Today, Rostam has shared the latest single for his highly anticipated new album, American Stories, which will be out on May 15, through his own label, Matsor Projects, in partnership with Secretly Distribution. “Hardy” features indie luminary Clairo in a duet that reunites the pair after she and Rostam produced her debut album Immunity together in 2019. The track is a soaring sonic exploration of songwriting itself.

Rostam created the song’s instrumental in 2012 using a sample of Georges Delerue’s film score from Day for Night, a movie by Francis Truffaut, while sampling drums alongside it from a song by François Hardy. Though the François Hardy sample did not make the final track, it inspired the song’s name. Rostam revisited the track a few years ago, completing the lyrics and melody. The video premiered last week at a special advance screening of American Stories: A Concert Film at New York’s Anthology Film Archives. The film sees Rostam teaming with his six piece band and director Antony Muse for an 8-song live performance shot at the legendary Sound City Studio A where Nirvana, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty and countless others have recorded.

Photo Credit: Colin Hancock