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Ezra Koenig in 2015
News
Here's The Scoop On Vampire Weekend's 4th Album vampire-weekends-ezra-koenig-teases-new-album-details

Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig Teases New Album Details

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The GRAMMY-winning band's guitarist and lead singer revealed new details about his band's fourth album yesterday on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 radio show
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
Sep 20, 2017 - 12:23 pm

Ezra Koenig, guitarist and lead singer for GRAMMY-winning New York City-based rock band Vampire Weekend, has made quite the habit of making big announcements lately.

Just two weeks ago, he announced that Netflix would soon be the home for an original animé TV show that Koenig had written and conceived, with acclaimed director Kazuhiro Furuhashi at the helm and Jaden Smith signed on to voice the lead character.

Then yesterday, when Koenig made an appearance on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 radio show to discuss the forthcoming TV show, the singer also happened to drop some hints about the status of his band's long-awaited fourth album. 

It's been four years since the band released their Best Alternative Music Album GRAMMY-winning Modern Vampires Of The City, and while Koenig was tight-lipped on a specific release date, he did reveal that the album is around 80% done, saying if there were a "gun to [his] head," there was likely enough material to even release the album at present.

Although the forthcoming album's title had already been teased, jokingly, as the somewhat befuddling (but well within the band's typical faux-pretentious goofy-serious wheelhouse) Mitsubishi Macchiato, Koenig did clarify for the first time that the actual title had yet to be revealed.

Koenig was less free with the details of production collaborators. It will be interesting to see what choices get made behind the boards for this record, as all three previous Vampire Weekend releases were produced in-house by mutli-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij, who departed the band following the release of Modern Vampires Of The City to pursue solo projects. 

Without giving too much away, Koenig did slyly admit that there would be, "quite a cast of characters" making appearances on the new record. Could this potentially include 2-time GRAMMY-winning producer Ariel Rechtshaid, who contributed to the band's award-winning third album, and won his second career GRAMMY at the 59th Awards for his work on Adele's Album Of The Year-winning 25? Fans might not have to wait too long to find out.

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Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend
News
Ezra Koenig's Next Project Is An… Anime? vampire-weekends-ezra-koenigs-next-project-%E2%80%A6-anime

Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig's Next Project Is An… Anime?

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The GRAMMY winner teased details about his latest nonmusical project today
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
Sep 5, 2017 - 5:47 pm

GRAMMY winner Ezra Koenig of New York indie rock outfit Vampire Weekend has apparently been hard at work behind the scenes on a new project.

Vampire Weekend Win Best Alternative Music Album

Alongside an unlikely band of compatriots that include Jude Law, Jaden Smith, director Kazuhiro Furuhashi, and The Kid Mero (of Twitter fame, as well as internet infamous for his all-capslock album reviews for Noisey), Koenig will be launching a new anime television show titled "Neo Yokio."

Stereogum was able to unearth additional details from an interview Jude Law conducted back in June 2016 for the TimesTalks conversation series, wherein he hinted, "I think Jaden Smith is playing this little boy called Kai in it, and I’m his butler. I’m this kind of huge robot butler called Charles, who is also a rocket ship. And it takes place in a New York that is sort of combined with Tokyo in the future."

Koenig wrote and conceived the project, and has partnered with Netflix to bring it to fruition. "Neo Yokio" will premiere on the streaming service on Sept. 22.

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Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend

Photo: Burak Cingi/Redferns/Getty Images

News
Ezra Koenig Dives Deep Into 'Father Of The Bride' ezra-koenig-elaborates-vampire-weekends-emotional-and-personal-fotb

Ezra Koenig Elaborates On Vampire Weekend's "Emotional And Personal" 'FOTB'

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"I always wondered if people pictured us banging our heads against the wall for six years. In a way, given that it's a lot of songs, it came about more quickly than usual," the GRAMMY-winning frontman said in a new Stereogum profile
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
May 3, 2019 - 4:12 pm

Today, Vampire Weekend released their highly anticipated fourth studio album, Father of the Bride. It's been six years since the band released their last LP, the GRAMMY-winning Modern Vampires Of The City.

The indie stalwarts have been working up a buzz around FOTB for months, first when they revealed the album's title/eminent release and dropped the first double batch of singles, "Harmony Hall" and "2020" on Jan. 24, and then with a tour announcement, two more double-single releases and, finally, today's 18-track double album drop.

Now, in a deep-diving Stereogum profile, Ezra Koenig offers insight into the jubilant ease and complexity of the new release, how he and the group have grown, and how collaboration has helped the group expand its creativity and shine.

"I always wondered if people pictured us banging our heads against the wall for six years. In a way, given that it's a lot of songs, it came about more quickly than usual," Koenig told Stereogum.

Since Modern Vampire's release in 2013, a lot has happened for the group; Rostam Batmanglij departed, the other two remaining members, bassist Chris Baio and drummer Chris Tomson both released solo albums, and Koenig created an anime series on Netflix. In the interview, Koenig shares how he has, finally, fully embraced his role as the band's frontman.

"I never felt comfortable calling myself the leader because I felt like that was something that I had to earn. But I did start the band, so I had some degree of leadership. In the beginning, I made it clear that I was going to choose the songs. It wasn't important for me to write all of the songs, because I love writing songs with other people, but it was important for me to have that curatorial role."

https://twitter.com/arzE/status/1124325145022271488

Also:

- I know it’s a long album but I think the back half contains some of the best songs I’ve ever written so maybe listen backwards once or twice? 🤷🏻‍♂️

- support ur local record store if u can 🤷🏻‍♂️

- wow we’ve been on this journey together for a minute. Thanks. 🤷🏻‍♂️

- 🤷🏻‍♂️

— Ezra Koenig (@arzE) May 3, 2019

And with Father Of The Bride, which Koenig first revealed they were working on and nearly 80 percent done with back in September 2017, both the collaboration and storyline are rich. It is the first time the group has brought in featured artists, with HAIM's Danielle Haim dueting on three songs, and The Internet's Steve Lacy making waves on two others.

Both Koenig and GRAMMY-winning producer Ariel Rechtshaid, who returned after co-producing Modern Vampires with the frontman, explain the collabs happened organically. As Rechtshaid put it, "The only people involved on the record were involved because it felt organic. It's an informal revolving door of the homies and the homegirls."

Koenig is evidently the type of artist always striving for growth and expansion, to always be covering new territory and pushing their group's creative boundaries. As a group with songs like the unabashedly nerdy "Oxford Comma," from their 2008 self-titled debut LP, their new material feels lighter and more lyrically accessible, but very much in the traditional Vampire Weekend vein of epic storytelling and upbeat sounds.

"Am I going to be throwing open the dictionary for every song? That doesn't feel exciting," Koenig said. He continued, "A lot of my favorite songs accomplish things I've never accomplished. What am I scared to say? What haven't I done? Part of it is emotional and personal, and part of it is the novelty of new artistic challenges."

He also explained how the duets he shared with Haim, one third of the GRAMMY-nominated sister trio of the same name, played a key role in this new artistic exploration. "A true duet is people in a shared situation with slightly different perspectives," he said. "That felt like the type of thing I hadn’t done before. It was hard. Lyrically, I think this is the most rigorous I've ever been."

Haim, meanwhile, emphasized the authentic nature of the collab. "I've known Ezra for a couple years now and have always been a fan. The first song he showed me was 'Hold You Now' and I loved it immediately. He asked if I would sing it with him and the rest kinda just happened naturally."

The album title, which Koenig shared had been "in the running three or four years ago," also ended up taking on a deeper meaning when Koenig recently became a father himself, with partner Rashida Jones.

"Why would a phrase like that be evocative to me? I think, naturally, you start looking at new themes as you get older. Father Of The Bride is meant to make you think of a wedding, a life cycle event, a moment of transition. I didn't know that I would be a father by the time this album came out… But it's not a crazy coincidence that a major life cycle event would happen to me in the years after I started thinking about what adulthood really was."

Father of the Bride is available wherever you get your music (digitally or at your local record store). You can also catch Vampire Weekend on tour, starting with Hangout Fest in Alabama this month.

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Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend

Photo: Johnny Louis/Getty Images

News
Vampire Weekend Announce 2020 Tour Dates vampire-weekend-announce-2020-tour-dates

Vampire Weekend Announce 2020 Tour Dates

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As Ezra Koenig and company closed out a show at Madison Square Garden in NYC, they revealed new North American tour dates, beginning in spring 2020
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Sep 9, 2019 - 1:33 pm

This year has been a big one for Vampire Weekend, who, after months of double-single releases, dropped their long-awaited follow up to 2013's GRAMMY-winning Modern Vampires Of The City. The GRAMMY winners shared the epic 18-track Father of the Bride on May 3 and began part one of the supporting tour in June.

Now, this past Friday, Sept. 6, as Ezra Koenig and company closed out a show at Madison Square Garden in New York, they revealed new North American tour dates, beginning spring 2020, with tickets going on sale this week.

New FOTB dates have been added for 2020. Presales start Wednesday at 10am. https://t.co/5UJmB9pQVN pic.twitter.com/LSRfgEMIhP

— Vampire Weekend (@vampireweekend) September 9, 2019

The alt-rock group will wrap up the second leg of the FOTB Tour and second decade of the century in Australia for the four dates of the multi-city Falls Festival. The trek will pick back up in North America on May 29, 2020 in Westbrook, Maine, with 19 more shows slated across the U.S. and Canada. The 2020 dates include many cities they will miss on their current run, including Ashville, N.C. on June 12, Detroit on Sept. 24 and New Orleans on Oct. 6.

More VW: Ezra Koenig Elaborates On Vampire Weekend's "Emotional And Personal" 'FOTB'

In addition to giving their fans more chances to see them live, the three-hour Garden show in Vampire Weekend's birthplace of New York City marked the first live performance of "Sunflower" that included collaborator Steve Lacy. You can check out a fan video of the performance below. As the upload reveals, they also performed a version of "Dark Red," from Steve Lacy's Demo, Lacy's 2017 solo EP, his first release outside of his music with The Internet.

Presales for the new dates begin this Wednesday, Sept. 11 at 10 a.m. local time, with general sales starting Sept. 13. Tickets are also still available for select previously announced dates. All tour info can be found on VampireWeekend.com

Watch Cyndi Lauper Perform "Time After Time" At The 27th GRAMMY Awards | GRAMMY Rewind

Ezra Koenig

Ezra Koenig 

Photo: Monika Mogi

News
Vampire Weekend Drop New Music, Album Details vampire-weekend-release-new-music-announce-forthcoming-album-details

Vampire Weekend Release New Music, Announce Forthcoming Album Details

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After teasing the follow-up to 2013's 'Modern Vampires Of The City,' the band unleashes two new songs
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
Jan 24, 2019 - 12:10 pm

GRAMMY-winning indie rock band Vampire Weekend are done merely teasing new music after their mini hiatus; They've not only dropped two new songs, but have also revealed their forthcoming album, Father Of The Bride, will be out in the spring.

Days ago the band teased the follow-up to 2013's Modern Vampires Of The City with 120 minutes of the guitar riffs of one song, "Harmony Hall." Now fans can hear the full-length version of the song and another titled "2021."

The songs are two of the 18-tracks on the upcoming album, whose title was chosen by singer Ezra Koenig years ago, the band said in a statement.

While on break from releasing music with Vampire Weekend, Koenig co-wrote and produced "Hold Up" on Beyoncé's GRAMMY-winning Lemonade album and released a Netflix anime series Neo Yokio, while continuing to host his Beats1 show Time Crisis.

Brandi Carlile, Miley Cyrus, H.E.R. & Red Hot Chili Peppers Added To 2019 GRAMMYs Performer Lineup

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