Rostam Batmanglij Quits Vampire Weekend: I Need To Stand on My Own

Vampire Weekend is down one of its founding members.

Earlier today (January 26), Rostam Batmanglij, one of the alternative rock band's guitarists and vocalists, announced his departure from the group in a note posted to Twitter. Vampire Weekend formed in 2006 in New York City, have recorded three full-length studio albums and won a Grammy in 2014 for Best Alternative Music Album.

"my identity as a songwriter + producer, I realized, needs to stand on its own. still connected to the ppl I work with, but through the songs we make together," Batmanglij wrote. "i can’t even begin to express the joy I get from writing songs, both on my own + with others, I hold it all sacred."

Earlier this month, Batmanglij released "EOS," a light, piano-painted track engineered by Shane Stoneback that he said was a long time coming in a statement provided to SPIN.

"I had this one idea from a while back stored as a voice memo on my phone," he said. "It was the chorus of ‘EOS’ and it had come out of me all at once: melody, lyrics and chords. It’s rare that that happens for me...what I recorded kept reminding of a very specific place and time in my life. I wanted to capture that feeling, and finishing the song became about chasing it down."

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