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Rostam Shares “Gravity Don’t Pull Me”

A new track and video.

March 11, 2016

"Gravity Don't Pull Me" starts with a light pop flutter, like a song from Rostam's old band Vampire Weekend. But shortly after the one-minute mark, sharply programmed drums burst through the track and push it in a new direction. The singer is hearbroken here: I bite my lip and I hold my tongue and I wait for the pain to be gone/ But some days, some days, I still let it back in.

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Rostam explained the genesis of the video in a press release. Read his words below, and watch the clip above.

After the release of the Discovery LP in 2009 I began to see people posting videos of themselves choreographing sections of songs from the album. It was then I realized I really wanted to make a dance video.

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In 2010 I came across a YouTube video Jack Grabow posted when he was a senior in high school of himself improvising dance to the song “I Think Ur a Contra.” I was really proud of the drum parts I'd written for the end of the song and I felt like he was able to capture those rhythms in a serious way—I got a feeling he understood what I was getting at in a way that I wondered if anyone ever would.

In 2012 I finally got in touch with him about collaborating on a project. He was really into the idea, but I didn't know what the right song could be at that time.

When I finished a version of "Gravity Don't Pull Me" in the fall of 2015, Jack was one of the first people I sent it to. I was pretty clear on what I wanted – Jack to choreograph a dance to be mirrored by another dancer for a symmetrically shot performance on camera. He chose to bring in Sam Asa Pratt. The two had been in the same dance club in high school and I recognized Sam from a video he’d posted of himself dancing to the song “Osaka Loop Line” from the Discovery album.

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The final version of “Gravity Don’t Pull Me” includes Sam and Jack performing the choreography they collaborated on and also improvised sections of the dance.