What started in a New York apartment could continue in a high-end, state-of-the-art studio. Or, it could end up right back in the apartment.

This is the story of Vampire Weekend, New York’s uber-indie rock success story. In one year, the band went from playing for 250 person-capacity clubs in Brooklyn to playing for thousands as unofficial headliners of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts festival’s first night in June.

“It’s been a fun year. Not like any other year,” said multi-instrumentalist and album producer Rostam Batmanglij.

If you have tickets to one of Vampire Weekend’s two sold-out shows at the 9:30 Club tonight and tomorrow, he’ll be the one playing the keyboard.

The band’s return to Washington will be a welcome one. Batmanglij grew up in Northwest Washington, and the last time the group played in town was at a sweaty, jam-packed show at The Rock and Roll Hotel in early February. In 2007, the band was still playing tiny Washington clubs such as The Red and The Black. With the release of its self-titled debut in January, Vampire Weekend has seen a meteoric rise in popularity and is now playing at Washington’s biggest live music club.

Not like the band planned it that way, though.

“We made the album for ourselves,” Batmanglij said. “We didn’t have any outside pressure. We didn’t have a label. We just made the music we wanted to hear.”

All graduates of New York’s Columbia University – where the band met – the four young men making up Vampire Weekend released their first, self-titled EP before they headed out on tour to support the three-song effort. As the band started touring the U.S. in the summer of 2007, the hype machine started turning its gears and the four recent college graduates saw the indie-rock blogosphere fawn over the band with great affection.

“We gave [our songs] to our friends, they put [the music] on the Internet,” Batmanglij said. “Starting in July 2007, we started touring. We were basically just getting out there a solid six, seven months before we got our [full-length] record out. To be able to get out there, to unload our record for ourselves in a do-it-yourself kind of way, to go out there and play shows, sleep on people’s floors. That’s what we did.”

After garnering rave reviews and a rapidly increasing fan base, the band earned promotional spots on MTV and a slot on Saturday Night Live in March. The backlash from the indie rock faithful who had fawned just months earlier was not quiet, however.

The elitism well known to those following the current indie rock scene fired back against the sweet Afro-pop of the band. Fortunately for Vampire Weekend, its fans won out. The band has toured tirelessly throughout the year, and they will end 2008 with a few more shows, including a streak of six straight sold-out concerts.

Vampire Weekend is an 11-song affair, barely passing 30 minutes, but Batmanglij promises the two nights in Washington will each offer something different.

“We might try to mix it up,” he said. “We’ve got a few covers that we know. We have two new songs that we’ll probably play. [Those songs] will be on our next album.”

The band hasn’t started recording its sophomore effort yet, but it has begun the writing process. Batmanglij didn’t want to reveal too much about the next record, preferring to “surprise” fans instead. He anticipates releasing the album in the late summer or early fall of next year.

“I think we want to have a clear break in terms of a new sound, but also an evolution,” he said. “I think, ultimately, the goal is that you know it’s our band, but … after we put out like five or 10 albums, you can say, ‘Oh, that was the sound of their second album’ just by hearing one song. I think that’s the goal.

“I think we’ll have some new instruments – maybe some marimba,” he added. “We could record it in our apartment. That worked for the last one.”

Batmanglij said that while African music will continue to influence the band’s sound, there will be a new feel to next LP and, perhaps, a new conceptual focus.

“I think with our last record, there’s definitely a set of sounds that came together and tied the whole thing together,” he said. “And I think with the next record, there should be a new set of sounds. I think with our first album there was kind of a concept behind it. It was somehow tied to education. I don’t think that will continue.”

Vampire Weekend will play at the 9:30 Club tonight and tomorrow. If you have tickets, doors open at 7 p.m. both nights; if not, you’re out of luck.

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