Q&A: Yumi Zouma
A CONTRAST OF DUALITIES FILLED WITH DENSE THOUGH DIGESTIBLE TRACKS - Truth or Consequences reflects Yumi Zouma’s growth a move to a more sonically dream pop wave. The 10 track album brings a revamped version of the Yumi Zouma sound fans adore, featuring live drums for the first time. Though releasing music since 2014, the band continually strikes a balance between giving listeners something fresh while sticking to their core roots of endearing bedroom pop and catchy hooks. Check out the band’s new album Truth or Consequences and read below to learn more about the album, plans for visuals and more.
LUNA: The album as a whole touches on a lot of emotions and themes, from loneliness to independence. Is there a theme in particular that you’re most drawn to writing about?
CHARLIE RYDER: There’s no one theme in particular that we like to feature in our material, but we do try and present a nuanced outlook that keeps an open mind. This is helped by having all of us as songwriters, with the lyrics being a function of many thought processes and experiences.
LUNA: Which track was the most difficult to finalize?
RYDER: “Mirror To The Fire” wasn’t difficult to finalise, but it did take the most extreme and late U-turn out of any of the tracks. It went through several different revisions, including a few as a club-ready house track, before being mixed and mastered along with the rest of the album as a Gatecrasher-esque pop song. We were then sitting together, talking about life whilst on tour in Australia when Christie mentioned that she really liked an older version of the track that we’d forgotten about.
After all realising that we actually preferred this version and it’s rock sensibilities, we re-did the song, sent it to our label, and to their credit, they let us remix and master everything after our hand-in deadline had already passed. The older version is still available on the bonus 7” record that comes with the ‘early bird’ limited edition version of the new album.
LUNA: Can you share a favorite memory from the creative process of the album?
RYDER: My favourite memory is when Christie wrote the chorus to “Sage”. It was an idea and chord progression I would never have thought of, but it worked so perfectly, and turned the song into one of my favourite Yumi Zouma tracks of all time.
LUNA: What was a stand out lesson you learned during the making of this album?
RYDER: The stand out lesson that I think we learned was that our best songs are written when they’re written from scratch between all of us, with no end goal in mind.
LUNA: Why was it important for this project to reflect a sense of togetherness?
RYDER: The togetherness that we cultivated was important for the above reason!
LUNA: This is the first album with live drums - so awesome! Are there any other musical elements you’d like to incorporate into your music in the future?
RYDER: We’d like to include more of Olivia’s drums, alongside other acoustic instruments to push things to an even more natural and organic place.
LUNA: Sonically, which track are you most proud of?
RYDER: “Sage” is the first time we’ve managed to capture the sound I’ve had in my head for 7 years, so sonically, that is the track I am most proud of.
LUNA: Can we expect any music videos to accompany any of the tracks?
RYDER: Most definitely! We’ve released videos for “Right Track / Wrong Man”, “Cool For A Second”, and “Southwark”, and we’ve recently just finished another video for the track “Lonely After”, which will come out on release day, March 13th.
