Naia Izumi announces debut album, shares silky, time-signature-shifting lead single, Voodoo

Naia Izumi – multi-instrumentalist and multi-talented champion of a formidable style of math rock-meets-R&B – has announced his debut full-length album A Residency In The Los Angeles Area, which will be released on July 30 via Sony Music Masterworks.

Alongside the news, the singer-songwriter has also dropped the record’s lead single Voodoo – a masterful three-and-a-half minute demonstration of Izumi’s commanding rhythmic prowess and expert electric guitar abilities.

Armed with a Fender Jazzmaster ‘64 reissue and a Fender Deluxe guitar amp, Izumi serves up a series of ethereal, modulation-drenched chordal constructions, before executing a dizzying array of time-signature-shifting arpeggiated melodies that are effortlessly layered underneath his soulful vocals. 

“Voodoo just came out. It’s definitely a song that flows. It disorients you and might make you fall in love with it at the same time,” Izumi told Guitar World.

“Sometimes, I don’t want to feel lonely, so I’ll write a song to put me in a different place,” he continued. “With Voodoo, I imagined how it would feel if I found the person who fits me so well. It would be disorienting. There’s almost a seductive and enchanting quality to the song. I wanted to replicate the vibe of falling in love.”

Voodoo is Izumi’s first new material since his 2019 single Gravity, which followed up his 2018 NPR Tiny Desk Contest-winning single Soft Spoken.

"I make music I'm not hearing. That was my purpose as a kid," muses Izumi. "I heard pieces of things, but it wasn't what I wanted to hear. I tried to get better and better, so I could make what I was hearing in my head.

"I'm just the average dude who's just trying to do the best he can. I'm learning to control what I want to say with the vibe, the music and the words. If it connects you in some way, I'm a happy person."

Check out the A Residency In The Los Angeles Area tracklist below.

1. Honesty
2. Natural Disaster
3. Six Inch Stilettos
4. Voodoo
5. Water
6. What Happened To Love?
7. Good At Being Lonely
8. Sad Song
9. As It Comes
10. Be Still
11. Personal Heaven
12. Hand In Hand
13. Soft Spoken (Sound City Version)

A Residency In The Los Angeles Area is available to preorder now ahead of its July 30 release.