While Rostam has spent the last three years producing music for indie musicians like Haim and Clairo, he was also hard at work on his sophomore solo album, Changephobia. The 11-track effort was released last week and to celebrate, the musician brought his tender track “From The Back Of A Cab” to a hazy performance on The Late Late Show With James Corden.
Rostam aptly began his “From The Back Of A Cab” set seated in the back of, yes, a yellow cab. Backed by a full band, the singer delivered his reflective lyrics in a dusty warehouse.
Speaking to Corden about the song’s inspiration, Rostam said:
“It’s about those moments you share with somebody where you just kind of want to have more time together, even if your schedule doesn’t allow it. So, it’s kind of about jumping in a cab with someone and going to the airport, even though you know you can’t get on the same flight, but you know that you want to have that hour, even if you’re not going to get on the plane together.”
Ahead of his performance on The Late Late Show, Rostam sat down with Uproxx to describe his songwriting process. About Changephobia as a whole, the musician said he aimed to alter his sound. “I really wanted to push myself to be inspired by the jazz that I loved and saxophone music of a certain era, specifically Bebop, which is from the ’50s,” he said. “And so that’s one component, this idea of musical change. And then there’s another component, which is life changes. And I think that’s something that’s more reflected in the lyrics in several songs. I didn’t really realize this until I was finishing the album, but a lot of the songs deal with the concept of change lyrically, whether they have the word change in them or not.”
Watch Rostam perform “From The Back Of A Cab” on The Late Late Show above.
Changephobia is out now via Matsor Projects. Get it here.
