Daily Dose is your daily source for the song you absolutely, positively need to hear every day. Curated by the Paste Music Team.
The New Zealand-born dream-pop group Yumi Zouma sound utterly seamless—so it comes as a surprise that the band’s three core members are currently scattered across continents. With vocalist and guitarist Josh Burgess based in Brooklyn, guitarist, bassist and keyboardist Charlie Ryder in London, and vocalist and keyboardist Christie Simpson in Christchurch, New Zealand, they’ve spent most of their musical career collaborating via text, email and the occasional flight across the globe. After finishing up their contract with Brooklyn indie label Cascine (home of Half Waif and Sui Zhen, among others) last year, the group self-released “Bruise” in May and have today announced their signing with Polyvinyl, where they join the likes of Alvvays, Jay Som and Kero Kero Bonito.
Three EPs and two full-length records in, Yumi Zouma sound fresh as ever. Their first single on Polyvinyl, “Right Track / Wrong Man,” is another diaphanous triumph, synths bubbling as Burgess and Simpson’s feathery voices intertwine. “Right Track / Wrong Man” sounds airy, but there’s anxiety under the surface: “Cut me up and keep me open,” the two sigh, “It won’t hurt me in the morning.”
In a statement, Simpson explains that the song “comes from a place of uncertainty—of not knowing if you should stay in the comfort of a slightly unfulfilling relationship, or branch out and make the most of the youth you have left; meet new people, go out more, dance, live”:
In the last year or so I’ve found myself switching between these modes, unable to work out what makes me happier, left feeling a little lost—but I’ve always found solace in the knowledge that at least I’ve been going out more, meeting new people, dancing—and living. As Yumi Zouma we often write songs that we want people to dance to, and that we ourselves would want to dance to—this is our dancefloor anthem to the confusion of living through your twenties.
Listen to “Right Track / Wrong Man” below.