Vampire Weekend look like they’ve just sloped off the set of a Wes Anderson movie. Four tweedy New Yorkers, they wear boat shoes and neatly parted hair whilst freighting their songs with smarty-pants allusions to the finer points of English grammar and American history. To complete the stereotype, they even hooked up in the preppy environs of New York’s Columbia University, an Ivy League college straight out of The Royal Tenenbaums.
“I think the reason that the Columbia thing gets attention is maybe the sort of person who goes to an Ivy League school has certain ambitions, maybe different from those you usually find with people in a rock band,” says songwriter Rostam Batmanglij. “We definitely share the sort of ambitions of other people at our school but we kind of went about it in a way that maybe was outside the box, like buying our own van and touring. A lot of our friends are working for investment banks or going to med-school.”
Of all the new bands tipped for greatness in 2008, Vampire Weekend (the name comes from a never-completed schlock horror movie directed by lead singer Ezra Koenig) are arguably the hottest. David Byrne has praised them in his blog; touring Europe with The Shins last year, they nearly blew the headliners off stage. Released later this month, their debut album lives up to the buzz. Steeped in African tribal rhythms and quasi-classical arrangements the self-titled record, is, by the standards of music made by skinny white dudes with guitars, a singular opening shot.
“We thought it would be interesting to bring African influences to a band of four people playing what in some ways are very traditional instruments,” says Rostam, flopped upon the moth-eaten sofa of his Brooklyn Heights apartment.
How did they stumble upon African music?
“Ezra found this album at a yard sale where he bought like a thousand records – he got a vinyl compilation of music from Madagascar that influences (early single) 'Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa', in terms of how he played guitar. And like, three or four summers ago, I went to London and heard this South African pop singer, Brenda Fassie, in a flea market. I think it was in Spitalfield. I wrote the name down and, as soon as I got back to America, found it.”
As for the group’s rapid progression from obscurity, don’t expect Vampire Weekend to have their heads turned.
“In all sorts of ways it doesn’t seem to matter very much. We’ve been working on music slowly over the past few years. We’ve always done everything at our own pace and for so long we’ve done absolutely everything ourselves. It doesn’t surprise us that we’re getting attention now, because we all put a great amount of effort into the band.”
But isn’t it flattering when someone like David Byrne comes to check you out – and then pens a gushing write-up in his blog? “Well, we didn’t know at the time that he was there. If we had, we'd have been too crippled with nerves to play!”
There's an easy way to get on Vampire Weekend’s ugly side: ask whether they owe anything to Paul Simons Afro-beat tinged Graceland album, ground zero for western musicians on a world music trip.
“We’re influenced by African music but that has nothing to do with Graceland,” insists Rostam. “It’s a reference point that's kind of sloppy, especially if you’ve heard our whole album.”