The name Killing Heidi came from the band members generating two lists before their first gig; one filled with "soft" words, one with "harsh" words. Killing was chosen as the harsh, Heidi the soft. According to the band, the name basically means "the end of innocence". Producer Paul Kosky who had worked with Crowded House, Rage Against the Machine, Kate Ceberano, and The Clouds was looking for a band to manage and sign to his new recording label Wah Wah Music. He decided to check out a live performance by Killing Heidi. He helped to develop the young band over the next two years working on songwriting, song structure and overall direction of the music. He was a mentor and offered the recording experience and production style that became the band's sound. He became the manager of the band and arranged a contract with Roadshow Music (who had a contract with Savage Garden) for his label, Killing Heidi had also acquired a new rhythm section (which Kosky sourced and introduced to Killing Heidi) with Adam Pedretti on drums and Warren Jenkin on bass. They recorded the rest of the first album in 1998.
Killing Heidi's first single "Weir" was released in August 1999 and reached #6 on the ARIA Charts (and Platinum sales) by the end of 1999. The second single "Mascara", about self-image and individuality, was released in December 1999 and reached the top of the Australian charts on 30 January 2000, which was Ella's 17th birthday. It stayed at #1 for three weeks, also achieving Platinum status. The band's debut album 'Reflector' was released in early 2000 and debuted at #1, quickly becoming the fastest-selling album in Australian music history. The album spent seven weeks at #1 on the ARIA charts, and spawned two further singles: "Live Without It" and "Superman Supergirl".
'Reflector' eventually sold over 350,000 albums in Australia, earning 5x platinum status, and Killing Heidi won four ARIA Music Awards in October 2000. The band's momentum halted when a cyst was found on Hooper's vocal cords and she underwent an operation in 2001. Her voice was slow to recover, which "destroyed any confidence Ella Hooper had in her voice."
The band recorded its second album 'Present', despite Hooper's continuing problems with her vocal cords. This album was not as successful as its predecessor, selling only 50,000 copies and failing to make the top ten of the Australian album charts. It spawned two singles: "Heavensent", which reached the top 30 in early 2002 and "Outside of Me", which reached a peak of #12 later in 2002; a third song from the album, "Ammyl", was released to radio in 2003 but was never released as a commercial single.
In 2002, manager Paul Kosky and the band split in an ending characterized as "acrimonious"; the split "almost spelt the end" for the band, and left Kosky feeling that he was the scapegoat blamed for the problems with the second album. Chris Robinson bought out Kosky's share of their partnership and became the band's new manager. In late 2003, the band spent three months in Los Angeles recording their next album. The first single from the band's third album was "I Am", released on 12 July 2004. Debuting at #16 on the Australian singles charts, it spent three months in the Top 50 and reached gold certification. It also featured on the Australian version of the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack.
In late August 2004, Killing Heidi released their third studio album. Self-titled 'Killing Heidi', the album featured a less styled and more sonically expressive sound. It debuted at #7 on the charts, again only reaching gold before falling out of the charts relatively quickly. In September 2004, the second single from the album, "Calm Down" was released, though it made only moderate impact, peaking at #23. Early 2005 saw a third song from the album, "Running Underwater" released to radio, but like "Ammyl" in 2003, it was not released as a commercial single and received very little radio airplay.
In mid-2006 Killing Heidi's MySpace page described the group as taking a break. In July Andrew Tijs of Undercover.fm News reported that the group had disbanded. The siblings formed a folk duo, the Verses, and started writing and performing new material for that project. Pedretti formed a heavy metal group, Monster Truck Extravaganza; Jenkin returned to work with Merril Bainbridge as well as "generating electronic music with computers, synthesisers and keyboards."
In May 2013 Ella reflected on her time with Killing Heidi and the likelihood of any reunion, "I don't think I could sing such youthful, and youth based songs convincingly any more. It really did just run its natural course and I think it would be very unnatural to start it up again now." Aside from the Verses, Ella has a career as a solo performer, radio presenter and TV personality. Her brother Jesse would go on to a career as a music teacher, producer and community arts developer.
In September 2016 it was announced that Killing Heidi would be reuniting to play a series of shows to celebrate their 20th anniversary. The band would perform at the Handpicked Festival, the Kickstart Summer festival and the Queenscliff Music Festival. Although the Hooper siblings and drummer Adam Pedretti participated in the reunion, bassist Warren Jenkin did not. He was replaced by James Gilligan; with the quartet being joined by keyboardist Lena Douglas. In February 2017, Killing Heidi appeared at Taronga Zoo, Sydney, as part of the annual "Twilight at Taronga" concert series. This was followed by a national Australian tour in June. In early 2020, Killing Heidi took part in the Australian-wide Red Hot Summer Tour as one of the major performers.
Members
Ella Hooper (vocals), Jesse Hooper (guitar), Adam Pedretti (drums), Warren Jenkin (bass), Clio Renner (keyboards), Phoebe Neilson (bass), Aaron Hart (drums, bagpipes) Rowen Murphy (bass), Lena Douglas (keyboards), Tim Curnick (bass)
SINGLES
Weir
| 7 JUN '99 | #6 |
Mascara
| 25 OCT '99 | #1 |
Live Without It
| 10 APR '00 | #5 |
Superman/Supergirl
| 25 SEP '00 | #57 |
Heavensent
| 17 DEC '01 | #28 |
Outside of Me
| 30 SEP '02 | #12 |
I Am
| 19 JUL '04 | #16 |
Calm Down
| 4 OCT '04 | #23 |
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Heidi
http://top100singles.blogspot.com.au/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Heidi
http://top100singles.blogspot.com.au/
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