Wellington-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Vera Ellen has released a new single ‘Carpenter’ which will appear on her upcoming album, ‘Ideal Home Noise’, out digitally and on both red or black vinyl and CD on 31 March 2023 via Flying Nun Records. The new album was tracked at Wellington studio, The Surgery, with the talented multi-instrumentalist Ben Lemi (of Trinity Roots, French For Rabbits and Dawn Diver fame) on production and engineering duties.
‘Carpenter’ is an achingly beautiful track about which Vera has said, “We are all quietly fighting our own battles. There is a feeling I get about having to fight them alone, keeping them close to my chest in shame. But I think we really all need to learn how to lean on each other. We would be more compassionate people, if we had the slightest window into someone else’s experience; their pain, their fear, their life. Carpenter is inspired by that. It’s a desperate cry, but there’s a triumph in being able to ask for help.”
The accompanying ‘Carpenter’ music video is the first in a series of three; and introduces Vera Ellen in a vampiric youth-sucking role. All three videos in this series will be directed and produced by prolific film-makers, Sports Team.
Vera Ellen has said that the name of the upcoming album, ‘Ideal Home Noise’, was a phrase she came across in a book, while house-sitting a Malibu property formerly occupied by The Beach Boys. Since then, the words have been recycled through various notebooks and phone apps, somehow remaining in her subconscious all these years later.
“My songs have been my friends, my lovers, my enemies. I have been their biggest critic and fan and they have been mine. And as for this album, you will hear my pain up close, but you can take comfort knowing I wouldn’t trade it for the world. So here we go, to another album. One of many more (I hope).”
Vera Ellen
Vera Ellen and her band will take to the road on album release for a four-date tour of Aotearoa, playing headline shows in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland. Tickets onsale now from Banished Music.
Stream ‘Carpenter’ HERE.
Pre-order ‘Ideal Home Noise’ HERE.
PHOTO CREDIT: Nicola Sandford
