Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig reflects on 10th anniversary of ‘Modern Vampires Of The City’
Ezra Koenig has reflected upon Vampire Weekend’s ‘Modern Vampires Of The City’ album, a decade after it was first released.
The frontman took to social media yesterday (May 14) to discuss the impact of the album, and provide fans with an insight into the writing and recording process the band went through at the time.
Released back in 2013, the album was the third full-length LP to be released by the band, and featured fan favourites including ‘Unbelievers’, ‘Step’ and ‘Diane Young’. Now, a decade after its launch, Koenig has listed the reasons why he thinks the album “still means something to people”.
“MVOTC is ten years old. Wild. Good occasion to slam a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee and reflect,” he began. “Rostam [Batmanglij] and I spent about a year writing and recording this album before we moved into the final phase…
“It was far and away our most ‘studio album,'” he continued. “MVOTC didn’t have songs like A-Punk or Cousins which began as riffs and started to come to life in the practice room. This is an album of more deliberate composition and detailed, patient recording.”
He also recalled how he felt listening to the instrumental versions of both ‘Don’t Lie’ and ‘Diane Young’ for the first time, writing: “I remember when [Batmanglij] played me the beat for “Don’t Lie” for the first time. That drum pattern and descending chord progression on the organ moved me deeply. I started singing the vocal melody almost immediately.
“I similarly remember hearing his first instrumental of what became the heart of “Diane Young.” That music was exciting and it took me a long time to write lyrics that I thought were worthy of it.”
According to Koenig, it was the composition and production from Batmanglij that made the album monumental to their discography, and is the reason why the release “still means something to people ten years later.”
In other Vampire Weekend news, last year frontman Ezra Koenig teamed up with Phoenix to feature on their single ‘Tonight’, which featured on the French indie band’s 2022 album ‘Alpha Zulu’.
Speaking to NME for a Big Read cover story, Phoenix spoke of their kinship with Vampire Weekend. “There’s always been a synchronicity with us and Vampire Weekend,” they said. “A couple years ago, Laurent brought a sample of [Japanese cult star Haruomi] Hosono to us, and then two weeks later we heard the same sample on their song ‘2021’ [from Vampire Weekend’s 2019 album ‘Father of The Bride’].
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Liberty Dunworth
NME
