Listen To Varda's Debut Single 'Intrusive Thoughts and Late Nights'

A dreamy and emotive synth ballad with an urgent message, 'Intrusive Thoughts & Late Nights' is the debut release from Varda, aka Alison (synths and voice) and Unsanitary Napkin / Displeasure's Ru (guitar and bass). Named after French film director Agnès Varda, the Te Whanganui-a-Tara duo's first single from their forthcoming What Time Is It There? EP rides a reflective balearic groove which wouldn't sound out of place on a Strangelove Music release, produced with DKYT (The Bent Folk). Expressing deep anxiety about what the future will bring for Aotearoa's younger generations — demanding tangible change while that still remains a possibility — hit play on 'Intrusive Thoughts & Late Nights' and read Alison's words on the song below...

“I’ve gone back on forth on if this song is mega corny or not but it captures a really earnest frustration I feel pretty much every day. Life has been hard as hell these past few years and not all of us have made it to the other side. I feel angry, I feel grief, I feel isolated but at the same time try my best to find joy, try and reach out and connect and ask how things are going (I am very bad at it). Many young people’s lives especially are so precarious, we can’t afford rent and food, we have so little control over the most basic aspects of our lives, we find it hard to imagine the future existing at all. We try to imagine where the tipping point might be, when we will reach it, what will happen then. I think maybe that point doesn’t exist. Yet, you find yourself asking the question over and over anyway, what will it take for things to be different.” — Alison