Killing Heidi are back, 25 years on: ‘Growing up in rock'n'roll gives you a shitload of grit'
In 2022, Ella and Jesse Hooper, siblings and bandmates in Australian rock band Killing Heidi, lost both of their parents in the space of two weeks. Their father, Jeremy, died first after a shock cancer diagnosis and a quick decline; a fortnight later, their mother, Helen, passed away after a long struggle with breast cancer.
The grieving siblings took the weekend off, then went straight back out on to the road.
'It did remind me a bit of the early days: we would work through everything and anything,' Ella says. 'It gives you a shitload of grit: growing up in rock'n'roll and having a band to shepherd through success and post-success and trauma, then success again.'
Life, in all its surprise and sorrow, has happened to the siblings from Violet Town, Victoria in the decades since they took Australian music by storm at the turn of the millennium. Gone are the dreadlocks – Jesse, now 44, removes his cap to reveal a bald head when asked if the controversial hairstyle will ever return – but their youthful spirit remains. This month, they will hit the road to play their chart-topping debut album, Reflector, in full, marking its 25th anniversary.
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For many Australians, Killing Heidi is the sound of growing up. 'It's like sunscreen, cut grass, those things that have a time recall … Are we one of those? Are we sunscreen?' Ella, 42, quips.
The Hoopers were teenagers when they won Triple J's Unearthed competition in 1996. Radio veteran Myf Warhurst met them a few years later when she was starting out at the station, and immediately noticed their 'magic dust'.
'I just remember how gorgeous and delightful they were, these little country kids who were clearly bursting with talent and charisma,' Warhurst says. 'I don't know if we knew they were going to go as big as they did at that point, but you could certainly tell they were going to make something happen.'
And they did. When Reflector was released in March 2000, it became the fastest-selling Australian album in history at the time. Its major singles, Weir and Mascara, were inescapable. As a preteen, I was struck by the sight of a girl not much older than me – Ella was 17 then – rocking colourful hair, piercings and a don't-care attitude. Killing Heidi was a perfect crossover act: friendly enough for mainstream radio, with an edge that appealed to the alternative crowd.
For the siblings, it was all a whirlwind. 'I remember performing at the Big Day Out for the first time … When you see it in people's faces in the crowd, the sea of people going, 'this is the set we've been waiting for' – I was deeply complimented by that,' Ella recalls. 'There were other things that happened [that festival], like the Red Hot Chili Peppers mentioning us on stage … That really blew my mind. It still does, that we did that on our first album.'
The nature of local success has changed since, as streaming and social media has homogenised music consumption worldwide. 'I don't know if anyone [in Australia] can be successful in quite the same way as we were – I don't often see those white-hot moments where it's just everywhere,' Ella says. 'I can't think of any that have gone through that since [the likes of] Silverchair and Jet … It was different.'
Over the next few years, the Hoopers and their bandmates – drummer Adam Pedretti and bassist Warren Jenkin – released records and toured relentlessly. 'We were always looking to the next thing,' Jesse says. Then, in 2006, they suddenly disappeared.
Ella and Jesse both laugh when I ask what actually happened.
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'My thinking was, I don't actually even want any attention on this breakup, so we'll just stop and see if anyone notices – which worked remarkably well,' Ella says. 'I can't believe we got away with that.'
'We wanted it to be a quiet little break,' Jesse says. 'We'd been doing it since we were 15.'
It was technically an indefinite hiatus – but, Jesse says, 'We never really spoke about when, or if, we were going to put Killing Heidi back together.'
The Hoopers stayed busy in those years. They formed a new acoustic duo, The Verses. Ella began her solo music career, appeared on TV shows like Spicks and Specks and hosted radio programs. Jesse started working in music education and mentoring. In 2013, Ella proclaimed that Killing Heidi would never get back together: 'I don't think I could sing such youthful and youth-based songs convincingly any more,' she said at the time.
So what's changed? 'Our stories were so teenage, so young and so connected to a version of me … When I said that in 2013 I was still probably trying to distance myself,' Ella says. 'I needed to mature, to be able to go back and put my hand on 15-year-old Ella's shoulder … I don't think you can do that just a few years out from being that age. It takes a little longer to become an adult that can hold different phases of yourself.'
Killing Heidi started performing again in 2016, when they were invited to headline the Queenscliff music festival, and have played festivals almost every summer since – with no plans to record new music. Pedretti is still behind the kit, and Clio Renner (keys) and Phoebe Neilson (bass and backing vocals) add 'a lot more feminine power', Jesse says.
The band was billed to play Reflector in full at Good Things festival last year, but due to technical difficulties they never got through the whole set. The upcoming tour will be the first time the record has ever been performed in its entirety. 'I had to put on the CD to remember,' Ella jokes.
Playing this music together is particularly meaningful for the siblings these days – as Ella points out, they are each other's only remaining immediate family. '[The music] tells the story of our teenage times, which connects us to who we were when our family was different,' she says. 'It's very special.'
The 25 Years of Reflector tour is in Adelaide 20 June, Perth 21 June, Brisbane 26 June, Sydney 27 June and Melbourne 28 June
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