10 minutes backstage with Rostam at the Ford

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Rostam brought his lovely and inquisitive new album, “American Stories,” to the Ford in Los Angeles on Saturday night.After the show — during which Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold joined Rostam to sing Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” — I caught up with the musician and former Vampire Weekend member for a chat about some of his LP’s themes and inspirations (and also Coldplay).One of my favorite songs on this new record is “Back of a Truck.” Your last album had —“From the Back of a Cab,” yes.Also “4Runner.” And your first record had “Bike Dream.” My man loves a song about a vehicle.I’m transportationally minded.Why?You know, when I was a kid, I used to love racing games: Crazy Taxi, F-Zero for SNES.

I like experiencing time as life passes before your eyes on a bike, on a train, in a cab, driving, a road trip.I think I’m someone who loves a journey.What was your first car?A Mercedes-Benz station wagon that was about 11 years old when I got my hands on it.

One incredible thing about it, which was very useful in high school, was that the way-back had two seats that flipped, so you could travel with seven comfortably.It was fun to do carpools with that car.Your previous album, “Changephobia,” was built, to my ears, around the saxophone.True.This record seems built around pedal steel and the saz.

Are you a guy who likes to build a record around one sound?Sometimes I go in with a vision of one idea being a part of every song.One idea I had for this record, even before I had the word “stories” in the title, was that every song would be a story song.

The final product is not that — there are stories that I tell on the record, but every song is not a story song.Another idea was that there had to be Persian music on every song.

Ultimately, I’m happy with how the final product came out, where I wasn’t so devoted to any o...