Music Industry News

New Zealand indie-rock quartet Yumi Zouma unveils their expansive and endlessly catchy fifth studio album, NO LOVE LOST TO KINDNESS, via Nettwerk. Following 2022’s critically beloved PRESENT TENSE LP and 2023’s EP IV, the band channels their collective experiences and widening sonic influences into a thrilling new chapter – one that feels bolder, heavier, and more emotionally exposed than ever before.

Alongside the album release, Yumi Zouma shares the brand-new track and live video for ‘Cowboy Without A Clue’, a sweeping, sci-fi-tinged meditation on distance, connection, and endurance. The song considers the band’s own long-standing long-distance dynamic, with guitarist Josh Burgess partially recording the track during his 2024 travels in Chennai, India. Featuring sitar contributions from Tamil artist Kumar Kishor, ‘Cowboy Without A Clue’ frames the challenge of maintaining relationships, both creative and personal, through a science-fiction narrative.

Yumi Zouma shares this about ‘Cowboy Without A Clue’, “Long-distance relationships are tough. Despite deep roots and genuine intentions, maintaining positivity and meaning can be challenging. For us, distance has defined our creativity and friendship for over a decade, though we’ve never directly tackled this theme in our music until now. So for ‘Cowboy Without A Clue,’ we imagined the ultimate long-distance relationship in the year 2099, with a cowboy on Earth and an astronaut on Pluto navigating their distance as a metaphor for what it feels like to be apart from the one you love – trying to stay in touch despite the impossible distance, time zones, and technological hiccups. Trying to distract yourself and get by, but still thinking, looking down on earth, and wondering if they’re thinking of you too. Going on tour and leaving someone at home while you chase your dreams and follow your passions. Being in two very different worlds.”

Watch and listen to a live performance of ‘Cowboy Without A Clue’ here.

NO LOVE LOST TO KINDNESS marks a turning point for Yumi Zouma both sonically and emotionally. Recorded in Mexico City, where the band was assembled in 2023 for writing sessions, they shine as a collective and as individual players across the album’s 12 tracks, produced by guitarists Josh Burgess and Charlie Ryder. As Yumi Zouma continues to evolve and celebrate over a decade together, their latest songs show what any long-distance band knows is true: time-zone challenges are simply no match for chemistry. The album includes 2025 singles ‘95’, ‘Phoebe’s Song’, ‘Drag’, ‘Cross My Heart and Hope To Die’, ‘Blister’, and ‘Bashville on the Sugar.’

On the album’s creative shift, Yumi Zouma shares: “For us, the album is one where we made a deliberate effort to shed the soft-focus production of old YZ in favour of a heavier and more emotionally exposed feel. Lyrically and sonically, this record embraces big hooks and unfiltered personal sentiment much more than our previous work. The themes explore confrontation, diagnosis, disillusionment, risk, and honesty – trading ambiguity for clarity, and polish for power. This album is us becoming a rock band and leaving dream pop behind.”

In support of NO LOVE LOST TO KINDNESS, Yumi Zouma will embark on a Spring 2026 North American headline tour, kicking off April 30 at Black Cat in Washington, D.C. The tour includes stops at Warsaw in New York (May 2), Outset in Chicago (May 8), Pacific Electric in Los Angeles (May 19), and concludes at Belly Up in San Diego on May 20.

More information can be found here.

Listen to NO LOVE LOST TO KINDNESS here.

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Yumi Zouma is a band without borders. But if distance makes the heart grow fonder, then consider the transcontinental indie-pop luminaries bonded for life. Composed of members Christie Simpson (vocals, keyboards), Josh Burgess (guitar, bass, vocals, keyboards), Charlie Ryder (guitar, bass, keyboards), and Olivia Campion (drums), Yumi Zouma originally joined forces in 2013. All New Zealanders, the band’s members have always lived separately in different cities, with Christie currently based in Melbourne, Charlie in London, Josh in New York, and Olivia in Wellington.

Yumi Zouma’s storied career has spanned over an entire decade – from the shoegaze and dream-pop of EP I and the blogosphere ubiquity of the early single ‘A Long Walk Home For Parted Lovers’ in 2014, to the synth pop of their debut LP, YONCALLA, alongside tours with Lorde, Jamie xx, and Magdalena Bay, global support from Pitchfork, Stereogum, Consequence of Sound, The FADER, SPIN, and The Guardian, and radio spins from SiriusXM and Triple J. Following four EPs and four albums (2016’s YONCALLA, 2017’s WILLOWBANK, 2020’s TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, and 2022’s PRESENT TENSE), Yumi Zouma is ready to catapult into the next era of their career with their new album NO LOVE LOST TO KINDNESS on Nettwerk.

Photo credit: Mikayla Hubert