Ella Hooper finds sound on new EP Venom/New Magic
SHE was a rock star at 16 but put her “daggiest band around” on hold after a difficult second album. Can you guess who this Australian musician is as she prepares to launch a new EP?
Melbourne
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IT’S great being a rock star,” bubbly Ella Hooper says, “but it’s bloody hard.”
Hooper hit the heights as a plucky 16-year-old when Killing Heidi, the band she started with her brother Jessie in Violet Town, won Triple J Unearthed and they became the toast of the nation.
Killing Heidi had hits with Weir and Mascara, and Reflector won the 2000 ARIA award for album of the year.
“To go from no job to a fulltime job, there was so much pressure, I turned into a harda---,” Hooper says.
Then came the difficult second album, interest had waned, “all of a sudden we were the daggiest band around”.
She put the group on “permanent hiatus”, worked for the ABC as a Spicks ’n’ Specks guest then team captain in the short-lived second incarnation.
“I’ve chosen the worst back-up career: TV entertainment,” she says.
“I’ve had a volatile couple of years — got jobs, lost jobs. I’ve gotta look for the silver lining, sometimes it’s pewter.”
Hooper hosted the ABC’s New Year’s Eve telecast with Eddie Perfect, and her recent appearance on RocKwiz doing a sizzling version of Divinyls’ Pleasure and Pain is the show’s most viewed clip, clocking up 270,000 views.
Most importantly, the 33-year-old has found her sound. The monkey is off her back with her double EP Venom/New Magic.
“The song Monkey Mind is a key track, I woke up with it,” Hooper says.
Hooper launches the EPs at Miss Fox Beauty Salon, 285 Little Collins St, city, Thursday, 8pm. facebook.com/EllaHooperOfficial
To win one of five double passes, email michael.cahill@news.com.au.
Winners notified by email. Entries close Monday, 5pm.
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