Ella Hooper: Re-introducing Herself At BIGSOUND

"I just got back to the city from the country — I've been in Yeppoon in Rockhampton — so I've been on a train all morning and now I'm back in Melbourne town," Ella Hooper says excitedly. The motivation for Hooper's trip was to perform at The Village Festival with her "brand new hot line-up" — rounded out by guitarist Tim Harvey (Jade Imagine), bassist Shanna Watson (Kira Puru/Handsome/Boatfriends), keyboardist Clio Renner (RocKwiz band) and drummer Hudson Whitlock (Tetrahedra/The Cactus Channel/Frida) — and Hooper reveals, "I may have sneakily played some new material at that show. Part of the reason I took this out of the way, crazy gig was like, 'Oh, that will give me a practice before BIGSOUND!'" 

So what made Hooper apply for BIGSOUND, aka "Australia's leading new music festival and industry conference"? "You know, I actually did it on a bit of a whim when I was on holiday — applied, that is — REALLY close to the cut-off [date]," she recounts. "I was in France on my first-ever holiday not to do with music in ten years — I was with my good girlfriend, who was turning 40, in the hills of the South of France — and I just saw something pop up on my email that said, 'Last chance to apply for BIGSOUND tonight.' So they went off for a bush walk and I was like, 'Nuh, guys, so sorry, I'm just gonna stay home and I'm gonna madly apply.' And I JUST scraped in — it was four o'clock France time and it was midnight Australian time — and I just thought, 'I should do this!'

"And I had just gotten the new single [To The Bone] back from the mixer and you do have to send them your new material, and so I was like, 'Nuh, all the stars are aligning,' and then I got in! So I just thought it was something I hadn't done before and should do."

As an established artist who is already a familiar face (and voice) on the Australian music scene thanks to her first band Killing Heidi (formed in 1996 when she was just 13 and featuring her brother Jesse), The Verses (also with Jesse), her stint as captain on the revised version of Spicks And Specks, former radio presenting role on 2DayFM and the solo career she launched in 2012, Hooper admits she "didn't assume [she] would get in" when she applied for BIGSOUND. "Sometimes I feel I don't get things like that. Because I've had so many goes before and I am quite well-known, I don't get certain grants, I don't get certain opportunities — which is fair enough, 'cause I have had many opportunities already — but sometimes it can get me down, I'm like, 'But I've got new music!' I'm an independent artist and I've got something new to say, and it can be tough for mid-career artists to really get anyone to take notice."

But one of Hooper's primary influences, Stevie Nicks, certainly took notice of Hooper when The Verses opened for Fleetwood Mac during their 2009 Australian tour. "It's a bit of a name-drop, but it is true," Hooper chuckles of the "pearls of wisdom" Nicks bestowed upon her during one of the pair's backstage conversations. "It was very, very funny, like, we got to speak to Stevie a few times throughout that tour and Lindsey [Buckingham]... [they] sidled up to us for a chat at different points, never together 'cause they don't actually really like each other anymore. And the talk with Stevie was so important to me, because I thought, 'Here's an artist who started out in Buckingham Nicks, she started out with her partner, then she started Fleetwood Mac —  a totally different band that was already established and that didn't have her name in it at all; like, she went from [being in a] band [containing] her name, to it being two other completely different people's names, and supposedly taking a bit of a backseat — but obviously she was the star of Fleetwood Mac anyway. And then, after that, going solo, claiming that whole name: 'Here I am, I'm Stevie Nicks and here's my banging '80s pop music.' 

"I just kind of got a really clear jolt. Even though I started my life in bands... I think the last thing for me to do was to see what it feels like — and to see how freaky and/or amazing it is — to work as a solo artist.

"And I was like, 'Well, if Stevie Nicks can do it and have this incredible journey — and [she] hadn't really stuck to the one genre, either — I was like, 'Just step up and, you know, do what the icons do and have a go!'"

Following this chat with Nicks, Hooper recalls, "I just thought, 'How lucky am I?' I was totally pinching myself. And then she gave me a silver necklace with a moon on it that she gets made and gives to young artists coming up, which I have seen on a few other artists — I've seen them on HAIM and I've seen them on someone else — and I've gone, 'Oh! That's a Stevie Nicks moon, 'cause I've got one!'" Does she get too scared to wear it? "Yes, I do!" she laughs. "When I've got it on I'm usually like, 'Ok, that's enough, I'll take it off now!'

"Things like having that conversation with Stevie, and making that connection, is sometimes part of the journey; not always leading you to the outcome you imagined, but sort of something along the way."

We discuss how difficult it can be to trust that everything will work out in the end while remaining confident that the path you're on is the right one for you. Hooper acknowledges, "God, it can be hard! But when you focus on it and practise that trust, and practise that sort of letting go, and you go, 'Ok, cool, I'm not gonna micromanage this. I'm just gonna keep showing up year after year, day after day, release after release' — that's really the headspace I'm in now. And I feel like sometimes with a music career it can be a war of attrition [laughs] and I've just gotta keep doing good work — and not stop, basically — and trust the cosmos' timeline for me."

When asked whether it sometimes feels like starting again when introducing a new musical manifestation, Hooper offers, "Almost every time and, you know, there's the fact that I don't really stick to one genre, either — I kind of jump around — so, yeah! I'm just happy to be there [at BIGSOUND]. I think it will be a really good chance to reintroduce myself to anyone that's, you know, wandered off or hasn't even heard me before. And I guess there's always new ground to break for me, like, even though I'm known here people wouldn't have heard much of my solo stuff and especially not overseas, you know? I'm not known overseas as well, so I guess that's part of my focus is to make those connections and try and grow some tendrils in other places."