Alex Izenberg

Alex Izenberg crafts intimate chamber pop that draws on Harry Nilsson, Van Dyke Parks, and King Crimson while threading in vintage Baroque and psychedelic elements alongside a romantic sensibility. His first full-length, Harlequin, appeared in 2016. For his third album, the 2022 release I'm Not Here, he found impetus in Alan Watts’ reflections on situational personas; two years later he revisited longstanding touchstones on the more collaborative Alex Izenberg & the Exiles, whose sound recalls ’70s AM pop.

Raised in the San Fernando Valley, Izenberg frequently used music to temper his fears and anxieties; an official diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia arrived in 2012. Over the ensuing years he worked to harness those emotions, ultimately cutting his debut with friends and co-producers Dash Lefrancis of Vas Defrans and Ari Balouzian of Midnight Sister. The resulting Harlequin surfaced on Weird World at the close of 2016.

Weird World/Domino issued his second album, Caravan Château, in 2020. Largely tracked in Los Angeles with Greg Hartunian and Derek Korat, the set also incorporated contributions from Balouzian, Lefrancis, and Foxygen’s Jonathan Rado. Izenberg reunited with Hartunian for 2022’s I’m Not Here, whose string and woodwind arrangements were supplied by Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth. Its mask-adorned cover art reflected the same Alan Watts writings on personas that had shaped the project.

Subsequent material took cues from Watts, King Crimson’s narrative sophistication, and Fleet Foxes’ musical tableaux. After capturing the songs with an expanded roster of collaborators, Izenberg named the album Alex Izenberg & the Exiles and tapped Phil Ek—whose prior credits include Built to Spill, the Walkmen, and the Shins—to mix it, mindful that Ek had also handled Fleet Foxes’ 2017 album Crack-Up. A cover photograph showing Izenberg alone in a rowboat accompanied the July 2024 release on Weird World/Domino.