Driving is a huge part of rock and roll’s enduring mythology. Images of cruising down the highway with friends and lovers while basking in the freedom of the open road pervade pop music’s lyrical canon. Yet, so often, these idealized images clash with the everyday drudgery of being a motorist: traffic jams, detours, and bad news on the radio.

This tension is central to Motorists’ debut LP, Surrounded—an album that is as much about the colourful possibilities of life as it is about the way those possibilities are boxed in by technologies. It’s clear that, for the band, creative collaboration is the only way to break the tension. In a world where everyone’s been in their own bubble, Motorists have pushed theirs together and worked through feelings of isolation as a group, to the tune of jangly guitars, infectious power pop melodies and a steady motorik beat.