Weatherless is the second album from local indie-pop group The Map Room.

While their self-titled debut album addressed themes of displacement and motion inspired by the duo’s travels through South America, Weatherless explores the struggle and endeavor for clarity and being ‘truly present’, as time relentlessly marches on and we are constantly reminded of our past and future.

From the pulsing opener ‘Colour’, to the driving first single ‘Other Animal’ and the looping pulse of ‘Hold Me Up To The Sun’, Weatherless is full of infectious melodies, experimental production and head-nodding rhythms, pushing the band’s sound in new directions while staying true to the foundations laid in their debut.

Band mates Simon Gooding and Brendon Morrow found themselves living in different cities, working on demos separately and meeting up every few months for intensive writing sessions and preproduction.

The band toured India in late 2015 as part of the NH7 Weekender Festival, road testing the new material and reworking several songs to capture a more live energy. Back in New Zealand, they recorded the 11 songs with drummer Andrew Keegan and bass player Jared Kahi, combining live performances with programmed samples and studio experimentation.

Produced and recorded entirely by the band, Weatherless explores themes of optimism, positivity and being present and awake in each moment. “Over the last couple of years, I started to feel like I was constantly either looking forward to the future, or reminiscing about the past. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by how fast time flies, it’s good to stop and think about what’s really going on around you, right then and there,” Gooding says.