Every once in a while (not very often if you’re me, but it does happen) you meet a new person and the conversation flows as if you’ve known each other since childhood. South London pop-punk quartet Breakup Haircut’s second album No Worries If Not! is the musical equivalent of this person. A collection of 12 songs that seem instantly familiar, though you can’t quite put your finger on why. They draw you in with their melodic bass, spikey guitars and rat-a-tat drumming, then seal the deal with lyrics so funny and relatable that I’d be scrawling them on my pencil case if I still had one (note to self: buy pencil case for scrawling purposes). And they’re not just funny and charming, they delve deeply into the personal and societal – messy breakups, trying to live up to everyone’s impossible expectations (and your own) and the life-sapping powers of social media. And there’s also a great song about gig etiquette – listening to ‘Pit Culture’ should be a requirement of entry to all shows.
Today is Bandcamp Friday, so why not get yourself acquainted with this excellent record, and check out the band’s track by track guide while you’re at it.
Spite! Spite! Spite!
Lyrics (Ishani):
I wrote this after one of my oldest friends slow-faded me out of his life. We’d known each other since we were kids, so I didn’t really have a blueprint for what long-term friendship fallouts even looked like. He moved to a new city and got more distant, and I assumed it was logistics. Then, early in lockdown, I realised—no one is that busy. I asked him point-blank why it felt so hard to have a basic conversation, and he said, he just didn’t want to anymore.
What hurt wasn’t the ending. It was being left in the dark for a year, carrying the whole thing solo, trying to keep something alive that was already dead and not even receiving a memo. That kind of slow departure rewired how I understand relationships. For a while, I went full overcompensator mode and tried to become The Best Friend Ever™ out of spite. I even kept a spreadsheet of everyone I talked to regularly. He wasn’t on it. Victory.
But spite spreadsheets are weirdly useful. I still use it. It helps me show up for the people who do want to be there.
Music:
We love playing this one live. There’s a momentum and bounce to it that’s hard to resist. Ishani came in with some chords, we ramped it up, each wrote our parts, and started playing with the groove. At one point Jordan gave an impromptu half-time masterclass to the rest of us for the chorus. We doubted him briefly. That was a mistake. He made it sound great. Never doubt the drummer.
I’m Okay (I Lied)
Lyrics (Ripley):
2023 was a chaotic and unhappy year for me. With a lot of bad fortune and core elements of stability in my life disappearing or falling apart. A whole variety of losses in the forms of: eviction, bereavement, the end of long-term projects, breakups.
The bassline for this song came fairly easily – it was one of the few things that did. We fleshed it out together and it clicked musically pretty quickly. But I chased the lyrics all year. They shapeshifted constantly, with no idea quite fitting right. Then I got dumped right at the tail end of the year. That finally cracked it open.
This is a song about the kind of ending you can feel creeping in, but don’t know how to acknowledge. When things are fraying, but no one wants to make the first move. A game of chicken where whoever processes their emotions first gets to call time. And even though you kind of felt it might be coming, and you were both building towards the same end, it still hurts immensely.
It’s about the little moments that build up towards the end. Where no-one is happy, but despite that, you can’t quite bear to cut the threads yet. Wondering if they’re pulling away or just struggling. Those little offhand remarks that sting more than they should, that slowly chip away at you.
I hit 2024 feeling numb, angry, completely hollowed out. It’s a cliché that musicians write songs instead of going to therapy. I was that cliché. Eventually I did go. And I’m doing better now. 2023 tore me down. This song came out of that mess. Writing it was part of building myself back up.
Music:
Ripley wrote the bassline start to finish and basically went, “Can we make this sound like midwest emo? Can we Jimmy Eat World this?” And the rest of us said yes, absolutely, take us there. Ishani helped shape the intro and gave it this big, dramatic, stadium rock energy. We played it live with a rotating cast of lyrics for about a year. Then Ripley had a rough run in dating and, surprise! The final lyrics arrived all at once. Sometimes the muse is just a relationship imploding.
The working title was Stokeley’s Sweater, a tribute to the goth queen from The Faculty. Ripley had initially wanted to write a love letter to the version of Stokeley before they got makeovered into a lavender-sweater-wearing normie. Justice for weird queer goths everywhere.
Don’t Get Eaten Up
Lyrics (Ishani):
This song’s kind of about workaholism – but more than that, it’s about realising that taking care of yourself is your own job. I joined a class that totally overwhelmed me, and I found myself crying on the bus home like, God, no one else can fix this for me… unless I want to make it someone else’s problem, which honestly wouldn’t be fair. So I had to just get better at planning. Not a very glamorous origin story, but it stuck.
I think a lot about responsibility – who gets handed it, who avoids it, especially in small spaces where things can get pretty lopsided in terms of emotional and logistical labour. This song is about sitting with that discomfort from both angles. And also about capitalism, obviously. Because it ruins everything. Always.
Music:
The bassline is one Ishani brought over from a band that died in 2020 – resurrected here with a Pixies-ish twist. Jordan was deep in his cymbal choke era, thanks to him listening to Sugarfoot Moffat (Michael Jackson’s drummer). To be honest, most of our drums are just whatever he was trying to practice at the time. Chaos, but it works.
Pit Culture
Lyrics (Ishani):
This one’s very straightforward – it’s about men taking up too much space. Physically, emotionally, spiritually. Always tall. Always in the way. Are you six feet tall and standing at the front of the gig, blocking everyone else’s view? Congratulations, you’re the problem. Some of us weren’t born five foot ten. Make room.
Music:
Delphine had a dramatic time writing this solo and ended up finishing it while everyone else took a walk on the last day of recording. Total bolt of lightning moment, but it turned out gorgeous. The song started with a riff from Ripley’s sacred riffbook. They were extremely precious about the exact swing of it and insisted we not speed it up. They were right. Also: this was our first cowbell track. A historic moment.
Imposter Syndrome
Lyrics (Delphine):
Delphine originally intended to write about current events – everything felt chaotic and pressing at the time. But as the writing process unfolded, the song shifted into something more personal: the imposter syndrome she experienced returning to academia after a break. At first, she thought the uncertainty and self-doubt were unique to her. But through conversations with others, she discovered just how common those feelings were. That realisation gave the song its emotional core – a quiet kind of solidarity in shared struggle.
Music:
Delphine brought in the initial chord progression, which had this unexpectedly sunny feel—hence the working title Summer Vibes. Then Jordan layered on a complex, triplet-heavy drum pattern we jokingly called the Flintstones beat, which somehow worked perfectly and gave the whole thing a slightly off-kilter energy. The outro came together right at the end of the writing process and ended up tying it all together. We wanted the guitar tone to stay upbeat and bright – even if the lyrics aren’t – which felt like the right contrast for a song about imposter syndrome.
Entropy
Lyrics (Ishani):
Ishani went through a phase of thinking a lot about how big the world is and how small they are. That’s really all this is about. Every so often that feeling comes back – it makes them feel grateful, but also a little wobbly and fragile.
Music:
Ripley’s main direction from the band on their backing vocals for this was: ‘try it again, but less camp.’ This ended up being Marvin’s favourite track from the sessions (we recorded the album with Marvin of tidestudiolondon). We originally called it Zolve (short for dissolve) because it moves so fast you can barely fit all the words in.
Two Spaghetti Meals
We just wanted to speed up a couple of our slower songs – so we took this one, cranked the tempo, and rewrote it to be about Kirk Van Houten instead of Milhouse and Bart (a natural progression.) The instrumental came together first, and then Ishani and Ripley sat in the garage with a notebook free-associating Simpsons memes until the lyrics clicked into place. Delphine was not amused. She does not watch The Simpsons.
A Place That’s Mine
Lyrics (Ishani):
I wrote this right after being told I had six weeks to leave a home I’d lived in for three years. It was probably the best housing situation I’d ever had, and I was gutted. I ended up moving into a really cheap but deeply cursed house share, and I was just furious—at the housing market, at the general impossibility of it all, and at how vulnerable it felt to be suddenly out in the cold. When I eventually found a new place (which didn’t suit my needs at all but technically had walls), my live-in landlord had the gall to say, “Oh, I would’ve given you more time if I’d known it was that drastic!” Like. Okay!
Music:
This is our attempt at a country song. We were going for dusty-western-film energy – long roads, bitter standoffs, emotional tumbleweeds. Ripley tried to let the bassline tell a story (very emotionally intelligent of them), but making it consistent took ages and nearly broke their brain. They’re very proud of it now.
I’m A Waste Of Time
Lyrics (Ishani):
I wanted to write the Daria theme tune but Splendora beat me to it. The band said, “sure, we’ll do that,” so I wrote this instead. It’s about being bored and trying to care about a boy, but failing. (This is no longer relatable now that I’m married and care about my boy very much).
Fence²
This is the exact same song, just twice as fast. We started doing it this way to shake up practice sessions and remind ourselves that making stuff is supposed to be fun, not just a treadmill of rehearsals and gig prep. When you’re meeting every week, it can start to feel like admin, but this version helped us reconnect with the joy of messing around. Jordan would like everyone to know that if we could stick the drums on the fridge like an A+ school project, we absolutely would. We think he’s A+.
The Algorithm Is Trying To Kill Me
Lyrics (Ishani):
This one’s not that deep. Like most things I write, it’s about capitalism, because I genuinely think it’s the root of most terrible things. (Don’t @ me, Silvia Federici.) I left Instagram in December 2024 after years of wanting to ditch the internet entirely. As a teen, it gave me life: connection, community, the belief I could stick around. But now? I’ve got enough friends. I don’t need to see the same ads three times in a row or find out someone I barely remember is thriving in Dubai. I’m tired of being sold things. I’m just tired.
Music:
Ishani came in saying “Can we do something that sounds like CAKE?” but then decided they actually didn’t want it to sound like CAKE. Ripley had spent a whole afternoon figuring out how to sound like CAKE, but thankfully had another non-CAKE-related idea on hand, which stuck. Jordan added heavy drums and made a valiant attempt to sneak a blast beat into the track. There’s a five-second speed-shred guitar moment on the record, which Ripley played because they’re the fastest, but Jordan muted the strings because Ripley cannot be trusted with palm mutes on that many tiny strings. This was Ripley’s brief guitar era. They will not be taking further questions at this time.
Remy
Music:
This one came together in about half an hour while Ripley was messing around with drone basslines on their new RAT pedal. At practice, Ripley was convinced everyone was on their phones, but they were really just showing Jordan the riff. After a few minutes, Ishani casually looked up and was like, ‘If you don’t have lyrics for this, I’ve got some.’ We spent a good chunk of time debating if it should fade out or not. Jordan, being Jordan, secretly recorded us and then performed the fade-out live, much to everyone’s surprise. It’s our first fade-out. To get it just right, we jammed it for five minutes straight to make sure we had a solid take. Marvin (bless him) let us add all the extra layers we wanted, and Delphine wrote a haunting guitar line with some super cool effects (channeling Where Is My Mind? vibes) for the outro. It wasn’t even supposed to make the record, but it came together so fast that it sneaked its way in.
Lyrics:
Ishani wrote the lyrics in the rehearsal room while otherwise deep in burnout – feeling stuck on a never-ending hamster wheel. It’s about that feeling of being unable to take a break, not having the luxury to opt out of survival tasks, and just pushing through. At the same time, though, you don’t want to give up on the things that bring you joy because if you do, you’re just a joyless husk. So, you keep moving, on the production line of life, forever and ever.
No Worries If Not! is out now via INH Records on CD and digital download – order your copy now on Bandcamp
Breakup Haircut: Facebook | Instagram | Soundcloud | Youtube | Bandcamp
Article by Paul Maps
Photography by @daisystsnaps
Keep up to date with all new content on Joyzine via our
Facebook | Bluesky | Instagram | Threads | Mailing List