Dazy

Dazy is the project of James Goodson, a musician based in Richmond, Virginia, who began building songs in his bedroom and discovered that fuzz and hooks were exactly the right combination for what he had to say. The project arrived in August 2020 with the debut single "Bright Lights b/w Accelerate," a double-sided introduction that made clear from the start what Dazy was: thick, distortion-heavy guitars wrapped around pop song structures clean enough to cut through the noise. Goodson writes, records, and produces essentially everything himself, and the music carries the intimacy of a one-person vision executed with unusual precision.

The first major statement came with the 2021 anthology MAXIMUMBLASTSUPERLOUD: The First 24 Songs, which gathered the early singles and EPs that had been building his reputation among indie and punk audiences in the United States. The collection demonstrated both the productivity of the project and the consistency of its aesthetic: ninety-proof power-pop with roots tracing back through 1990s indie rock to the origins of punk, never overstaying its welcome, always landing the hook.

In March 2022, Dazy released "Pressure Cooker" as a split single with Los Angeles punk band Militarie Gun. Critics seized on it immediately as one of the year's most satisfying rock songs, a hooky collaboration combining Goodson's melodic instincts with Militarie Gun's edge. The song's momentum continued into 2023, when a remix featured guest vocals from Missy Dabice of Mannequin Pussy, adding an unexpected Madchester-inflected dance feel to the original's punch. That two versions of one song could sound so different and both feel essential says something about the elasticity of Goodson's songwriting.

The debut full-length album, Outofbody, arrived in October 2022 on Philadelphia indie label Lame-O Records, mixed and mastered by Justin Pizzoferrato. It delivered on the promise of everything before it: a record that understands the history of loud guitar music and uses that understanding without being weighed down by it. Goodson works in a tradition that includes the most melodic and physical corners of 1990s indie rock, but Dazy sounds like a contemporary version of those enthusiasms rather than a period piece.

The EP Bad Penny arrived as a surprise in October 2025, also on Lame-O Records, seven tracks that included a collaboration with producer Ryan Hemsworth on the title track. The release confirmed that the project has no intention of slowing down and that its appetite for melody and distortion remains entirely intact.

Dazy sits comfortably at the intersection of indie, punk, and power-pop, a location that has allowed Goodson to work with artists as varied as Militarie Gun and Mannequin Pussy while remaining completely recognizable as himself. The music is fundamentally optimistic even at its most distorted, built to be played loud and felt in the body. Goodson has turned his bedroom into something that sounds, at its best, like a very full room.