[Cover photo credit to Mikayla Hubert]
New Zealand Indie-Rock quartet Yumi Zouma has unveiled their fifth studio album, No Love Lost To Kindness, out now via Nettwerk. Following 2022’s Present Tense LP and 2023’s EP IV, the band channels their collective experiences into new chapter that is “bolder, heavier, and more emotionally exposed.”
Alongside the album release, Yumi Zouma have shares the track and live video for “Cowboy Without A Clue,” a sci-fi influenced “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” talks about 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.”
No Love Lost To Kindness marks a turning point for Yumi Zouma, sonically and emotionally. Recorded in Mexico City, where the band was assembled in 2023 for writing sessions, it was Produced by guitarists Josh Burgess and Charlie Ryder.
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.
| NORTH AMERICAN DATES 2026 |
| Apr 30 – Black Cat – Washington, DC |
| May 1 – First Unitarian – Philadelphia, PA |
| May 2 – Warsaw – New York, NY |
| May 4 – Sinclair – Boston, MA |
| May 6 – Lee’s Palace – Toronto, ON |
| May 8 – Outset – Chicago, IL |
| May 12 – The Pearl – Vancouver, BC |
| May 13 – Neumos – Seattle, WA |
| May 14 – Aladdin –– Portland, OR |
| May 16 – The Independent – San Francisco, CA |
| May 19 – Pacific Electric – Los Angeles, CA |
| May 20 – Belly Up – San Diego, CA U.K. AND EU TOUR DATES 2026 |
| March 4 – Trabendo – Paris, France |
| March 6 – Yuca Club – Cologne, Germany |
| March 9 – Vega – Musikkens Hus, Little Vega – Copenhagen, Denmark |
| March 10 – John Dee – Oslo, Norway |
| March 11 – Debaser Hornstulls Strand – Stockholm, Sweden |
| March 13 – Headcrash – Hamburg, Germany |
| March 14 – Badehaus Berlin – Berlin, Germany |
| March 15 – Klub Hydrozagadka – Warsaw, Poland |
| March 17 – Flucc Wanne – Vienna, Austria |
| March 22 – Yes – Manchester, U.K. |
| March 23 – G2, The Garage – Glasgow, U.K. |
| March 25 – Isilington Assembly Hall – London, U.K. |
| March 27 – The Workmans Club – Dublin, Ireland |
