Autoplay: The Broken Heartbreakers are full of soaring violin and churning guitar
Sunday, 19 July 2026
This week, Rachel Ashby listens to live folk noir and talks to The Broken Heartbreakers’ Rachel Bailey about the band’s first album in a decade.
We were there - Delaney Davidson @ The Cabaret Festival
Down the stairs, in the bowels of the opulent Civic Theatre on Tāmaki Makaurau’s Queen St, Delaney Davidson and his band took to the stage as part of Auckland Live’s Cabaret Festival. It was a stroke of brilliant programming to have the shamanic Lyttelton songwriter on the Cabaret lineup; his brand of theatrical folk noir was particularly suited to the dimly-lit decadence of The Civic Wintergarden. The band played Baby Heavyweight, Davidson’s latest album, from start to finish – a thoroughly satisfying experience.
How to be a heartbreaker
The Broken Heartbreakers - Imagine If We Could Just Keep Driving
Ōtepoti folk luminaries The Broken Heartbreakers released their first album in over 10 years on Friday via Nadia Reid’s label Slow Time Records. Imagine If We Could Just Keep Driving is a gently cinematic gem; full of soaring violin, churning guitar and instantly memorable choruses. Hear what singer Rachel Bailey had to say about the new album below.
What were you meditating on when you made this record? We spent quite a bit of time on these songs over the last couple of years. I think what the album was saying wasn’t really apparent until the end. John [fellow songwriter John Guy Howell] and I write separately, so some are songs that I’ve written and some are songs that John has written. When we write together, John will write the music and I’ll listen to the soundscape and respond with melody and lyrics. After we put all the songs together, it seemed that there was a thread of continuity and carrying on: of just being in the moment and enjoying the ride alongside someone else, despite whatever’s going on.
You’re releasing this album on Slow Time Records, Nadia Reid’s label. How does it feel to be part of this stable? It’s just such a lovely thing. Knowing all of those other Slow Time artists as really good humans – you feel like, ‘oh, we might be good humans too’. We’ve done almost everything ourselves so just having some support and people to bounce things off is absolutely incredible. Like Ebony (Lamb) is always on the end of an email wherever she is in the world, and she will respond immediately. Or we’ll hear from Nadia that Anthonie (Tonnon) is really enjoying the record. It makes us feel like we’re part of something and because we respect those other musicians so much, it feels really good.
How are you feeling about heading out on tour? It’s really exciting! When you haven’t played for a while you start to feel like a civilian – like you meet your musician friends and you find yourself asking, ‘can I still do this?’ So I’ve been really enjoying feeling all the layers of myself coming back. The last album we released was now 11 years ago and our daughter Jean was only 2-years-old. We’ve always continued making music even when I wasn’t performing, but when we do Heartbreakers stuff it takes both parents out so we’ve had to be mindful of that. But Jean is 12 now, so it feels like it’s the right time.
Tickets for The Broken Heartbreakers September tour of Aotearoa can be found at undertheradar.co.nz
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