Iji

Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Zach Burba anchors Iji, the whimsical indie pop outfit known for its D.I.Y. sensibilities. The project, whose name is pronounced “ee-hee,” began in Phoenix, Arizona when Burba was fifteen; he started it alongside his brother Luke and a close friend. For the fledgling group he borrowed his father’s 16-track digital recorder and later made it his own. As his songwriting drive outpaced that of his bandmates, Burba launched a folk-leaning solo outlet called Seashells to accommodate the surplus material. Once Iji members—including a girlfriend who had joined—began to leave, he folded the two projects together and retained the Iji name. In the interim he sat in with other local ensembles whenever needed and recruited musician friends to fill out his own performances and tours.

Iji quickly cultivated a devoted following in Seattle; after a friend offered lodging, Burba moved there in 2008. Over the following years he maintained a steady touring schedule with a shifting roster drawn from his network of interstate collaborators, issuing numerous singles, split releases, and cassette albums, many through Lost Sound Tapes. The band’s first full studio effort, Whatever Will Happen, was tracked at The Unknown in Anacortes, Washington, and served as its Team Love Records debut in 2015. While on the road promoting that album, Burba had the group maintain dream journals whose imagery shaped the follow-up LP, Bubble, issued by the same label in 2016.