O U T S I D E   O F   M E :

[This official biography written in 2002] Within three bars of their new single OUTSIDE OF ME, the magic that rocketed Killing Heidi to half a million album sales and multiple Arias' will come flooding back. As an atmospheric trickle cues Jesse Hooper's picking guitar and the graceful strokes of the strings, Ella Hooper's mild mannered vocals sail Verse 1 into the melodic waters that made WEIR one of the stand out pop songs of the last decade. But don't get settled. Drummer Adam Pedretti and bassist Warren Jenkin are waiting anxiously in the wings; ready to pounce the moment Jesse shifts the rift into take-no- prisoner's territory. The little-girl-lost turns woman scorned, the rock swallows the pop and Killing Heidi are back where they belong. It was never going to be easy following up one of the most successful debut releases in Australian music history. "Jesse and I just blocked all that out, went back to Violet Town and started writing. Luckily the songs poured out really easily", says Ella. Once the siblings had half baked a batch of worthy tunes, they headed for the sleepy town of Sorrento (on the Victorian Coast) with their bandmates and Producer/ A&R Director of Wah Wah Music (through Sony Music) Paul Kosky. "Preproduction on this album was such a different experience because we had toured together for over two years since we recorded 'Reflector'", says Adam. "We are such a tighter unit musically and we worked these songs up together - as a band - for the first time". Warren agrees that "We knew we had to keep the soul of that live, organic energy flowing through all the other production stages". Those stages mostly took place in a beach side studio that Kosky custom built where a surf life saving club used to be. "Because we stayed in the digital world throughout every stage of this record - including mixing and mastering - we had so much more freedom. We could isolate and change things at any point". The other stroke of genius was surely enlisting the atmospheric touch of Addicted to Bass/Moulin Rouge producer Josh Abrahams as the main keyboard player. "Josh adds a really funky, quirky element to this album", says Jesse, "it's really quite incredible". Not that all the enhancements on songs like OUTSIDE OF ME are synthetic. Take the strings for example. Kosky worked with the internationally acclaimed Polish composer Cezary Skubijephski and some of the world's highest caliber players from The Melbourne Symphony to bring the stirring strings sections to life. Like the inventive soundscapes and raw live energy, the orchestral enrichments launch Killing Heidi's musical landscape into an infinitely more mature universe; as does the more aggressive lyrical and musical attitude of the Hooper siblings. Ella Hooper has loved and lost, toured the world; undergone throat surgery and become one of the most recognizable faces in Australian music since Mascara first rocketed to #1 in late 1999. "I guess because of everything I've been through - I had a lot more personal stuff to say", says Ella, but is quick to acknowledge that "I always take my lyrical direction from Jesse's riffs and they were a lot angrier. Not just angrier - more empowered". "I think there's a lot more angst on this album", says Jesse, "but there's also a lot of breaking through it and rising above it". It's a point well demonstrated on OUTSIDE OF ME. "It's like I'm saying 'I don't want to hear another word'', explains Ella, "You have betrayed and disappointed me but I can't carry it around with me anymore. It's time I got it outside of me". OUTSIDE OF ME bridges elements of Killing Heidi's past with what seems to be their even more powerful future. But it only hints at what is to come. Expect Ella Hooper's vocal expression to swing from sexually charged to downright psychotic as the atmospheric funk flirts with much tougher rock. We don't want to give too much away. But you should start counting down the days…