Problem Patterns

Belfast-based DIY feminist queerpunk quartet PROBLEM PATTERNS are delighted to return with new single ‘Sad Old Woman’, featuring vocals from Matt Korvette of Pissed Jeans (Sub Pop Records) and set for release on 16th April 2025 via Alcopop! Records.

The track premiered exclusively on BBC6 Music New Music Fix Daily last night with Deb Grant and Tom Ravenscroft, followed immediately by a spin on Radio X by new music champ John Kennedy.

Commenting on the track, the band say: “Sad Old Woman is about accepting the inevitable. The older women get, the more they’re forced to maintain a certain image and decorum, lest they become grotesque or even worse, invisible. There is a checklist of life goals ingrained in our society that we feel pressured to complete by a certain age; many that seemed obvious in previous decades seem less attainable for the majority now. To critique these standards can often invite remarks of bitterness. Aging is a gift, and we should embrace it while we can.”

A formative influence for Problem Patterns since day one, the collaboration with Pissed Jeans on the new track seems to have been written in the stars. “One of our early songs, ‘Mediocre Man’, was kind of a satirical response to their song ‘Boring Girls’,” explain the band. “We finally got to see Pissed Jeans live in Dublin in 2024, with Alanah wearing a bootleg Pissed Jean T-shirt made by the rest of the band. We told Matt about how much they inspired us and joked around about asking him to collaborate—like with most things we do, we committed to the bit and he was on board.”

Known for his intensely creative vocals, Korvette took the role and ran with it. Playing the voice of the inner saboteur of the ‘Sad Old Woman’ in a grotesque and tongue in cheek manner, he couldn’t be a better fit for the track. “We’re endlessly grateful that he wanted to get involved and he has more than delivered with his iconic, manic vocals,” say the band. “From Boring Girls to Mediocre Man to Sad Old Woman, the circle is complete.”

On the collaboration, Pissed Jeans vocalist Matt Korvette said: “I met Problem Patterns after they were slamming up front in homemade Pissed Jeans shirts at a show, and am deeply honored to contribute to “Sad Old Woman”. I hope to one day wear my own homemade Problem Patterns shirt in their pit! The sad old woman is the woman in me…”

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, the new track is the first new material from PP since winning the coveted ‘Album of The Year’ category at the Northern Irish Music Prize 2024 with critically acclaimed debut album Blouse Club. 

Alongside the new single, the band are pleased to announce new April/May 2025 EU, UK and Ireland tour dates, plus festival appearances at NXNE, Under The Drum, and Get In Her Ears Fest, and support dates with BO NINGEN and Michael Cera Palin.

Tickets are on sale now, with further live dates TBA (see below for listings).


New single ‘Sad Old Woman’ feat. Matt Korvette (Pissed Jeans) released 16th April 2025

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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.
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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.

Recorded and mixed by Niall Doran at Start Together Studios in Belfast and mastered by Peter J Moore at The E Room in Toronto, their 2023 debut album Blouse Club 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, 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.

Streaming support has been equally bountiful, with love from Spotify’s All New Punk, The Punk List, Hot New Bands, and Queercore playlists, Apple’s New In Rock, New In Alternative, and Negative Space, and Deezer’s Queer Punk playlist.

They have played with Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill’s iconic electro rock trio Le Tigre, supported Dream Wife on their Ireland tour, joined fellow Irish upstarts And So I Watch You From Afar and Fight Like Apes on stage, and opened for Scottish legends The Spook School at their reunion show in Glasgow.

Problem Patterns rounded out an incredible 2024 by supporting Other Half in Norwich, The Mary Wallopers at SSE Arena, Belfast and releasing an electronic rework version of the album, Blouse Clubland. An eclectic mix of melody, mash ups, and mayhem, this exquisite new version of the record sees the Belfast punk icons come together with a boatload of their finest friends, collaborators, and fellow musicians to re-work the original tracks into a sublime new listening experience. It's Problem Patterns, but not like you've ever heard them before.

The remix album followed on from the standalone single ‘I Think You Should Leave’ released earlier in 2024, following a bumper summer of performances at Glastonbury Festival, Stendahl Festival, 2000 Trees, TRUCK Festival and Belsonic.