productions, drastically varying from his work with Vampire Weekend. Additionally, while clearly a Leithauser dominated track, “A 1000 Times” veers from The Walkmen frontman’s oft-heavy usage of previously dormant genre specific sounds.
Both Batmanglij and Leithauser have left acclaimed bands to pursue solo careers. Batmanglij departed Vampire Weekend earlier this year, while Leithauser’s The Walkmen went on official hiatus following their most recent LP, 2012’s Heaven.
In an earlier interview with Pitchfork, Rostam detailed plans to produce a full-length collaborative record with Leithauser.
I’ve also been making a full-length record with Hamilton Leithauser, which I’m very excited about. Our plan is to release it as a duo, basically, and every now and then I get a feeling that it might be one of the best records I make in my whole life. We worked really hard on lyrics and every song tells a story. In some ways, the more that I write songs, the more I feel that telling a story is the most important thing; just being able to close your eyes when you hear some lyrics and go somewhere. It’s worth taking the time to do that, because people respond to it.
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