A Residency In The Los Angeles Area is set to be released via Sony Music Masterworks on July 30, and marks the math rock-meets-R&B guitarist's first-ever feature-length sonic offering
(Image credit: Svet Jacqueline)
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.
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"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."
(Image credit: Press)
Check out the A Residency In The Los Angeles Area tracklist below.
Honesty
Natural Disaster
Six Inch Stilettos
Voodoo
Water
What Happened To Love?
Good At Being Lonely
Sad Song
As It Comes
Be Still
Personal Heaven
Hand In Hand
Soft Spoken (Sound City Version)
A Residency In The Los Angeles Area is available to preorder now ahead of its July 30 release.
Matt is a Senior Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World, Guitarist and Total Guitar. He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.
