Ella Hooper has an exciting 2023 ahead. A brand new solo album is released on the world today. ‘Small Town Temple’ is an album that draws from Ella’s life experiences, from the wonders of growing up in Violet Town, a small rural township found approximately 175 kilometres north of Melbourne, to the heart breaking loss of those nearest & dearest to her, her parents, and only mere two weeks apart. The songs are far distant from the radio-friendly pop/rock of Killing Heidi but don’t let that fool you – the singles we have been blessed with hearing so far have been beautifully written and even more spectacularly delivered. ‘Old News’, ‘Words Like These’ and ‘Achilles Heel’ are fabulous examples of Hooper’s skills as a songwriter, as she draws on country and folk influences, and for those lucky enough to catch her and her band before Christmas on the first ‘leg’ of the tour, it is evident that the tracks transfer brilliantly on to the live stage.
Along with the album’s release, Ella Hooper is getting back out on the road to show off her latest works, so check out the gig list below and if she’s at a venue near you, grab some tickets and a bottle of wine and indulge in one of our country’s finest songwriters in full bloom. We had the pleasure of catching up with Ella before Christmas for a few words about the album and tour and to find out the emotional rollercoaster she has been on during the creative process of ‘Small Town Temple’.
Sean: Hi Ella, it’s Sean from The Rockpit in Perth.
Ella: Hey Sean, how are you going?
Sean: Going well and loving the singles you have released so far. I know you have a TV interview straight after this and I have so much to ask you.
Ella: I know. There is just so much to cram in [laughs].
Sean: You had a manic run last time you visited us in WA; firstly you were owning the stage in the beautiful Perth sunshine in front of fifteen thousand fans at Sandalford Winery at the Red Hot Summer Tour and then a few weeks later you returned to play this wonderful solo work in an almost intimate setting, which was just magical.
Ella: Ah, thank you. Thank you so much. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. My career is nothing if not diverse. I’m always not sure what to expect myself – I constantly surprise myself but it keeps me on my toes and I never get too comfortable because each and every gig is so completely different.
Sean: One thing that has struck me hearing these solo songs is just how much you open up and how very personal they are. It takes us back through your childhood, growing up in Violet Town but it also takes us so far deeper.
Ella: Thank you. I really hope people feel like they get a taste of it… sometimes I worry that I talk too much [laughs] and that I over explain the songs but I just want people to hear the stories and to help them feel like they are there and stuff so I’m glad it’s working.
Sean: You touched on the fact that your career has been very diverse and you can definitely sense that in the singles that have been released so far. They have all been wonderful but each in a different way.
Ella: I was thinking this is either going to throw people off or give them the sense that this is a full spectrum album – there’s one more type of song I’m yet to release and that’s the more rocky kind then you will have heard everything; from the ballads to the folk to the mid-tempo to the rock.
Sean: My favourite so far has been the wonderful ‘Achilles Heel’. It just tears me in two. It’s just stunning.
Ella: That’s a great review and I’m so sorry… it’s very emotive that one.
Sean: When you performed it live it actually just drew a bit of that emotion away because you had that beautiful smile on your face as you performed it. It’s obviously a very personal song to you.
Ella: It is but I have so much fun performing these songs that its so hard not to smile. This first run of shows have felt so fresh. I’ve been a bit nervous… a bit excited… just all those things.
Sean: Well, it was refreshing to see a tiny hiccup during one of the songs but the band played on and everyone laughed. It just showed how fresh and new this material really is. We were blessed to get to hear and see the opening nights of the tour, which looks to have you travelling far and wide and into 2023.
Ella: Its amazing. I’m so privileged to be a musician that can get to pretty much every corner of the country and get to see some of the fans. I know I get to visit some states more than others but that will be different on the other side of this record. I want to be getting the message out there that I’m back and that there is so much more music to come. The first set of shows comprised of seventeen dates, which for a single launch is a pretty decent run these days.
Sean: During the live show you did touch on the fact it was 2016 since the release of your last solo material too.
Ella: I know and the thing was I hardly toured that much at all for that one.
Sean: You must have been chomping at the bit to get back out there.
Ella: You know what? We are all on such a high and in such a good mood. We keep texting each other, “Can’t wait for the next weekend!” [laughs] Hopefully we are all still feeling like that at the end of it all [laughs]
Sean: So, ‘Small Town Temple’ is out on the 20th of January. I’m hoping to hear it in full just slightly before release day so I can get a review in. One of the things I’ve really liked, and it’s not normally my cup of tea, is that country element… I suppose it could be called alternative country. I noticed it more during the live show.
Ella: It’s definitely one of the stronger flavours through the album so I’m hoping to win you over and bring you round to the twang [laughs]. Just used sparingly I think those sounds can be amazing.
Sean: It certainly had my feet tapping throughout the evening.
Ella: Sounds like we already have a new alt-country fan!
Sean: I’m turning [laughs]. You’ve spoken about the Ry Cooder and Bonnie Raitt influences that have touched you throughout the years and obviously they are very different to the sounds of Killing Heidi but what were you listening to as you were growing up?
Ella: Well was just it. It was Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons, Lynyrd Skynyrd… all of the great 60’s and 70’s folk rock artists were my parents favourites so that’s what I grew up on and I still love it.
Sean: And those influences breeze into this album which will tickle many-a-music-fans fancy.
Ella: I really value inclusivity, and I’m not making music for a specific niche demographic, I’m just making music for people who love music, I think.
Sean: I wasn’t going to talk about this and it wasn’t in my notes but looking at the singles and even the album you notice just how striking the artwork is. The merchandise at the show was eye catching too.
Ella: I love it so much. I have more crazy -kooky merch to come too. I worked with a designer and artist called Pete Salmon. He’s been a favourite of mine for a long time. He really distilled what I told him about the vibe of the record and the church window from where I come from and pretty much from where they were all written, in a 110-year old church. I really wanted that to be part of the feel and the snakes and the moon and the sun and the country living is all in there.
Sean: Probably the most personal part of the whole record is the appearance of your parents, captured forever in time on the album after they passed. They are immortalised on ‘Small Town Temple’ with one of them opening the album and the other closing it.
Ella: I know and that wasn’t even done with the knowledge that they were going to pass away so it is just incredible to have them there as my kind of guardian gatekeepers of the record and they will always be there for me on this album and they will live on, and of course in so many other ways too but this one just kind of feels spooky and fated. It was one of our big things as a family… loving different records, pouring over them from the artwork to the liner notes. Its where I got it from so it feels so very right that they are there with me.
Sean: I’m guessing they were musical themselves.
Ella: Absolutely. Mum is a great singer and Dad can play piano and recorder and were very musical people but they never took it up as a career but more as a hobby really.
Sean: And that in turn brushed off on you and your brother, moving forward so young as you were.
Ella: Completely. We decided to take it a step further to see if we could do it a s a job and we were very lucky.
Sean: Well, I was lucky enough to be at the Red Hot Summer show amongst the crowd and you guys totally nailed your set that day. I was out at that same venue a week later and to see a huge empty field which had held that many people and the huge stage only seven days before was quite haunting.
Ella: Its really crazy isn’t it. One thing with what I’m doing is that I love the two modes I get to perform in; the intimate personal solo stuff and they really fun teenage stuff we did with Killing Heidi. I kind of feels like I get to tell all versions of my story at the moment which feels pretty amazing.
Sean: I know you have to run but I’d love to close with a couple more general questions if I may.
Ella: Of course.
Sean: If you could invite three guests from the music world, dead or alive, to join you for dinner, who would you have join you?
Ella: Well, I was going down a Jimi Hendrix deep dive the other day and I know he was a kind of a quiet, laid back kind of a guy and it might be hard to get him talking but once I have a few wines I can get anyone talking [laughs]. And joining him I would love to invite Alison Krauss and Robert Plant because I love both of their voices and both of their work and they both have had such long and amazing careers… and I think they would all get along.
Sean: I always get some new names at the table. Fantastic table. What was the last album you listened to?
Ella: I’m pretty obsessed with an artist called Tristan from Nashville. She’s a sort of pop/rock artist actually. Not straight country at all. Her record ‘Aquatic Flowers’ is on high repeat for me at the moment.
Sean: As a new alt-country fan, I’ll check it out [laughs]. I’ve saved the easiest for last. If you could be credited with writing any song ever written, what song would you choose?
Ella: We play ‘You Make Lovin Fun’ in the set at the moment and so I think that any song by Stevie Nicks or Christine McVie. I think they just wrote beautifully clever pop songs from the feminine perspectives. So something by one of those girls.
Sean: A wonderful way to end with. Ella thank you so much for your time. We really do appreciate it knowing how many interviews you have lined up. We wish you all the best with ‘Small Town Temple’ and of course the tour.
Ella: Thank you so much. Been great to chat again. Thanks heaps.
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