Ella Hooper and the fickle business of the music business

In 1996, siblings Ella and Jesse Hooper (aged 13 and 15 respectively) formed a band, won a Triple J competition and were signed to a major record label. In 1999 that band, Killing Heidi, released its debut single Weir, followed by their debut album Reflector, which spent seven weeks at the top of the ARIA charts. They then released two more albums before disbanding in 2006. From there, Ella collaborated with a series of musicians, took on some radio and TV gigs before ending up with a spot on Spicks and Specks and her own independent, debut solo release.

Hooper, now 31, is an artist who has grown up in the Australian music industry and has watched as it’s transformed around her. Over the course of her 15-year career, the entire business has moved from music shops and big labels calling the shots, to iTunes, streaming services and artists connecting with audiences on their own basis. The big players might be panicked over falling sales and music piracy, but, according to Hooper, it’s become a far more artist-friendly environment in many ways. Hooper is finding her own way in the current climate with her forthcoming album, but says she doesn’t know how Killing Heidi would go starting out in 2014.

“Record companies really just want to jump on something that’s already working now, which is a bit sad,” Hooper says. “A band like Killing Heidi — we didn’t have a giant fan base, because we were from Violet Town in regional Victoria. We wanted to be big, one of the country’s biggest rock bands. But it took a good six months of the record company and our managers pushing and pushing, big advertising spends and putting us on prime time shows. We then did actually prove ourselves.”

One of the first articles published on Crikey in 2000 traced the band’s relationship with Village Roadshow and the mega-label’s efforts to push the band at the expense of other local acts and dominate the field. Those strategies meant that Killing Heidi became an unstoppable force. They were absolutely everywhere. The article predicted that that kind of dominating marketing strategy could be the future of music, but the democratising effect of the internet and social media has had the opposite effect.

When the band broke through there were, unsurprisingly, accusations that the band was “manufactured”, in the way that many pop and rock bands of the late ‘90s were (think Bob and Chris Herbert’s creation of the Spice Girls), but Hooper believes it was part of a committed investment to artists that the big players have since abandoned.

“There’s nobody having a vision saying ‘this artist is going to be great in three years’ time; they’re going to make a couple of unsure records and they’re going to be a bit stinky for a while, but then they’ll blossom in a few years’. Record companies used to invest in that and wait for that fruition. Now you have to have a hit record with your first record or you’re basically dropped straight away.”

But in spite of her gratitude to a system that gave her broad exposure, Hooper thinks the age of the mega-label is coming to an end.

“The business around music has always been a bit of a shonky one,” she says. “The advent of social media has been a real blessing. It’s given artists a lot of power to communicate directly with their audiences, and it’s growing. I’m blown away every day by how obsolete record companies are becoming. I just don’t think they’ll be there for much longer, because they’re not needed now that the funding can come from the fans through things like Pozible and Kickstarter. Everything’s changing very rapidly, which I’m excited about.”

While Hooper hasn’t gone down the same crowd-funding path as artists like Kate Miller-Heidke, as a now independent artist, she’s recognised and supported the waves made by artists who go it alone.

For the last three years, Hooper has been hosting the Australian top 20 countdown on Austereo. It might be a show that exists largely to fulfil the network’s Australian music quota, but she’s used that position to also give airtime to local artists that are on the up and haven’t made it into the top 20.

She also has the major boost of being a team captain on the new Spicks and Specks, stepping into the almighty shoes of Adam Hills, Myf Warhurst and Alan Brough on one of Australia’s favourite television shows.

“I struggle to find any downside to this incredible opportunity. But that is the one thing I really respect that people are missing those guys. They miss that treat of their personalities beaming into their homes on a Wednesday night. I miss it too.”

But her focus is back on music, with her forthcoming release In Tongues largely inspired by her time on the road with Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks.

“Having some time to spend with her was a big influence on this solo record; her solo material from the 80s, like Stand Back and Edge of Seventeen. She went solo then rejoined the band and does whatever she wants, and she has very similar inspirations to me, with the witchy, esoteric themes.”

But the supporting performances with her band at the time, The Verses (a country-indie fusion band formed with her brother Jesse post-Heidi), didn’t lead to bigger and better things.

“It was a tricky project. We got signed, we had a lot of interest, we got to go to the States and record, and it was all looking very good. Then we had this incredible experience of touring with the Mac, and then things didn’t go much further than that. But if that’s all that that band achieved; a great record and touring with the Mac; then that’s not bad.”

As an indie artist, Hooper is aware of the commercial challenges of breaking through in a crowded music market, but going back on the road as a solo performer has been one of her major goals.

“I really miss getting around seeing all the friends I’ve made through music. I hardly even call them fans anymore. I’ve been around for so many years now, they’re more like friends. I know so much about the people coming to shows and they know so much about me.”