Yumi Zouma celebrate true, lived-in love on “Phoebe’s Song,” a tender, immersive, and dreamy indie rock confession that finds meaning not in grand gestures, but in the shared, everyday moments that make love feel real.
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Stream: “Phoebe’s Song” – Yumi Zouma
Love, at its most real, isn’t fireworks or fantasy – it’s reassurance after a hard day, the calm that settles in when you don’t have to explain yourself, the unspoken thrill of knowing exactly who you want to come home to.
It’s built from small moments and shared habits, from comfort and choosing each other again and again. That’s the kind of love at the heart of “Phoebe’s Song,” a tender, open-hearted confession from Yumi Zouma that celebrates devotion not as spectacle, but as something lived, steady, and deeply felt.
“Phoebe’s Song” arrived in late 2025 as the fifth single from No Love Lost To Kindness – the recently released fifth full-length album from Yumi Zouma, and a deeply momentous one for a band now more than a decade into their journey. Formed in 2013 by Christie Simpson, Josh Burgess, Charlie Ryder, and Olivia Campion, Yumi Zouma have spent the last ten-plus years crafting a catalogue that reads like a living diary, tracing their evolution through their twenties and into a new season of adulthood. Long celebrated for their shimmering dream-pop roots and melodic intimacy, the band have always lived across different cities and time zones – a long-distance dynamic that’s shaped both their sound and their perspective. With No Love Lost To Kindness, Yumi Zouma lean into a rawer, more guitar-forward indie rock palette, carrying the emotional weight of years lived, loved, and weathered together, while remaining unmistakably themselves.
Phoebe works hard
Hard at her job
Hard at the gym
Everything in between
And when she comes home
She don’t wanna see anybody but me
Smoking some weed
Watching TV
Yelling at shots of Travis Kelce
Stupid how some
People just get all that they want
What gives “Phoebe’s Song” its resonance is how unguarded it feels. Lines like “Making movies in the back of my head” and “The silhouettes of love in your eyes / look like heaven but a much smaller size” frame love not as fantasy or climax, but as something lived-in and human – shaped by strange weekends, shared habits, and the grounding comfort of choosing the same person again and again. The music mirrors that intimacy beautifully: Chiming guitars, warm vocal harmonies, buoyant rhythms, and a gentle lift into the chorus that feels like leaning forward rather than falling headlong. There’s a sense of motion that feels less like infatuation and more like trust taking hold.
The heart of “Phoebe’s Song” opens widest in its chorus, where love stops being an idea and becomes a lived, looping truth. “‘Cause I wanna see ya again and again / making movies in the back of my head,” Christie Simpson sings, letting devotion reveal itself through repetition rather than proclamation. The chorus doesn’t chase intensity – it lingers, returning to the same feelings from slightly different angles, as if to say that love isn’t about escalation so much as renewal. When she follows with “The silhouettes of love in your eyes / look like heaven but a much smaller size,” the song lands on its most disarming insight: That real love doesn’t need grandeur to feel transcendent. In this refrain, Yumi Zouma capture the joy of wanting someone not once, but continually – of choosing them again and again, and finding that the wanting itself is enough.
And then comes the quiet truth at the center of it all: “And I’m better now that you’re in my life / I’m all my baby wants.” It’s not a boast or a promise – it’s a recognition. Love, here, isn’t about being completed or consumed, but about becoming more fully yourself in the presence of someone who chooses you back.
‘Cause I wanna see you again and again
Making movies in the back of my head
A collection of the weirdest weekends
That ever caned us
‘Cause the silhouettes of love in your eyes
Look like heaven but a much smaller size
And I’m better now that you’re in my life
I’m all my baby wants
Josh Burgess calls the track an exception within the band’s catalogue – a rare, fully open-hearted love song written and dedicated to his partner, Phoebe.
“We honestly don’t have many love songs! It’s a bold testament to our love, but also a small window into the joy of coexisting with your person,” he says. “Thank you, Phoebe. Thank you, world, for sharing this love. One love.” That gratitude isn’t ornamental – it shapes the song from the inside out, turning devotion into something expansive rather than performative.
That sincerity comes from instinct rather than intention. “For me, it was something I had tried in the past but it never felt genuine – unfortunately unrequited love has been our specialty,” Burgess admits. “‘Phoebe’s Song’ however, the idea and the majority of the structure of the song, came to me as a silly song to write to Phoebe after a hard day. Sometimes when you’re not thinking about it that’s when they come. The rumors are true! I’m in love!” You can hear that ease in the song itself – affection slipping in sideways, unforced, and staying because it belongs there.
I know it feels hard
It’s really not far
Don’t take the train, I’ll pay for a car
We won’t do much
We just do whatever we want
Buy some red wine
Though I don’t like wine
You say, “No thanks, neither do I”
With you I’m so calm
Drunk on your charms
You’re the queen of my heart
That looseness also reflects the band’s collaborative core. “We are very collaborative with lyrics; it’s a nice way for us all to get involved and use the language of three people vs. one,” Burgess explains, singling out Charlie Ryder-provided line, “The silhouette of love in your eyes looks like heaven, but a much smaller sign.” It’s a lyric that captures the song’s emotional intelligence – observant, grounded, and deeply felt without ever tipping into excess.
‘Cause I wanna see you again and again
Making movies in the back of my head
A collection of the weirdest weekends
That ever caned us
‘Cause the silhouettes of love in your eyes
Look like heaven but a much smaller size
And I’m better now that you’re in my life
I’m all my baby wants
Placed within the wider world of No Love Lost To Kindness, “Phoebe’s Song” feels especially meaningful. The album marks a turning point for the band, shaped by heavier guitars, jagged textures, and the emotional weight of recent years. Against that backdrop, this song doesn’t deny the darkness so much as offer something steady within it – a reminder that tenderness can still feel bold, and that love, when it’s honest, doesn’t need to announce itself to be profound.
Yumi Zouma recently connected with Atwood Magazine to talk about the origins of “Phoebe’s Song,” the instinctive joy behind writing their most open-hearted love song to date, and what it’s meant to embrace devotion without irony or restraint. Read our conversation below, and spend some time with a song that understands love as something lived, not performed.
Atwood Magazine‘s full-length feature with Yumi Zouma will publish later this month!
Can’t believe I’m away for a week
Without you baby I don’t sleep
The sun shines only half of the week
When I can’t be next to you baby
Almost done and I’m counting the days ’til I’m back
And I fall, yeah I fall off the track I
Can’t wait to get home to hold you
To squeeze you and take you back in my arms
‘Cause I wanna see you again and again
Making movies in the back of my head
A collection of the weirdest weekends
That ever caned us
‘Cause the silhouettes of love in your eyes
Look like heaven but a much smaller size
And I’m better now that you’re in my life
I’m all my baby wants
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:: stream/purchase Phoebe’s Song here ::
:: connect with Yumi Zouma here ::
:: stream/purchase No Love Lost to Kindness here ::
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Stream: “Phoebe’s Song” – Yumi Zouma
A CONVERSATION WITH YUMI ZOUMA
Atwood Magazine: Yumi Zouma, for those who are just discovering (or rediscovering) you today through this writeup, what do you want them to know about you and your music?
Yumi Zouma: We’ve been a band for over 10 years! For whatever reason, that feels important when I explain the band to people, because our catalogue feels like a living diary of us going from through our twenties and all that comes with. I think the music reflects that, or at least I hope it does!
Josh, you’ve called “Phoebe’s Song” an outlier in your catalog. Why, or really how do you think this love song especially came to be, and how do you feel it captures who Yumi Zouma are in 2025?
Yumi Zouma: I’m tempted to say that you can’t fake love songs, but the commercial pop machine would definitely suggest otherwise! Diane Warren famously never has been in love!
For me, it was something I had tried in the past, but it never felt genuine, unfortunately unrequited love has been our specialty! “Phoebe’s Song,” however, the idea and the majority of the structure of the song came to me as a silly song to write to Phoebe after a hard day. Sometimes when you’re not thinking about it, that’s when they come. The rumors are true! I’m in love!
You’ve stated that No Love Lost To Kindness marks a turning point for Yumi Zouma “both sonically and emotionally.” Can you dive deeper into these changes, as you see them?
Yumi Zouma: On the sonic side we started this album in between touring. Like literally we had a couple weeks off between shows on the road and went into a studio. People have often said that our live show is a lot more intense and rocky, and maybe comes from our collective history of playing in punk and shoegaze bands in our teens.
I think we brought that energy to the studio. in the ten days we spent writing and planting seeds for this album that drum machines or synthesizers were something that we gravitated to. We wanted things to be noisy and abrasive.
Emotionally and spiritually, for lots of people, the last two or three years have been pretty hard to stomach. I don’t want to pretend like we have lost any glimpse of optimism, but the world seems like a very divided, angry and fucked up place where unimaginable things are now a stark reality. That got reflected in the music in someway.
On the departure of our earlier sound… I’ve been spending too much time replying to people on Reddit who are upset that we don’t make Dream Pop anymore. Or at least, for this record. I keep coming back to trying to explain we’re not really in control of what we make. I think there’s a misconception that artists sit down and say, “Great, I want to make this kind of album or that kind of album.” Because the reality is, even when you do try to do that, the end result is something that is controlled by the universe, less your own compelling reasons to create X or Y.
How does this track fit into the overall narrative of No Love Lost To Kindness?
Yumi Zouma: I’m really excited for people to hear the other half of the album because naturally the songs that are more quote singles end quote end up being the ones that get released first. “Phoebe’s Song” has a lot of the sonic qualities that we’ve put into this album of distorted guitars weird stop starts or sound design that’s jarring, but definitely the rest of the record has some softer moments – and to all them Reddit haters, I keep saying it maybe has our most ‘Yumi Zouma’ song in our catalogue. Haha!
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:: stream/purchase Phoebe’s Song here ::
:: connect with Yumi Zouma here ::
:: stream/purchase No Love Lost to Kindness here ::
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Stream: “Phoebe’s Song” – Yumi Zouma
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© Mikayla Hubert
© Mikayla Hubert
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