Next month, The Broken Heartbreakers will release their first single since the release of their 2015 album How We Got To Now, followed by a seven date tour of Aotearoa in October and November. The new single, We’re All Looking Up, is a homage to community, and more specifically, to the mountain under which the Heartbreaker band call home.
The Broken Heartbreakers are led by songwriters Rachel Bailey and John Guy Howell, who began their music journey together in 2002. With the passing of nearly 20 years, hundreds of gigs, four studio albums, multiple continents and a changing cast of backing band members, The Broken Heartbreakers sound has continued evolving.
We’re All Looking Up is a deliberate nod to the power pop genre, with chiming twin guitars, layered vocals and just enough harmonic twist and turns to keep listeners on their toes. “Imagine a Guided by Voices martini mixed with Dunedin’s Look Blue Go Purple - shaken not stirred.” The song is centred around North East Valley where the band all reside in Ōtepoti Dunedin and the diverse community that lives there under the protection of Kapukataumahaka (Mt Cargill).
Bailey says she was “influenced by the shared ‘alone, together’ experience of the Covid-19 lock downs. We’re all Looking Up celebrates the resilience of this community and the redemptive power of Ōtepoti’s magnificent landscapes.” “As we face the challenges in this pandemic world, the song emphasises what unites us and asks us to take comfort in the fact that ‘We’re all looking up at the same mountain’”.
Touring now as a 5-piece band, Bailey and Howell are joined by the talents of Craig Monk (Cloudboy, Dunedin Symphony Orchestra) on viola and 2nd lead guitar, Angus McBryde (asta rangu) on bass guitar and Paul McLennan-Kissel (Julian Temple Band, Entire Alphabet) on drums. With this unyielding line-up, the band joined Nadia Reid and her band for her national opera house tour in May, playing both as a 5-piece band, and as a trio in selected cities.
This time, The Broken Heartbreakers will carve their own path across the country, playing some very special venues with equally special guests along the way.
We’re All Looking Up will be available to download and stream on 1 October. Tour tickets available now from Under the Radar (Wellington tickets from Moshtix).
