After more than ten years between albums, Ōtepoti-based indie-folk songsmiths The Broken Heartbreakers return with Imagine If We Could Just Keep Driving — their fourth studio album, released via Slow Time Records.
Led by songwriters Rachel Bailey and John Howell alongside drummer Paul McLennan-Kissel, The Broken Heartbreakers have spent more than two decades crafting music that sits quietly but enduringly within Aotearoa’s independent songwriting tradition — emotionally incisive songs shaped by folk, classic pop melody, country soul and the long shadow of underground guitar music.
Formed in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland in 2002, the band’s story spans New Zealand, Melbourne, Europe, the UK and Ireland before Bailey and Howell eventually settled in Howell’s hometown of Ōtepoti/Dunedin. In the years since their last album How We Got To Now (2015), Bailey and Howell focused on family life while Howell continued his work in the trade union movement — experiences that now sit deeply within the emotional core of the new songs.
The album features contributions from Craig Monk (Cloudboy, Dunedin Symphony Orchestra) on viola and electric guitar, and bassist Angus McBryde (Asta Rangu). It is released on Slow Time Records, the label founded by acclaimed Aotearoa songwriter Nadia Reid, who says:
“Rachel and John are such gifted writers, observers, singers, and players. These songs are the stuff of life — life on life’s terms. They sound like Dunedin, and Ireland, like K’Road. I’m so grateful that this record is joining Slow Time’s stable of records.”
Tracklist
01. How Long Is Too Long
02. When Your Eyes Meet Mine
03. What Is For You
04. Matthew (Your Whites Are So White!)
05. Yesterday
06. Now That You Know
07. Count Us In
08. An Ocean in the Way
09. Call Me Back
10. Dangerous Age
11. Imagine If We Could Just Keep Driving
