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Sep 09, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Yumi Zouma

New Zealand alt-pop group Yumi Zouma released their new album Truth or Consequences back in March, but on October 28 they are putting out a record of alternate versions of the album’s songs—fittingly titled Truth or Consequences (Alternate Versions)—and now they have shared the redone version of “My Palms Are Your Reference to Hold to Your Heart,” via a video. The new version is slightly longer than the original, and while Christie Simpson still takes lead vocals, more room is made for additional vocals from her bandmates. The video was directed by the band and features Simpson singing the song while images of the rest of the band playing are projected on her.

Simpson had this to say about the new version and the video in a press release: “This version of the song we affectionately shorten to ‘Palms’ started with just a few chords that I’d tried out underneath the vocal melody—I felt a little stuck with what to do next, but I sent the minimal scraps I had along to Charlie anyway, so he could give it a crack. When it came back the mood was completely transformed—into this sparkly, ABBA-esque dark disco feel that it has now. This video came about much in the same way, starting as an idea from Josh to shoot a live performance against projections of the rest of the band when we couldn’t all be together—and transforming into this James-Turrell inspired installation in an infinity-walled space, with programmed lights and a makeup artist and a black suit. Both ended up more slick, more fun, more flashy—and in (what felt like) the blink of an eye. So we hope you enjoy, and dance in your bedroom, and take a little moment of spontaneous silliness in a world that is undoubtedly weighing pretty heavy on us all right now.”

The band plan to release a new track every week up until the October 28 release of Truth or Consequences (Alternate Versions) on Polyvinyl. When the album was announced they shared a reworked version of “Lie Like You Want Me Back.” Then they shared an alternate version of “Magazine Bay,” which we neglected to post and is also below.

In a previous press statement, the band collectively said they embarked on a new version of Truth or Consequences because they haven’t been able re-contextualize the songs in a live setting due to the pandemic: “We’d missed out on such a crucial part of the process—with no concrete idea of when we might next get the chance. It felt too soon to move on—we felt the pull to work on new music, but still felt a strong attachment, an unresolved connection to this new record that we’d laboured over and had waited so long to release. These 10 new arrangements reflect our feelings of optimism, helplessness, and a desire to keep exploring.”

Recently the group shared a video for “Sage,” along with Truth or Consequences’ lead single, “Cool For a Second,” via a video for the track (which was one of our Songs of the Week). The album also includes “Right Track / Wrong Man,” a song the band shared back in December. Then they shared another song from the album, “Southwark,” via a self-directed video for the track (which was also one of our Songs of the Week). Then they shared a video for “Lonely After.”

While formed in New Zealand, Yumi Zouma’s members currently reside in various cities around the world: New York City (Josh Burgess - guitar, vocals), London (Charlie Ryder - guitar, bass, keys and Christie Simpson - vocals, keys), and Wellington, New Zealand (Olivia Campion - drums).

The band released a new EP, EP III, in September 2018 via Cascine. EP III was the follow-up to Yumi Zouma’s sophomore album, Willowbank, which was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2017. In May 2019 they shared another brand new song, “Bruise,” that was a standalone single and was one of our Songs of the Week.

Read our COVID-19 Quarantine Artist Check-In interview with the band’s Charlie Ryder.

In March we posted our My Firsts interview with the band and you can read that here.

Read our 2017 interview with Yumi Zouma on Willowbank.

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