Ezra Koenig - Musical Career

Musical Career

Prior to forming Vampire Weekend, Koenig was involved in numerous musical projects with Wes Miles, a childhood friend and current front-man of Ra Ra Riot, along with friends Dan Millar and Andrei Padlowski. Koenig and Miles' experimental band, The Sophisticuffs, has been described as "wildly inventive musical work". Later, Koenig formed the "serious" rap band L’Homme Run with Andrew Kalaidjian and fellow band member Chris Tomson, played saxophone for the indie rock band Dirty Projectors, worked as an intern for The Walkmen, and was an eighth-grade English teacher in Junior High School 258 in Brooklyn, New York, until 2007.

The name of the group comes from the movie of the same name that Ezra and his high school friends made during a school vacation. Ezra plays the main character, Walcott, who has to go to Cape Cod to tell the mayor that vampires are coming. They self-produced their first album after graduation while concurrently working full-time jobs. In 2010, they released their second album, Contra. It reached number one on the U.S. and British album charts.

Koenig provides vocals on the song "Carby" on LP, the debut album of Discovery, a group which features Vampire Weekend keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij and Ra Ra Riot vocalist Wes Miles. He's also featured on "Warm Heart of Africa" by The Very Best, "Pyromiltia" by Theophilus London, "I Could Be Wrong" by Chromeo, and singing "I Think You're a Contra" with Angelique Kidjo in her PBS special. He appeared and provided brief vocals in the music video for Duck Sauce's "Barbra Streisand". His recording of the song "Papa Hobo", by Paul Simon, is part of the soundtrack for Max Winkler's film Ceremony.