Three years after Ideal Home Noise rewired the emotional circuitry of Aotearoa indie, Vera Ellen returns with ‘Gayfever’, a first taste of her forthcoming album Heaven Knows What Time, out May 1 via Flying Nun Records.
If her Taite Prize-winning last record felt like a descent into the interior, this new era steps outward, blinking into light without pretending the shadows have gone anywhere. ‘Gayfever’ is an anthem of infatuation, written for a person so captivating they warranted their own chorus. It’s joyous without being naive, playful without sanding down its edges. The video, directed by former bandmate Jerry Ramirez and starring the quietly magnetic Zipporah Norton, balances absurdity with tenderness, leaning into the strange theatre of love rather than flattening it.
The album’s genesis feels as organic as its title. Written during a two-week residency in Greytown through the NZ Pacific Studio Artist Residency Programme, the record emerged from a period of enforced stillness. Alone in a cottage, walking the landscape, Vera Ellen found the room to slow down. Writing, once obstructed by the relentless cycle of touring and self-sustaining hustle, began to breathe again.
There was also pressure, but the productive kind. A final performance at Studio 73 marked the end of the residency, creating a self-imposed deadline. In her application, she wrote of wanting to create something uplifting after the heaviness of Ideal Home Noise, a record guided by hope but from a more matured vantage point. That intention threads through Heaven Knows What Time, though it resists easy optimism. Love and joy coexist with exhaustion, humour with heartbreak.
The album title arrived nearly two years after writing began. It became a quiet manifesto: creativity cannot be forced into industry timelines. It arrives when it’s ready.
With ‘Gayfever’, Vera Ellen signals a shift. Less thinking, more being. Less obligation, more curiosity. If her previous record excavated the weight of isolation, this one searches for community, contradiction and the kind of joy that feels earned.
Stream/watch ‘Gayfever’ HERE.
Pre-order the album HERE.
