Problem Patterns

“Fluid and ferocious. Righteous anger has rarely sounded so engaging” - The Guardian [One To Watch]
“I love Problem Patterns…weird music for right now...I am addicted” - Kathleen Hanna (Le Tigre)
“One of the most important records from the north of Ireland in the last 25 years” - Dig With It Magazine
“Riotous feminist punk anthems that provide comfort and catharsis in equal measure” - Get In Her Ears
“Twelve tracks of righteous and rallying queer punk...as brilliant as it is culturally crucial” - Noizze [9/10]
“One of the albums of the year...an utter thrill from start to finish” - God Is In The TV Zine
“Making some of the loudest and most necessary music out right now” - Bob Vylan
“The next big thing to come from Belfast’s emerging punk scene” - LOUDER
“Punk rock/hardcore that’s in a league all of its own” - The Punk Site [9/10]
​“A thoroughly great racket” - Steve Lamacq, BBC Radio 6 Music
“World domination surely beckons” - The Irish News
​“I just think they’re great” - Henry Rollins

Belfast-based DIY feminist queerpunk quartet PROBLEM PATTERNS are delighted to release their debut album Blouse Club today, out now at all good retailers and digital platforms via Alcopop! Records.

The band have had a rollercoaster year so far, tipped by Kathleen Hanna (Le Tigre, Bikini Kill) and Henry Rollins (Black Flag) as one of the most exciting new punk bands on the planet. Fresh from supporting Dream Wife on their Irish tour the band were tipped as The Observer newspaper’s Ones To Watch.

In an effort to weight equal importance to the whole record, Problem Patterns recently recorded several exclusive DIY videos for every track on the album, for a very special Problem Patterns Punk Trail—taking a journey through the many and varied themes of Blouse Club with visual references, bringing some hope and joy to those who may need it the most.

In today’s musical landscape, it can be easy for album tracks to get lost. For empowering and life-changing songs to get passed by in favour of more radio-friendly singles. To hear something you dig on a playlist, but not to check out the full album. For well-intentioned full-album digital playback to get interrupted by life events and never restarted again. 

For some albums that’s fine. For this one it really isn’t… 

The exclusive album track videos were shared 24 hours before the album’s release and can be seen at DORK, The Irish News, Vive Le Rock, Noizze, Get In Her Ears, Loud Women and The Punk Site.

They talk openly and candidly about the issues they’re facing, writing immediate songs for right now, swapping roles and instruments to get their point across, building a positive space from subjects that can otherwise be very difficult to face. Whether it’s railing against TERFs, examining middle class poverty tourism, lamenting chronic health problems, airing a "sh*tlist" of men from the music industry who have wronged them, or trashing corporate greed and wealth inequality, their messages are vital.

Recorded and mixed by Niall Doran at Start Together Studios in Belfast and mastered by Peter J Moore at The E Room in Toronto, the album has so far received rave reviews and coverage from from The Guardian (who tipped them at Ones To Watch), LOUDER, VISIONS, Dig With It, God Is In The TV Zine, The Punk Site, The Thin Air, Chordblossom, and many more.

At radio the band have performed an exclusive BBC 6music Session for the New Music Fix show, were added to the BBC 6music Introducing playlist, the Radio X X-Posure Playlist, the Amazing Radio playlist, and the Student Music Network playlist, with support from punk legend Henry Rollins at KCRW, BBC Northern Ireland’s Introducing, Mickey Bradley and Stephen McCauley, BBC Stereo Underground with Richard Latto, The Selector, RTÉ, Total Rock, Louder Than War Radio, and many more regional and specialist shows.

After a duo of support slots with Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill’s iconic electro rock trio Le Tigre earlier this year and a run of dates with Dream Wife in Ireland, the quartet have a London headline date at The Sebright Arms on 17th November 2023 and will be supporting Scottish legends The Spook School at their reunion show in Glasgow this December.

Debut album Blouse Club is out now via Alcopop! Records

More info:

Problem Patterns are four shouty queers who write songs for right now, swapping roles and instruments to get their point across about whatever angers them this week.  

After many lonely nights screaming alone in their bedrooms over the state of the world, Alanah, Bethany, Bev and Ciara (aka ABBA) came together in Belfast in 2018 to invent a new genre they called PUNK.  It's shouty, it's heavy, it's tongue in cheek, it's inclusive, it's hopeful and it's fun.

​These four DIY punk dads are all about creating havoc in celebratory and cathartic spaces.  Bigger than The Beatles, but not yet quite as big as Slipknot, the band have played notable support slots with Le Tigre, Bob Vylan and Fight Like Apes.

Their debut single, ‘Allegedly’, was recorded and released within their first month together, they released their debut EP, Good For You, Aren’t You Great? in July 2019, and their upcoming debut album BLOUSE CLUB has just been announced.

As a first taste of new material, the band unveiled the videos for singles ‘Who Do We Not Save?’—an acerbic and biting critique of Tory funding policy and their systematic attempts to privatise the NHS, and 'Letter of Resignation'—their party banger celebrating queer joy in the face of discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community.

Here's what some of their icons had to say about them:

​“I love the band Problem Patterns because they make weird music for right now that sounds like no one else and I am addicted” - Kathleen Hanna
​“I just think they’re great” - Henry Rollins
​“A thoroughly great racket” - Steve Lamacq, BBC Radio 6 Music

The band have already had a busy 2023 with support slots alongside Le Tigre, And So I Watch You From Afar and Fight Like Apes, and have even more lined up (see above for listings).