LA songwriter Alex Izenberg strives for greatness on album two, ‘Caravan Château’
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27.07.2020

LA songwriter Alex Izenberg strives for greatness on album two, ‘Caravan Château’

WORDS BY AUGUSTUS WELBY

The psychedelic pop artist joins us for episode #12 of the Turning Heads podcast.

Turning Heads episode 12 features a conversation with enigmatic songwriter Alex Izenberg. Izenberg’s second solo album, Caravan Château, comes out on Friday July 31 via Weird World/Domino. The 29-year-old Izenberg was born, raised and continues to live in Los Angeles, California. He’s been playing music for much of his adult life, and in 2016 released his debut solo album, Harlequin.

Izenberg’s music is evocative of late-’60s/early-’70s singer-songwriter, prog and psych rock. This is definitely true of the new album, Caravan Château, which also touches on Laurel Canyon folk rock and flirts with a bit of David Axelrod-style experimentalism and Scott Walker-esque baroque pop. It’s very cohesive, though – none of the adventurousness makes it sound messy or disorienting.

Izenberg worked with a variety of LA producers on the album – Greg Hartunian produced the majority of tracks, but Dashiell Le Francis, Ari Balouzian and Foxygen’s Jonathan Rado were all also involved. Chris Taylor from Grizzly Bear mixed half of the tracks.

Izenberg was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2012, and he believes the condition has an unavoidable influence on the way his music turns out; for the better. He lives with his mum and grandma and is largely averse to venturing into the outside world, unless it involves going to a recording studio.

For the podcast, we spoke about Alex’s intentions for the new album, how he feels his debut didn’t get the reception it deserved, and we spent a lot of time talking about his influences. Alex posted a playlist on Spotify called Alex’s favs, which includes Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Crosby Still & Nash, King Crimson, Elton John, Creedence Clearwater Revival, as well as Fleet Foxes, Radiohead and Grizzly Bear. Take a listen here.

Check out the podcast episode below:

I will be back with a new episode of Turning Heads next week. You can find the podcast on SpotifyPodbean and through Apple.

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