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Aotearoa Music Award-winning and Taite Award-winning artist Vera Ellen releases her new album Heaven Knows What Time. today via Flying Nun Records.

The title Heaven Knows What Time. arrived while Vera was lying on the top bunk of a house truck in Buenos Aires, nearly two years after writing the record and almost a year after completing the mix. After multiple working titles, it surfaced with clarity and immediacy – less a decision than a moment of recognition. It reflects the album’s central tension: frustration and surrender to forces outside of control. As Vera describes it, creativity cannot be demanded – it can be nurtured, but ultimately arrives in its own time, “like a baby”.

The album was written during a two-week songwriting residency in Greytown, awarded through the NZ Pacific Studio Artist Residency Programme. The residency provided space and solitude away from touring and performance, culminating in a performance at Studio 73 for fellow residents and members of the local community.

In her residency application, Vera wrote: “After the heaviness of Ideal Home Noise, I feel it is pressing that I now create an uplifting record that has a guiding message of hope, but from a matured perspective.” While that intention is present, Heaven Knows What Time. resists neat resolution, moving through themes of love, joy, self-assurance, humour, moodiness, and heartbreak – positioning Vera as an observer of both inner and outer worlds.

New single ‘Walking In Vegas’ joins previously released album tracks: the lush alt-pop of ‘Thaw’, the joyous anthem ‘Gayfever’, and the sophisti-pop Hemi Hemingway duet ‘When It’s Over’.

Vera Ellen describes ‘Walking In Vegas’ as “An exploration of artifice in the entertainment industry. The many selves, the lack of self. Identity within identity without identity.” She uses Las Vegas as a symbol for blurred reality – especially in the age of AI – adding: “I visited there a few years ago and felt like I was in the belly of the beast. When you can’t decipher what is real in the world or in yourself, there’s a true tragedy in that.”

The track features guest vocals from her brother, Albert River, who also directed the video. If you listen closely, the album title is subtly embedded within the song.

Alongside the album release, Vera Ellen – set to embark on a 27-date tour of the UK and Europe supporting Flying Nun label-mate Aldous Harding – returns to Aotearoa in July for a six-date national tour in celebration of Heaven Knows What Time.

Vera Ellen
Heaven Knows What Time.
Album Release Tour

Thurs 23 July – Porridge Watson, Whanganui
Fri 24 July – Meow, Wellington
Sat 25 July – Hollywood Avondale, Auckland
Sun 26 July – Last Place, Hamilton
Thurs 30 July – The Loons, Lyttelton
Fri 31 July – Pearl Diver, Dunedin

Tickets onsale from: www.banishedmusic.com/tours/vera-ellen-heaven-knows

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Photo Credit: Nicola Sandford

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