The Broken Heartbreakers Release Uplifting New Single ‘What Is For You’
The Broken Heartbreakers Release Uplifting New Single ‘What Is For You’
April 10th, 2026
Ōtepoti/Dunedin indie-folk outfit The Broken Heartbreakers this week release ‘What Is For You‘, their uplifting, glistening new single and the second from their forthcoming fifth album Imagine If We Could Just Keep Driving, out 17 July 2026.
‘What Is For You’ is a sun-drenched meditation on the art of letting go. What begins as gentle reassurance – “the past nine months have been so good / dancing to a Block of Wood“, blooms into a shimmering, open-armed hymn to the present moment. Glimmering guitars and cascading harmonies carry a lyric that holds real life tenderly: beta blockers, existential dread, and real estate of the mind, all released into something that feels like exhaling for the first time in years. A song that catches you, holds you, and lets you fly.
John Howell said, “What is for you, won’t go by you” is a comforting Gaelic proverb Rachel’s auntie shared with us when we were living in Ireland, dealing with some kind of disappointment. It doesn’t mean passively accepting everything that happens in life, but rather to trust in its flow and to accept that the things that are meant to find you, will find you in time. This song is being playful with this concept”
Mixed by Nick Roughan at the Ōtepoti community recording studios, South Link Productions, where the band were grateful to be recipients of the extraordinary free services being offered to the public and arts community in the Otago region and beyond.
The Broken Heartbreakers – led by the songwriting partnership of Rachel Bailey and John Howell since 2002 – have spent two decades evolving from alt-country darlings to one of Aotearoa’s most enduring and emotionally fearless outfits. With four acclaimed albums behind them, hundreds of shows across multiple continents, and a revolving cast of beloved players.
The album will be released by Nadia Reid’s label Slow Time Records, joining the likes of Reid, Anthonie Tonnon and Ebony Lamb. Reid said, “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.”
‘What Is For You’ is out on Friday the 10th of April. The band’s fifth album Imagine If We Could Just Keep Driving arrives on 17 July 2026 on Slow Time Records.
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