There’s a specific kind of full-circle magic that happens when a musician gets to collaborate with the very artist who first made them want to pick up a guitar. That’s exactly the case for lucky break, the San Francisco via New York City indie rock project whose reimagined version of “Head Down” — featuring none other than Melissa Auf der Maur of Hole and Smashing Pumpkins — is out now.

The new take on “Head Down” arrives with a hand-drawn, stop-motion music video and slots neatly into the world of lucky break’s debut album, made it!, out now via Fire Records. Mixed and mastered by Grammy-nominated engineer Jessica Thompson (Margo Guryan, X-Cetra, Erroll Garner), the record is a diaristic snapshot of life between the ages of 19 and 23 — the years, as she puts it, “where everything happens.”

“Melissa’s work has been such an important source of inspiration and influence for me, since my early childhood,” lucky break says. “Having her on this project is a tremendous honor. I look up to her in so many ways: for her artistry, her voice, and her fierce advocacy for justice.”

The admiration runs both ways. Auf der Maur, a longtime early supporter of lucky break’s music, adds: “Emma’s whimsical commitment to discover the pure relationship between her voice, her words and her guitar, is reminiscent of my own generation of women, coming of age enveloped in sound.”

Musically, “Head Down” is a bright, guitar-forward meditation on the illusion of innocence and the pull of instant gratification — the kind of hazy, hook-driven alt-rock that had Clash Magazine praising its “90s indie pop bliss” and Vanyaland calling it “a time capsule, both visual and aural.” Adding Auf der Maur’s voice into the mix only deepens the lineage, tying the track back to the grunge and alt-rock canon that clearly shaped lucky break’s musical DNA.

The accompanying video leans into that same nostalgia. Built around lucky break’s signature illustrations (including a portrait she once mailed to Auf der Maur), the clip is a loving tribute to the early-2010s “bullying story time” YouTube videos that shaped a generation of young women online. “These videos were one of the first major ways young women started talking about their mental health online,” she explains. “I wanted to pay tribute to that moment in time and the effect it had on me.”

Watch the official video for “Head Down” (feat. Melissa Auf der Maur) here: https://www.youtube.com/@luckybreakmusic

Debut LP made it! — an eleven-track collection produced with friend and co-producer Elliott Woodbridge in a Burbank studio next to the train tracks — pulls from lucky break’s lifelong listening diet: 90s alternative like Pavement and Fiona Apple, plus Lucinda Williams, John Prine, and Joni Mitchell. KEXP called it “a compelling set of introspective indie rock with tinges of folk and bedroom pop… making for a deeply endearing debut.”

Fans in the U.S. can catch lucky break on the road throughout July, with a run of dates alongside Nashville artist Maisy Owen:

MADE IT! TRACKLISTING
01. Big Swing
02. Burning String
03. Camp Song
04. City Lights
05. Crush
06. Darklight
07. Head Down
08. If People Could Fly
09. Pictures Of Herself
10. Red Balloon
11. Spinning Cup

LUCKY BREAK LIVE 2026
Jul. 10 – Vinyl Tap, Nashville, TN*
Jul. 11 – Haven Haus, Memphis, TN*
Jul. 12 – Birmingham Mountain Radio, Birmingham, AL*
Jul. 13 – Flicker Theatre, Athens, GA*
Jul. 14 – Golden Folk, Grey Eagle, Asheville, NC*
Jul. 15 – Horizon Records, Greenville, SC*
Jul. 16 – Old Records Off The Shelf, Four Oaks, NC*
Jul. 17 – School Kids Records, Raleigh, NC*
Jul. 18 – Grey Eagle, Asheville, NC*
*w/ Maisy Owen

Stream “Head Down” (feat. Melissa Auf der Maur) and the full made it! LP wherever you get your music, and follow lucky break on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok for illustrations, zines, and dispatches from her ever-expanding cartoon universe.