Alternative pop group YUMI ZOUMA have announced their Australia and New Zealand tour in September 2022. 

The tour will be coming to Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory, Melbourne’s Night Cat, 12 Bar in the band’s hometown Christchurch, Wellington’s San Fran and Auckland’s Tuning Fork.

Yumi Zouma’s Josh Burgess likens the band’s songwriting process to gardening, “Someone brings in a seed and through collaboration, it grows into a song that is vastly different from its original form.” Like any garden, this one requires dedicated tending, a practice that seems rather inconvenient if not straight-up difficult, considering the fact that the four members live in disparate parts of the world – calling New York, London, and New Zealand home – but long-distance has always been a feature of their songwriting process, not a bug. Their new album, Present Tense, is the product of those efforts, a work Christie Simpson describes as “a gallery wall displaying these different moments in each of our lives. A process of curation, revisiting the past and making it relevant to the present.”

You might assume that while some artists have struggled to rethink their processes during a pandemic, Yumi Zouma would be perfectly suited to the COVID-19 lockdown, but the opposite proved to be true. Without looming tour dates driving them to release new music, the prolific band found themselves at a standstill. So they set a date. By September 1st, 2021, the album needed to be finished, regardless of whether they’d be able to tour it or even meet to record together. What began in fits and starts became a committed practice again as Yumi Zouma dug through demos from as early as 2018 to collaborate on and make relevant to the peculiar moment in time the band, and world, was experiencing, memorialized on album opener “Give It Hell.” 

Remote and in-person sessions in studios in Wellington, Florence, New York, Los Angeles, and London all played a role, and Yumi Zouma brought in new collaborators from different disciplines to broaden their sound. “This is our fourth album, so we wanted to pivot slightly, create more extreme versions of songs,” Charlie Ryder says. “Working with other artists helped with that, and took us far outside of our normal comfort zone.” You can hear the impulse on “In The Eyes Of Our Love,” a song that’s seemingly twice as fast as any prior release, and closer to the classic rock of Dire Straits than the dream pop aesthetics that the band has built their career on so far. Olivia Campion’s drums crash in hard from the outset, sending the accompanying band into a revelry that only breaks upon arriving at the first bridge, when Simpson sings: “But we won’t lose sight of what we said/ I'll sing from the dirt instead.”

There’s a defiance heard throughout Present Tense, a refusal to bend to what might seem fated, communicated not only through lyrics but in the boldness of these arrangements, metamorphosing between tracks without ever losing momentum. Two years away from the road gave Yumi Zouma a new appreciation for the friendship they’ve sustained and the opportunity an abundance of time off-cycle offered. Dedicated to an embattled past, Present Tense is the band’s offering to a tenuous future.“To 2020, and the memory of all that was lost,” they write in the album’s liner notes. “Kia Kaha.”

YUMI ZOUMA

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND 2022
OXFORD ART FACTORY, SYDNEY         FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 16
THE NIGHT CAT, MELBOURNE         SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 17
12 BAR, CHRISTCHURCH         THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 22
SAN FRAN, WELLINGTON        FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 23
TUNING FORK, AUCKLAND        SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24

TICKETS ON SALE 12PM, FRIDAY APRIL 22
Live Nation pre-sale: 12pm Thursday April 21 – 11am Friday April 22

For complete tour and ticket information, visit: livenation.com.au and livenation.co.nz    

We acknowledge that this event will be held on Wurundjeri land of the Kulin Nation and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded. We pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging.

TICKETING INFO

Set times are subject to change.
When ticket sales have closed on the day of the show they may still be available at the door.

Once purchased tickets are non-refundable & non-transferable

A booking fee applies to all advance tickets.

VENUE INFO

Photo ID is essential, acceptable ID is a current and valid Australian Photo Drivers Licence or Passport
The venue reserves the right to refuse admission to any person.
Intoxicated persons will not be admitted.
Dangerous behaviour including Crowd Surfing, Stage Diving, Moshing and Violent Dancing is not allowed and will result in your immediate removal from this venue.
Inappropriate behaviour at this venue will lead to your banning.

COVID-19 SAFETY GUIDELINES

We ask that all patrons exercise common sense and hygiene practices while in the venue.

Hand sanitiser is available at point of entry and throughout the venue.

Please stay home if you are feeling unwell.