The Map Room

The Map Room combine their love for well-constructed pop songs and embellished instrumentation with themes of displacement and motion inspired in part by their travels through South America.

Brendon Morrow and Simon Gooding met while studying Audio Engineering in Australia, and upon returning to their hometown of Auckland the pair began to write music together. During a year-long trip from Argentina to Colombia, the duo developed their sound by writing and playing shows along the way.

Armed with a portable recorder and two old acoustic guitars purchased from an antique store in Buenos Aires, the pair set off on their odyssey and began writing and recording the first fragments of new songs. As the transient nature of their year unfolded, lyrical themes of movement, displacement and strange encounters began to rise to the surface.

The demos turned into fully-formed songs the duo would perform along the way, including slightly awkward Spanish-language live to air radio performances, and various gigs throughout Peru and into Colombia. No Spanish has made it into their songs thus far, but the band have crafted a sound which reaches from solo acoustic guitar (both acoustic guitars somehow making it home in one piece) to full band dynamics, rich with synthesizers, piano and electric guitar - drawing on inspiration from influential indie bands such as Radiohead, The National, Metronomy, Grizzly Bear, Spoon and Phoenix.

Both being recording engineers and multi-instrumentalists (Simon works as an engineer and producer at Auckland's York Street Studios, Brendon as a freelance sound mixer for TV and film), the duo have produced a self-titled record that has been written, performed, recorded and mixed entirely between the two of them.

Fearful of becoming control freaks however, they have relinquished control to Sterling Sound in New York for mastering and local based graphic designer Jared Kahi for the artwork. Jared also joins the two on bass for live shows, alongside drummer Andy Keegan.

Source: Facebook