Vera Ellen Releases New Album Heaven Knows What Time. Via Flying Nun Records

1st May, 2026

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 atStudio 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.

Thre 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

ABOUT VERA ELLEN:

Aotearoa Music Award and Taite Award winning artist Vera Ellen was born and raised in Naenae in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington. She spent her younger years playing and writing music, writing her first song at age eight. While living in Aotearoa, she performed in bands including grunge four-piece Maple Syrup and Sweater.

Vera later relocated to Los Angeles, where she formed the band Girl Friday, whose music debuted on Sub Pop’s indie imprint Hardly Art. In early 2020, she returned to Aotearoa during the pandemic, a period that led her to complete her solo album It’s Your Birthday, released on Flying Nun Records in October 2021. The record saw Vera named ‘Best Alternative Artist’ at the 2022 Aotearoa Music Awards.

Her 2023 follow-up album Ideal Home Noise emerged from a period of deep introspection, and an attempt to find comedy and lightness within a darker chapter. Featuring two “voices” in dialogue throughout, the record shifts between lighter electronic textures — synths and electronic drums — and heavier, more intimate arrangements with ballad-like piano and raw vocals. “If It's Your Birthday was about relationships and love and strife between myself and others; then Ideal Home Noise is about love and strife between myself and myself.”

The album marked a significant expansion of Vera’s reach internationally, with tracks from her 13-song release connecting with audiences globally. Her single ‘Carpenter’ spent four weeks on the NZ Official Alt Charts, peaking at #1, while 2022 standalone single ‘Homewrecker’ spent 14 weeks on the charts, peaking at #8. Upon release, Ideal Home Noise reached #7 on the Official NZ Top 20 Album Charts.

The record also received strong critical attention, including a feature article and review in The New Zealand Herald (VIVA), and an in-depth interview with Tony Stamp for Radio New Zealand. Internationally, coverage included France’s Le Monde and UK publication Loud & Quiet, which noted it was “Totally in-keeping with her label Flying Nun’s famous output”. Ideal Home Noise was also named #3 in Rolling Stone’s “Top NZ albums of 2023”. In the US, the album charted #55 on the NACC Radio 200 Chart, receiving Top 30 support from nearly 30 stations and additional support from a further 26.

Alongside extensive touring in Aotearoa — including the 2025 Laneway Festival — Vera has performed internationally with her band, including a 14-date tour of China, a sold-out run in Australia supporting Crowded House, appearances at New Colossus Festival and SXSW (Austin and Sydney), and a full UK/EU support tour with Yumi Zouma. She is set to support Aldous Harding on her full UK/EU tour and perform at The Great Escape in Brighton. The Guardian described her performance as: “Arising New Zealand empress Vera Ellen and band were a revelation, a shimmering reminder that pop’n’roll can still nudge one’s soul.”

Her upcoming album Heaven Knows What Time. is set for release on May 1st.

HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT TIME Tracklisting
01. spit @ the sky
02. big shot jr
03. how we say goodnight
04. gayfever
05. walking in vegas
06. hollow
07. thaw
08. when it's over (ft. Hemi Hemingway)
09. hunger is just memory
10. getting told off by mum

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