Rostam, the indie pop singer-songwriter, producer, and former member of Vampire Weekend, dug back into the band's archives and shared an alternate version of the 2006 song, "Campus" from their debut self titled LP.
Originally imagined as a baroque chamber piece yet released as a rock number, the track, now 20 years old, has been restored in all its Bach-ian glory. The artist also shared an instrumental version of the single.
Listen to "Campus (Original Version)" below:
51% of the proceeds from the master recording of "Campus" will be donated to Palestine Legal, CHIRLA, Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, and Sudanese American Physicians Association, according to the artist.
While "Campus" was originally a part of Vampire Weekend's 2008 debut, the song existed as part of the group's earliest days as college sensations while attending Columbia University in 2006. In fact, the song is about their day-to-day life at their alma mater, and it was originally recorded in his dorm room, according to the official video credits.
In this re-recorded version, Rostam substitutes Vampire Weekend front man Ezra Koenig's vocals with his own. He also collaborates with Seth Rosenfeld on cello and Catherine Dailey on violin to provide the orchestral rearrangement of the track.
Rostam also shared a short documentary delving into the history of the song that started it all for him and his band. Confirming that they had never finished the strings version of "Campus" until now, he talks about the song's composition existing in the same world as Bach and Mark Mothersbaugh's scores for Wes Anderson's films. "I had a vision that I was just kind of pursuing for this strings version of the song," he explained, showing how he transcribed an acoustic guitar riff into a synth strings melody on Reason. "Simultaneously, the Vampire Weekend band version was coming into existence, and they were these parallel versions of the same song."
Rostam notes the struggles of writing the lyrics for the track, which he originally treated as a semi-fantasy about a random college student. "It took me a really long time to put together a second verse," he admits. "So, when we started playing it at Vampire Weekend, Ezra would just kind of improvise a different set of the second verse's lyrics every time we played it."
The mini-documentary also provides footage of Vampire Weekend's first-ever concert, filmed in 2006 on Columbia's campus. "We were putting together Vampire Weekend," says Rostam. He reveals that a lot of their earliest materials came together specifically to have new songs to perform at campus parties, finding motivation to surprise their friends who'd go to each gig.
Watch the full video below:
Rostam teased the "Campus (Original Version)" single earlier this week, saying it'd be his final archival release before officially beginning the promotion for his third record, American Stories. His new solo record will be out later this year, according to an official announcement he made last November.
More details on the new Rostam record will be announced soon.
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