08 October 2021 - 0 Comments

Flying Nun are thrilled to finally release It's Your Birthday, the Flying Nun debut from Vera Ellen — a Wellington/Los Angeles based multi-instrumentalist and wildly prolific songwriter, who you may recognise from LA band Girl Friday (Hardly Art), or grungy NZ 4-piece Maple Syrup.

It’s Your Birthday was written over the space of a few years. It chronicles the highs and lows of Vera’s early twenties, and is integral to the artist’s growing process. Each song hits some kind of unforgettable, yet relatable, touch stone in the artist’s life:

“I feel pulled back to those moments whenever I play the songs. Some of it was written when I was broke living behind a sheet in a lounge in Hollywood, some inspired by the characters both beautiful and dark (mostly both) I met in Los Angeles, some when I felt rejection in the lowest pits of my stomach and also when I felt so much elation I thought it couldn't be possible to be any higher, some when l was so homesick I wanted to puke, some in the throes of love and other heartbreak. The stuff of life.”

“If you listen through it tells a story of where I was to where I am. Not that anything is ever truly resolved or figured out. It makes me happy having this body of work to give some meaning to some really dark places I have been in the last few years. Places that otherwise felt like a string of random unconnected feelings and events. If all my diaries burn, at least I will have this album.”

BUY / STREAM IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY HERE

Vera had about 12 demos which she sent to her friend’s Dad, Mark Austin. In January of 2020, Vera and Mark recorded it over a couple of days with the help of some friends at Pyramid Club. Vera went back to America in February and that was sort of meant to be the end of it, but fortunately for the rest of us and due to the global pandemic, Vera ended up coming back to New Zealand and was able to add songs and extra instrumentation to the album throughout the year.

“If you can imagine, you're twenty years old and you write about some dreadful personal turmoil, and now you're twenty five and you think, let me just share that with everyone I know and a few strangers while we are at it. If I am honest, I'm a little terrified about having this record out in the world. It feels very exposing. At this point I may as well become a nudist.”

It's Your Birthday is Vera’s gift to the world, but Vera wants to be the kind of uncle that always shows up with a gift on your birthday, so it shan't be the last.

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