Rostam Teases American Stories With Clairo on the Bittersweet “Hardy”

Rostam and Clairo have been orbiting each other for years, but their new collaboration lands at a particularly telling moment: it is the only featured guest spot on Rostam Batmanglij’s upcoming solo LP American Stories, due later this week. The pair previously worked together on Clairo’s 2019 debut Immunity, a record that helped define her early rise and further sharpened Rostam’s post-Vampire Weekend reputation as a writer and producer with a gift for making intimate pop feel wider than its frame. After early singles Like A Spark and Back Of A Truck, the new track “Hardy” brings that partnership back into focus.

The song takes its name from French singer François Hardy, whose sample was part of an earlier version of the track. That element is no longer in the final cut, but “Hardy” still carries a cinematic pull thanks to a sample of Georges Delerue’s score for François Truffaut’s Day For Night. Rostam has held onto the instrumental since 2012, and the finished version adds cello from Hamilton Berry, bass clarinet from Henry Solomon, and piano from Rostam himself. It is the kind of arrangement that reveals its own construction slowly, with each layer folding into the next rather than announcing itself outright.

What stands out most, though, is the string line, bright and efflorescent, which gives the track its emotional center. Everything else seems built around that glow: the drums, the effects, Rostam’s hushed vocal, all of it moving with a kind of careful restraint that suits the song’s mood. Clairo’s entrance shifts the atmosphere without breaking it. Her voice arrives as if it has been lifted into place, and the effect is less of a feature than a continuation of the same thought. In a press release, Rostam framed the song as a reflection on memory and forward motion, saying,

“Hardy” is a song about looking forward and looking back. Ultimately, I hope it leaves you with some feeling of hope for the future. I’m so happy Claire could make a guest appearance and sing her own section of the song – I have always loved the way her voice communicates optimism.

It is a fitting reunion for two artists whose collaboration has always seemed rooted in a shared sense of atmosphere rather than obvious chemistry. American Stories is out 5/15 on Matsor Projects/Secretly Distribution. Check out the Antony Muse-directed video below.