Ella Hooper was 17 when Killing Heidi released their debut album Reflector, which went to No 1 in Australia in 2000 and won four Arias. Seventeen years later the band has reformed and is touring again. Now in her 30s, Hooper reflects on the demons she’s vanquished, her happy Middle-earth place and the lipstick she used to wear on her eyes in old press shots.
What’s thrilling
I’m a weird reader, I usually don’t read anything from start to finish, I usually have three or four [books] on the go and rotate them. It’s possibly a result of growing up in the information generation, my brain is too fried to stick with one thing for very long so I dabble. Right now [I’m reading] Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch by Henry Miller. I love Henry Miller, it’s a bit of an unexpected one from him, it’s more reflective. It’s about his later life period living up in Big Sur.
It’s, dare I say, much more of a down-to-earth version of Henry Miller than what we get in the Tropics – Tropic of Capricorn, Tropic of Cancer – it’s about his artistic practice, his life, his wife and his kid. It’s just so spot on for me, looking back on a career and isolation and his process. I am in a really reflective phase and I feel like I’m partly tying up loose ends and closing a loop with revisiting Killing Heidi. It is something I never thought I would do but it’s been incredibly healing and empowering. I’ve been able to prove some things to myself and vanquish some demons, all while having a ball and finding the joy of performing that music again.
Having such a successful first band when I was very young – I really appreciate it and I wouldn’t trade it for anything – you question whether it’s all a matter of luck and timing or whether you actually have the goods. Whether your talent can ever surpass what you achieved as a young person, whether you actually are any good at what you do or whether it’s the novelty factor of being so young. You haven’t really gotten to know yourself yet and you have all these accolades and adoration for something you haven’t really sweated on. Then when you grow up and you really do try on other projects and they are nowhere near as successful, it’s an interesting ride. I’m finally realising, it’s all fine.
Naivety is a wonderful thing, and when it’s matched with a bit of natural talent – which I now accept I have – you break all the rules because you don’t really know them, that’s a golden period.
The other book I’m excited about is Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Patterson. This guy is the closest thing to a guru of songwriting that there is and I’ve done a few face-to-face workshops with him. He’s taught Gillian Welch, John Mayer, some incredible artists, [about] the rules and tools of songwriting. I’m a bit of a hippy when it comes to inspiration and it all comes from a murky wishy-washy place. But the tools and rules Pat puts for some things are just exceptionally proven and helpful.
When it comes to beauty, I’m excited about [beauty range] Hourglass. I love the whole range, I love everything about the brand from the packaging to the product. The palette I’m obsessed with is Ambient Light, because who doesn’t love a bit of ambient light? My job is to sing in smoky nightclubs and this palette reflects my life choices. It is three powders in a beautiful chocolate brown palette and they basically create a glow on the skin. You can use them as all-over powders but they’re actually quite pearlescent so they’re not going to mattify you, they’re going to bring out a glow. Going from a neutral to a highlighter to a bronzer. I have been a bit heavy handed once or twice, but I’m going through it at a rate of knots, it’s for daily use but also for on stage.
What’s nostalgia-inducing
I’m a bit sentimental about the way I used to do my make-up. When I started out in Killing Heidi, I was very much a make-up rebel. My go-to was putting red lipstick on my eyes, of all things. I used lipstick for everything because that’s pretty much all I had. I never wore foundation, I never wore concealer. I look back at my press shots and think, “Oh there’s a big pimple, that’s nice, just shining through”. These days I would try to look a lot more immaculate but back in the day I really loved how I didn’t look anywhere near immaculate because that was the message of Killing Heidi. It was “Celebrate your flaws, don’t hide them”. It was really kind of cool, I was using one red lipstick for my blush, for my eye shadow, for my lips.
I’m definitely sentimental about Wise Child by Monica Furlong. It was a real coming-of-age book for me about a powerful young girl who was raised by a witch called Juniper. She is initiated into a world which she’s not sure about ... when I think about that book, I think about my childhood and my esoteric leanings and fantasies about natures, religion, witches and ritual and magic and how they all tied into becoming a woman and learning about your cycles. I probably read that book as I was getting my period, just as I was becoming a woman, in year 7, and I found it incredibly empowering. It’s a great story, beautifully written, it’s totally my cup of tea.
What I keep going back to
I’m a Maybelline Dream Liquid Mousse girl, that’s my foundation of choice, in nude beige. It’s the easiest thing, it’s not very fancy but sometimes when you’re on the road and all you’ve got access to is the chemist, you know you can get this staple. My other big thing is skincare, I’m an Aesop junkie, I have the beautiful Aesop moisturiser that goes on before anything, Perfect Facial Hydrating Cream. It’s got frankincense in it too so people end up smelling your face and saying “Why does your face smell so good?” Frankincense is also a little bit anti-bacterial so it’s good for blemishes.
My brother and I grew up being fantasy heads, reading Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. The world of Tolkien is definitely a happy place for me. Some people have Harry Potter, that’s the next generation, I’ve always felt a little too old for that so I’d say Tolkein is my Harry Potter happy place; when I want to escape into Middle-earth, I can.
