NEW ZEALAND COLLECTIVE LEISURE SHARE NEW ALBUM ‘WELCOME TO THE MOOD’ OUT SEPTEMBER 12TH

Auckland’s soul-electronic collective LEISURE share their fifth studio album, Welcome To The Mood. On the record, the genre-defying sextet refines their soulful, slow-burning ethos into a radiant new chapter — one rooted in togetherness, creative freedom, and the lived experience of a band evolving with authentic purpose. Embracing a more organic, live-recording approach, the group explains, “Off the back of touring the last album, we had played more shows than ever and wanted to bring more of the live element into the process, so we didn’t use drum breaks and loops as much as previous records and tracked live.”

They continued expanding their sound by bringing in specialist musicians — string sections, brass, pianos, and backing vocalists — pushing the sonic possibilities beyond their individual skill sets. Yet at its core, the album remains deeply personal. Written in remote hideaways, the songs carry the tranquility of escape while capturing a newfound confidence in emotional vulnerability.

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https://leisure.ffm.to/wttm

Thematically, Welcome To The Mood is a rich sonic auditory tapestry woven with threads of authenticity, humanity, and creative celebration. Lyrically, the album explores universal experiences — love, loss, connection, hope, and purpose — drawn from the everyday yet rendered in LEISURE’s distinct palette of lush tones and laid-back groove. Tracks are anchored in realness but elevated by a sonic landscape that feels simultaneously nostalgic and futuristic, mirroring the ethos of Frank Lloyd Wright, whose Taliesin West provided literal and symbolic inspiration during the album’s visual journey. By choosing Taliesin West as a backdrop, LEISURE pays homage to Wright’s architectural genius and further establishes their vision that art, whether through architecture or sound, plays a vital role in enriching everyday life. The band adds, “It’s incredible how even in 2025 the spaces Frank Lloyd Wright built in 1937 still feel futuristic and nostalgic at the same time, this is a goal for our music as well. His inspiration to build spaces for creativity and connection is also something we share.”

Following the album release, the band will hit the road in Europe and North America for a fall tour that launches in October with a performance at the Austin City Limits Festival.  It includes stops in New York (Terminal 5), Toronto (The Concert Hall), Chicago (Vic Theater), Los Angeles (The Novo), Vancouver (Commodore),  London (Roadhouse), Paris (Bataclan), Berlin (Huxley’s), and more. A full list of dates can be found below. Tickets are on-sale now.

In a world preoccupied with instant gratification and overnight success, LEISURE have been taking the scenic route. The six members – and mates – came together in 2015 on a spontaneous trip up New Zealand’s rugged west coast. At that stage, they’d independently spent years churning through the music machine’s tight jaws. Individually, the five are award-winning songwriters, producers, and creatives. Together, they resolved to carve out a new musical paradigm: cut the crap, enjoy the ride, and above all, keep it LEISURE. Welcome To The Mood follows the acclaimed 2023 album Leisurevision, which received praise from BBC, Rolling Stone, KCRW, and more. 850+ million streams later, festivals like Lollapalooza, M3F, and the upcoming ACL date, and sold-out headline dates throughout NZ, Australia, the UK, Europe, and the US, they’re doing something right.

LEISURE FALL TOUR DATES:

General on-sale June 13^th

10/10               Austin, TX                   Scoot Inn (ACL Fest Nights)

10/10 – 12        Austin, TX                   Austin City Limits

10/13               Nashville, TN              Basement East

10/14               Atlanta, GA                 Variety

10/16               New York, NY             Terminal 5

10/17               Washington, DC         930 Club (late)

10/20               Boston, MA                 Royale

10/22               Montreal, QC              Beanfield Theatre

10/23               Toronto, ON                The Concert Hall

10/24               Cleveland, OH            Globe Iron

10/25               Chicago, IL                 Vic Theatre

10/27               Denver, CO                 Ogden

10/29               Boise, ID                     Treefort Music Hall

10/30               Portland, OR               Crystal Ballroom

10/31               Seattle, WA                 Showbox Sodo

11/01               Vancouver, BC           Commodore

11/02               Vancouver, BC           Commodore

11/05               San Francisco, CA     Fox Theater

11/07               Los Angeles, CA         The Novo

11/08               San Diego, CA            The Sound

11/09               Tucson, AZ                 La Rosa

11/27               London, UK                 Roundhouse

11/28               Bristol, UK                   Thekla

11/29               Manchester, UK          Academy 2

12/01               Brussels, Belgium       Ancienne Belgique Box

12/02               Paris, France              Bataclan

12/03               Utrecht, Netherlands  TivoliVredenburg

12/04               Berlin, Germany          Astra

12/06               Prague, CR                 Meet Factory

12/07               Warsaw, Poland         Proxima

12/09               Vienna, Austria           SimmCity

12/10               Zurich, Switzerland     Dynamo

12/11               Cologne, Germany     Stollwerck

12/13               Barcelona, Spain        Sala Apolo 2

12/14               Madrid, Spain             Sala Mon