ELLA HOOPER – The Changing World for Women in Music
Words by: Tom Wilson @thetomwilsonexperiment - Sense Music Media | Wednesday 2nd November 2022
“I’ve had a lot of female role models. I’ve wished I had more.”
Twenty years ago, I went to my first concert – the Gone South festival in Hobart, Tasmania. Original headliners SILVERCHAIR had pulled out due to Daniel John’s health issues, and in their place were KILLING HEIDI, who were riding high on tracks like Mascara and Weir. A lot has happened in the last two decades, particularly in regard to women in music, and who better to ask about it than a rock frontwoman who’s been in the game since she was a teenager? Ella Hooper spoke to SENSE from Melbourne …
I knew you from KILLING HEIDI from back in the day. Looking back on it, what were the best and worst parts of getting famous as a teenager?
Big question! [Laughs] The best part was getting a jumpstart on my career, for real. I just felt so honoured to be having a music career at that age. I didn’t expect it to go so well, so soon, you know? But honestly, the flipside is almost the same point, because when you do get started so young, you sort of get locked into things, and learn habits that maybe could’ve been better learned or more consciously learned over a few more years, stuff like that. So it’s a double-edged sword, but I am grateful for it.
I finally got to see SUNK LOTO, who were a big band around that time, and I remember thinking … Imagine that the songs that people know you most for are stuff that you’ve banged out as a teenager. Surely, and I think you may have encountered this, you’d be like, “Yeah, but I do much better songs now!”
Yeah, absolutely. I absolutely feel like that. But, that’s when you just have to remind yourself that you’re lucky anyone knows your music at all, because there’s some brilliantly talented musicians out there who never get heard. So sometimes I’ve just got to suck it up. Yes, I write better songs now. Yes, I have more songs than Weir and Mascara, but those were special songs too, so you take the good with the bad.
Speaking about that evolution, how do you think you’ve evolved as a songwriter?
I think I’m not afraid to be a little more personal now, a little more revealed. Back when I was younger, probably understandably, I was a bit more private. I was still getting used to what it meant to share my stories with the world. In some ways I was very fearless, but in some ways I was quite fearful, or just wasn’t ready to be that honest yet. And as you get older and wiser and have a few more ups and downs and twists and bends, you realise that nobody’s perfect, take the pressure off, and honesty is often the most relatable thing you can do as a songwriter.
I just did a really great interview with Terri Nunn, the singer of BERLIN … I wanted to ask you this too. How do you think life has changed for women in the music industry over the last twenty years, as someone who has grown up in it?
It’s definitely changing. I think I’ve seen it change a lot just in the last few years. I’ve got to admit, I’ve been quite lucky in that regard. I’ve not been super-duper, overly aware of my gender in this role of being a rock band frontperson. I must be one of the lucky ones that hasn't come up against too many glass ceilings and brick walls and barricades. I’ve had a lot of female role models. I’ve wished I had more – like, I always wanted more. Definitely, we did not make up the larger percentage of the music community when I was growing up. Now, I feel like it really is getting to 50/50, if not more female-heavy than male-heavy. So, it’s definitely changing. There are a lot of inroads being made, a lot of people have done hard work on representation and on making space at the table to make that possible, and I think in the next ten years is when we’re going to see the pendulum swing back into the middle, where it almost doesn’t need to be mentioned, and it’s just “music is music, it doesn’t matter who’s making it,” you know?
This is an anecdote that I was sharing with Terri, because she was asking, “Was #MeToo a big thing in Australia?” I found it a difficult question to answer, but one thing I did point out was that I can remember seeing … are you familiar with a punk band called THE SPAZZYS?
Yeah.
So I saw them at Falls Festival … this would’ve been 2005/2006, and some bloke thought it would be a good idea to shout out “Show us ya tits!” … to the wrong band. They stopped the show and absolutely gave him a bollock-ing. It got me thinking, man, you’d want to be a brave person to try and say that these days.
Oh, you’d be torn to shreds. I think you’d be torn to shreds. Well, that’s the thing, isn’t it? There’s plenty of change like that, and I mean, it’s still around, and perhaps, in some unfortunate ways, the sort of concern about it, or the publicity around it – stuff like #MeToo and stuff like that – sometimes it just drives those opinions underground, because people are so afraid to be cancelled or torn to shreds or saying something inappropriate or something that’s not P.C.. I’m a naturally born P.C. person – I was raised that way – but I do also think it’s pretty wild how stringently policed things can be now. I sort of almost feel … I hope it gets to a place where the issue doesn’t have to be so divisive, it doesn’t have to be such a hot topic, and that we’re all going to gigs respectfully, as we always should have been, and having a good time for the music!
Where do you do most of your songwriting? Where does your inspiration come from?
Definitely Violet Town, my little country town. I did most of the new album, in fact, almost all of it, was written there during the pandemic, so I didn’t have much else to do, and I was locked down in Violet Town, catching up with old, old friends, spending time with my mum, and walking around the same little walking track twice a day, every day, you know? Losing my mind a little bit. But it was conducive to writing, and it always has been, for me. It’s always the quieter and the more peaceful and beautiful and natural the environment, the more inspired I feel. So I think that’s why I gravitate towards living in the country, so I can get my songs out.
Was Words Like These written during the pandemic?
That one’s actually a little bit older. You’ve caught me out there. [Laughs] That one I’ve had kicking around for a few years before that, and it never quite found a home. It just didn’t seem to fit into my previous solo records, or even previous bands. But I’ve never forgotten it. I would always just play it occasionally, and it would make me smile, so I thought, “Maybe this time I'm going to chuck this into the mix, and see what the producers think, and see what they can do with it?” And they absolutely nailed it. I’m so glad that song now has a form, and now has a way to be shared.
Words Like These is out now. New album Small Town Temple is out January 20th. Pre-Order below!