The latest New Music Friday has brought the release of Rostam’s new solo album Changephobia – check it out via Spotify below.
The courage to delve into some heavy subject matter on his second solo LP came from an unlikely source for Rostam – a chance conversation with a stranger on a park bench.
“Somehow I found myself opening up to him; revealing recent changes in my life that had altered its course, and he said, ‘Change is good. Go with it’. I realized that I had never heard that sentiment expressed before,” he’s said.
“Transphobia, biphobia, homophobia— these words hold a weight of threat, and it occurred to me that the threats they bare— the fears they describe— are rooted in a fear of change: a fear of the unknown, of a future that is not yet familiar, one in which there is a change of traditions, definitions, and distributions of power.”
“This collection of songs is not celebrating a fear of change. Rather, it’s the opposite. It’s about who we are capable of becoming if we recognize these fears in ourselves and rise above them.”