ELLA HOOPER Clear and Present Danger:
Killing Heidi have finally arrived on the other side of an extended break with a rockin' album called Present, set for release on Monday, October 28, with a nation-wide tour in tow.
Ella and Jesse Hooper made their arrival on the Australian music scene in a whirlwind of excitement and publicity when they were Unearthed by Triple J and subsequently signed for their first album, Reflector, housing the hit songs, Weir and Mascara . Now that the craze has died down the band are keen to release Present , their second album. Ella hopes it will hopefully climb the charts on its own merits, without any imposing hype.
Last week Hooper rolled into town with the members and crew of Killing Heidi, glad to be greeted with a comfy bed after a night at the ARIAs before travelling to Perth for Telethon. She arrived at our interview bare faced and fresh, hair still partially wet from a rushed shower, ordering a strong coffee to kick start her day. No flashy pretence, just Ella Hooper - a genuine and passionate person; glad of the chance to talk about someting she's truly proud of.
By NATALIE SCHMEISS:
Before Kiling Heidi started, was success ever something that you were prepared to chase or did it just start chasing you?
It kind of started chasing us. Some people can kind of say, 'Oh sure, whatever, sure it chased you down'. But I definately wanted to be in entertainment, in music or acting - that was my other love when I was 12 and I was like, 'C'mon, I wanna be on Neighbours c'mon' (laughs). And thank God she always said, 'No, no, no. Let's just give it a couple more years so you can have a bit of a normal upbringing.'[/I] Which was funny because it sounds as though she thought, well, if I had have gone for it then I probably would have made it. I've always had a weird feeling that I probably was going to be in the public eye. Very strange. And not because I really wanted to, just because... I don't know, destiny's a pretty strong word but... I always had a hunch.
Often if people know they're going to be in the public eye they also know there's going to be a lot of work involved. Did you ever feel like it all happened a little too fast?
Well I definately thought it would be harder to get where we got really quickly. I though that... join a band, and that was all good and I was already in a band by the time I was 13... this band. And it was just like well her come the next five years moving to Melbourne, working around the pubs, doing the hard slog. And I would still be doing that now if that had have eventuated but, here I am, already had a number one album and a number one single and I'm about to release album number two. It's crazy! We just didn't know that all the stars were in the right spots for us to just go bam, bam, bam, all the stepping stones were there for us. The right people, the right time, and a lot of luck, I think there was also a lot of good fortune that our band's experienced, which has been very handy.
How did you measure success before you became a household name?
I totally measured success by happiness. I think, you know, bugger having all this, you might have all the awards in the world and you might be selling out concerts left, right and centre; but if I wasn't enjoying it I'd much rather be just as happy as my mum doing social work or whatever. Or being a make-up artist or a hairdresser, who was actually having time for themselves and feeling really fulfilled. I'd never want to be feeling like I was sacrificing happiness for success, that just doesn't make sense to me. I look at some of the big, big stars and they're all like bulimic and on drugs and it's like, yeah, you guys don't look like you're having much fun! Sure, you're huge but at what price?
With your latest recording; it seems Reflector was mostly inspired by a young person's experience in the education system, so what's Present largely about... for you personally?
Well Present is... I think that's the really important part about it, it's not Reflector part two, I think it's a pretty different record. You can still tell it's us and everything - it's a Killing Heidi record but it's not... the inspiration's taken from a really different place. And there's only one song on Present that reflects on high school and it's actually looking back fondly which is a crack up because all of Reflector is bitching and moaning about how I didn't feel very fulfilled by high school.
And then on this album I've got distance from it and I look back going, "Ah, gee, were'nt they care free times?". But the overall mood of the album... I think it goes inward as opposed to outward and it being really observational. It's more about my experience in growing up more and me becoming who I am gonna be and relationaships with other people like my friends, my family, mainly my boyfriend, my first relationship, which just taught me so much which unfortunately is over now. That was like a whole part of the album was just going, Oh God, you know, Nothing lasts forever." So that's a lot of inspiration from that.
Was Outside of Me written closer to Reflector cause it does sound like it could fit on that album?
Yeah, yeah. It was actually one the first ones that we wrote after releasing Reflector when we were starting to build up the new repertoire. But, it started off quite different that what it sounds now. As with most of our songs it was written on acoustic guitar and then it grew to be this really polar... bipolar kind of song.
Was there a certain amount of pressure to stick to the magic formula and write the kind of songs that kick started your career to begin with?
Yeah, I think there was definately. Some people's expectations... not really pressure because... ah, I don't know how to put it nicely but we're a pretty... we're a bunch of musos and we do know our shit. Like we're not gonna just be bullied into making something sound the way we don't want it to sound. So we were pretty steadfast in that it had to evolve; the sound and the songs. But mainly we looked at everything in recording from a different way too so we knew that wouldn't just be Reflector... a little Reflector clone. Because the songs were pretty different, a few of them definately like your Heavensent's and your Outside of Me I think they are the more Reflector friendly songs, but then there's others in there that would have been really... I kind of hear they are a step ahead. That's just the baby steps thing.
How close is this album to your ideal Killing Heidi sound?
I'm so much more passionate about this album. Of course I still like Reflector, that's where I was when I was 15. I was 15 when I was sitting and recording and writing those songs. And now I'm 19, that's a long time ago for me and this album reflects where we're at much more, even musically we're crunchier. Anyone who's seen us live, we never sounded really like the album 'cause we're always a hell of a lot heavier live and have a lot of energy. So this time we've captured that so it reflects us better.
Because you've had quite a bit of down time between projects some people are feeling that because the hype surrounding the band has simmered out this one's not gonna take off. What are your thoughts on that?
I tend to agree. I mean, hype is such a powerful force, who knew about the Vines a couple of weeks ago? No one really. Hype is... like in this day and age it can do amazing things and I think we were one of the first bands in a long time to get super-hype. Like crazy hype. We were on the cover of everything and kind of the word on everyone's lips and we're a household name but some of those people don't even know the music, they're like, 'Oh yeah, I know the name Killing Heidi. What is it?'.
It was just such a lot of saturation and now that that's gone I think that there can't help but be... not a backlash because I think we've already been through that, but a simmering down of the crazed excitement. Because the first time there was a lot of mystery, like Who are they? What are they? Oh wow, and they're so young!'. Now we're a little bit older, people know who we are so I guess there's not as many selling points. but then I think, well, that's good because I want this album to get by on its merits. I want this album to get by on the fact that it's a really good album.
With your throat surgery and the extended time off did you guys ever feel that you've done your dash and...
Teeter out? No, never. It was just something like, we couldn't believe how many hurdles were getting put in our way. I guess it's funny, tying in with the first couple of questions, it's like Wow! Things have been so easy, what a ride' and then bam, in the second part of the game all these incredible hurdlges were put in our way. Like my voice totally dying and having to get micro surgery and that totally took Killing Heidi out for ages while I recovered.
How long did your recovery take?
It's really taken about four or five months for me to recover fully and we only thought it was gonna be one month. So we're all a bit, Oh God, this is a bit scary. 'Cause you're meant to have a pretty smooth recovery after the operation that I had, but I didn't, It took a long time. I think I lost a lot of confidence vocally so I didn't want to just... wahhh (sings laughingly), you know, 'cause I'm really out there with my voice, I do things that I don't ever understand what I'm doing. So then as I started to learn about the science of the voice I thought, "Maybe, I shouldn't do that" (laughs).
Being a young woman in the music industry you seem quite removed from the current trend for girls to bare all to sell a tune. Has that ever been an issue for you?
Definately, in America especially. We went to America to make another version of the film clip Weir 'cause they were gonna release that there with our now defunct record company, who isn't there anymore, but we were signed to them and they were gonna release a Weir as the first single. So they made this really summery splashy clip and they had all these girls in, not bikinis, but they tried to make it look alternative but really it was just tits and arse and lots of dancing around and I didn't feel good about it at all. I don't want to go down that path.
I think songs should be listened to because they're songs not just, "have you seen that film clip to that song? Oh my God, there's such big boobs in it!" I mean, I guess it's always been handy to have beautiful people in your band, or be one, to sell your music. Even the Beatles, they were cute, and all the little girls went crazy for them and fell in love with them but they also had really good songs. These days it's gone so far as all you have to do is be cute. I think it puts a complete expiry date on that person's career which is not really fair. As soon as they get to 30, or even to 20, and haveone bit of cellulite or they don't look quite so dewy and fresh people are gonna be like, "Oh, The appeal's gone for some reason." That's 'cause the appeal was all based on looks!
Where do Killling Heidi sit in terms of appeal to younger people?
I think what we do is bridge a gap because I wouldn't like to go on record saying 'Hey, we're a real hard rock band' because all the other rock bands would spew, and we're not, that's not what we are, straight up. But we definately do if anyone's seen us or knows anything about us, more than just pictures, we are actually a pretty rock' band but we're also pop and we have a lot of pop fans and kids. Like younger girls who would maybe be buying the Holly Valance album quite possibly buying our album as well, which is really weird and I think some people, maybe industry people, think that just means we're in the same basket as her but it doesn't. It means that kid has a choice to listen to something that's genuine or to listen to something that's a business experiment. |
