Killing Heidi returned to the stage in 2016, years after the band had broken up or gone on hiatus, with no plans to play again. Ella Hooper said she felt nervous about the comeback, but the response was “fantastic,” with big sold-out shows. At one performance, she noticed a girl holding a sign: “I’m Ella too, I was named after you.” Hooper said she’s since met many “little Ellas” whose parents told her, “She’s an Ella because of you!”
Back on stage
Hooper joked about her responsibility to the young fans: “To lead them astray? Yes!” The shows marked a return after a stretch when the band had no plans to perform again. Audiences turned out in force, and Hooper connected with fans, though the interview gives no figures for ticket prices or earnings.
Hooper also talked about finding her way to solo work. Her band the Verses supported Fleetwood Mac, giving the musicians a chance to watch the group night after night and talk with its members. Hooper loved Stevie Nicks and listened to Nicks’s solo songs “Stand Back” and “Edge of Seventeen.”
A conversation with Nicks helped Hooper decide to go solo, although she was already thinking about her next musical move. Nicks told her, “you can always go back to bands. It doesn’t have to be a closed door.” Hooper said Nicks had moved between folk and rock and “she’s not been afraid to try anything.” That conversation helped Hooper give herself permission to do the same.
Touring and the work of performing
Hooper said she sometimes takes steroids to sing through a long tour when she’s losing her voice near the end. She called the medication “very activating,” and said it can make winding down difficult. The moment she walks off stage, she begins a routine to help her sleep by 2am or 3am.
She gets warm and travels with incense, lavender oil, a steamer and scarves to cover lamps. Hooper said she’s recently 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.”
Her new album, Overnight Success, is described as Americana and “is out now.” Hooper suggested PJ Harvey as a musician she’d like to hear make an Americana album. Harvey “dabbles in folk” and draws on “old English traditional and Celtic roots stuff,” Hooper said, adding that this was “only a hop, skip and a jump away from Americana.”
Songs, audiences and memory
Hooper recalled throwing a silver boot into a crowd at an outdoor festival in Darwin after getting “so into the moment.” She never saw the boot again and had to hobble home barefoot. “There was something crazy in the air – there’s always something crazy in the air in Darwin,” she said.
About 10 years ago, Hooper ran into Billy Bragg as he came out of the Rolling Stone offices. She 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.” These days, young people tell her “my mum loves you” all the time: “It’s just part of the journey!”
Asked about misheard Killing Heidi lyrics, Hooper cited “flying naked in the air” and “will you take it in the rear,” though she thought the person who said the latter “was just being funny.” She said she first heard “Throw a maggot in the air” during the interview.
For her funeral playlist, Hooper picked Van Morrison’s “Sweet Thing,” calling it “the right mix of ethereal and hopeful and emotional.” She might also include the Kinks’ “Lola” so everyone wouldn’t be too emotional. Hooper said she’s a good friend, a good listener and loyal, but “a shit secret keeper.” She’s kept the same friendship group since high school, before her “rock’n’roll experience.”