Vera Ellen has released the music video for the title track from her recently released Flying Nun album, It’s Your Birthday. It is an exuberant accompaniment to the joyful tune; a carefree ode to her early 20’s. Vera can hardly hold her smile in during the entirety of the video and we can’t either.
The video, directed by Al Kalyk, follows Vera around different L.A locations. The twinkle in her eye never falters as she shows us around, occasionally drifting off into her own world as the video erupts into vibrant animation by Elvira Kadyrova and Rom Vashtar.
Vera Ellen, on the song and the video, says,
“The song was written when I first arrived in the states years ago and was still very much soaking everything in with wide eyes. The video was shot just weeks before I moved back to New Zealand. We found different spots around LA important to my time there, including my bedroom before and after I moved out. Full circle. It's your birthday again; one more cycle round the sun."
Vera continues, “Side bar; in the shot where I am by the LA river, I was going nuts and ran into the camera and made my nose bled and my whole face swollen, and then immediately took a xanax on accident.”
The music video for ‘It’s Your Birthday’ was made with the support of NZ On Air.
Watch the music video below.
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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. 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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