While their subject matter ranges from the broken hearted depths of personal despair and loss, through to well aimed barbs at the socioeconomic wasteland of the neoliberal era, this isn’t music for the self-involved or gloomy. Soulful vocals, shimmering guitars, and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of pop hooks will snare even the most jaded listener.
Howell’s first band, the Tin Soldiers, was a high school Rockquest winner in 1991 and went on to release one album, Hell of a Time, on Pagan Records.
A previous band of Howell’s, Dunedin mod revivalists Too Many Daves, were briefly managed in the 1990s by Grant Robertson, now the Member of Parliament for Wellington Central.
While in Melbourne, the BHBs collaborated with hip hop artist Trillion to produce the track, Work.
Howell says he wanted to call the band the "The Sky City Heartbreakers" as he thought it would be subversive and funny to appropriate the symbol of everything he hated about the corporatisation of Auckland. “Rachel wisely pointed out that that was a dumb idea and that not everyone would share my sense of humour, and she suggested The Broken Heartbreakers instead.”
John Guy Howell - vocals, guitar
Rachel Bailey - vocals, guitar
Jeff Harford - drums
Mike Stoodley - bass
Richard Pickard - bass
Sam Prebble - guitar, mandolin
Myles Allpress - drums
Matt Sandford - drums
Ben Furniss - bass
Sonya Waters - keyboards
Ricky McShane - drums
Gareth Shute - bass