Ella Hooper once hurled a silver boot into a crowd at an outdoor festival in Darwin, never saw it again and hobbled home barefoot. She’d gotten “so into the moment,” she said. “There was something crazy in the air – there’s always something crazy in the air in Darwin.” It happened “a few years ago,” and she allows she might be “slightly less silly now.”
The lost boot makes a good interview story. The rest of Hooper’s account is more instructive: it’s about a performer who made her own career decisions, took on the costs and kept working.
The Comeback
Killing Heidi returned to performing in 2016, 10 years ago, after the band had broken up or gone on hiatus, with no plans to play again. Hooper was nervous. The audience wasn’t. She called the response fantastic, with big sold-out shows.
At one performance, she spotted a girl holding a sign: “I’m Ella too, I was named after you.” Since then, she’s met many “little Ellas” whose parents told her, “She’s an Ella because of you!” Asked if she felt responsible for them, she joked, “To lead them astray? Yes!”
Age and audience come into it, too. About 10 years ago, she ran into Billy Bragg outside the Rolling Stone offices and told him, “Oh my god, my mum loves you.” Bragg replied with something like, “If I had a dollar for every time that a young lady said that to me … ” Hooper answered, “Oh yeah, sorry. I love you too.” Now young people tell her the same thing. “It’s just part of the journey!” she said.
Going Solo
Hooper’s move to a solo career didn’t come from a boardroom or a grant. A conversation with Stevie Nicks helped point the way. Hooper’s band the Verses supported Fleetwood Mac, giving her the chance to watch the group night after night and talk with its members. She was already weighing her musical options, she said, and listening to Nicks’ solo songs “Stand Back” and “Edge of Seventeen.”
Nicks had worked in folk and rock, and Hooper said “she’s not been afraid to try anything.” Nicks told her, “you can always go back to bands. It doesn’t have to be a closed door.” Hooper said that advice helped her let herself try something new.
The result is her album Overnight Success, which she describes as Americana. It’s out now. Hooper named PJ Harvey as a musician she’d like to hear make an Americana record, noting that Harvey “dabbles in folk” and draws on “old English traditional and Celtic roots stuff.” That’s “only a hop, skip and a jump away from Americana,” she said.
Discipline on the Road
Touring asks a lot of a voice. Hooper said she sometimes takes steroids to keep singing through a long run when she’s losing her voice toward the end. They’re “very activating,” she said, which can make winding down tricky.
She begins her routine as soon as she leaves the stage, aiming to sleep by 2am or 3am. She gets warm and travels with incense, lavender oil, a steamer and scarves to cover lamps. Lately, she’s made herself put down her phone and read a book. “It does work. It’s so annoying. I want the phone, the phone is so delicious! But no.”
Hooper’s candid about her character, too. She called herself a good friend, good in a crisis, a very good listener and extremely loyal. She’s kept the same friendship group since high school, before her “rock’n’roll experience.” She added, “I’m a shit secret keeper! I’ll listen, but I’ll repeat it.”
She’s also working on how she sees her earlier songs. It’s taken time, she said, to give herself grace instead of saying, “Oh god, I hate this shit.” She tries to focus on what worked and what she and listeners liked at the time, “because they probably still do!”
On lighter matters, she’s heard Killing Heidi lyrics misheard as “flying naked in the air” and “will you take it in the rear,” though she thought the second listener “was just being funny.” Her funeral playlist includes Van Morrison’s “Sweet Thing,” which she called “the right mix of ethereal and hopeful and emotional.” She might add “Lola” by the Kinks so everyone wouldn’t be too emotional.
Why This Matters:
Hooper’s story offers a small illustration of how a career grows from individual choices and audience demand. Killing Heidi’s sold-out shows 10 years ago came because fans wanted to buy tickets, not because anyone planned or subsidised a return. Her solo turn rested on her own judgment, advice from a peer and the reassurance that returning to a band wasn’t a closed door. Her road routine, from sleep habits to putting down the phone, reflects personal responsibility for her working life. From a center-right view, that mix of risk, accountability and loyalty to long-standing friends is how durable careers get made, without outside direction.