It’s a project that’s only recently launched, but the story of Hamilton Leithauser and Rostam Batmanglij goes right back. A young Ezra Koenig was briefly an intern at Hamilton’s band the Walkmen’s New York studio (fact: he held a light in the video for US indie-rock classic ‘The Rat’), he’d go on to form Vampire Weekend with Rostam. Years later, Rostam and Hamilton met when the bands appeared on the bill together at a show in Athens, Georgia. After that, they’d grab a few days here and here during the holidays back in Washington D.C. where they both grew up. They’d work on music, and now that The Walkmen are on hiatus and Rostam has left Vampire Weekend, they have the time to share this project. That’s the background.

For this addition of Midnight Chats Greg Cochrane met them at a south East London studio the night before their first UK gig at Hamilton + Rostam (only their second proper show) to talk about their debut album ‘I Had A Dream That You Were Mine’, growing up in D.C., fake vs real Christmas trees, The O.C. (The Walkmen appeared on the teen TV show), bagging a synch deal with Apple on their new iPhone commercial and if they’ll be any more music from the two of them. A bloke also walked into the recording halfway through to stick the kettle on and make a cup of tea. Always the pros. Anyway, listen and enjoy.

Midnight Chats is a Loud And Quiet creation – hosted in turn by Stuart Stubbs and Greg Cochrane (Greg does this one). Previous guests on the podcast include Anna Meredith, Matt Berry, Jon Hopkins, Bat For Lashes, Metronomy, Shock Machine (James Righton, ex-Klaxons), Kate Jackson (formerly of The Long Blondes), Gold Panda, Cat’s Eyes, Saul Williams, Polica and The Invisible’s Dave Okumu.

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