The nucleus of Killing Heidi was singer/songwriter Ella Hooper and her older brother, guitarist Jesse Hooper. They grew up in Violet Town, a small Victorian country town, with a population of approximately 2,000 where their parents worked as music and drama teachers.
They started jamming together at home; Ella singing while Jesse played the guitar. They played an acoustic gig together at the Violet Town Arts Festival in 1996, when Ella was 13 years old. Bent Records label owner and local record studio owner, Jamie Durrant, offered them some time in a studio with a couple of schoolmates as the rhythm section. They submitted these recordings into the Triple J Unearthed competition in 1996 and the track "Kettle" won the competition for their area of rural Victoria. "Kettle" was written by Ella Hooper; Brian Walton and Jessie Hooper added some guitar parts later.
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 very basic live performance by Killing Heidi. He developed the band from the ground up for the next two years working on songwriting, song structure and overall direction of the music. 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 (ex-Non-Intentional Lifeform) 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 January 30th 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 July 12, 2004. Debuting at #16 on the Australian singles charts, it spent three months in the Top 50 charts and reached Gold sales. It also features on the Australian version of the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack.
In late August 2004, Killing Heidi released their third studio album. Self-titled as Killing Heidi, the album featured a less styled and more sonically expressive sound. It debuted at #7 on the charts, again only reaching gold and then fell out of the charts relatively quickly.
In September 2004, the second single from the album, "Calm Down" was released, 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. Later in 2005, Killing Heidi left Sony BMG.
In mid-2006, rumours began to surface in the media of the possibility of Killing Heidi breaking up. The reports continued for several weeks, with articles in some magazines and newspapers claiming the band had already split. The band clarified the situation in a blog entry on their MySpace page:
"Oh the waiting... oh the waiting.... ok, hi everyone. Here is the news: We are taking a break from killing heidi for a while but do not see this as a break up! It is us needing to try something else for a little while cos its all we've done for 9 years now. Killing Heidi will be playing some shows in the next 6 months so if you really want to you can get to these shows. I will post the dates as they are confirmed. Ella and Jesse are working on a new as yet unnamed project and will be playing in vic and nsw trying out new material and playing a few oldies too. Pedro is rocking with the very loud and very talented "Monster Truck Extravaganza" (see our top friends for a link to their myspace) so check them out when they start doing shows soon. Hopefully you guys will like what we all get up to over the next little while!!! There have been requests to change the new traks to downloads so i will look into that too!!! Thanks everyone for your continued support, we love playing for you guys and look forward to seeing on the road again soon!!!"
Ella Hooper, after spending time with Jesse in The Verses, is now a solo artist. However in 2016, the band announced they were reforming for their 20th anniversary.
To Fly
Killing Heidi Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It's like a dream
Everything it's so shit
Is what you mean
*Chorus*
I, cause I want to fly
To fly, to fly
To fly, to fly, to fly
Deeper I go I find
What to say
When I stop you were there
You're watching me
*Chorus*
And I feel it
Now I feel it
Now I feel it
I feel I feel I feel
Now I feel it
Now I feel it
I feel I need I breathe I see
The pressure building up on me
And I need to leave
I'm waiting for the time
*Chorus*
The lyrics to Killing Heidi's song "To Fly" communicate a desire for escape from negative emotions and situations. The opening lines set the tone for the rest of the song by suggesting that everything is not as it should be, and that a release or relief from these feelings is desired. The chorus repeatedly expresses a longing to fly away, perhaps physically or emotionally. The second verse speaks to finding understanding or comfort in someone else's presence, but the desire to escape remains strong. The repetition of "I feel it" conveys the intensity of the emotions being experienced, and the need to act on them. The final lines suggest a buildup of pressure, and the necessity of leaving to find relief.
Overall, the song expresses a feeling of entrapment and a yearning for freedom. The desire to escape seems to be a universal emotion that many people can relate to.
Line by Line Meaning
This has been so surreal
The experience has been inexplicable and dreamlike
It's like a dream
The experience resembles a dream-like state
Everything it's so shit
The situation is terrible
Is what you mean
The lyrics suggest that there's a deeper, underlying meaning
I, cause I want to fly
The artist wants to fly to escape from their current situation
To fly, to fly
Reaffirmation of the singer's desire to escape
Deeper I go I find
The more introspective the singer becomes, the more they discover
What to say
They begin to find the words to express their feelings
When I stop you were there
Someone has been present, watching over them
You're watching me
Someone is observing the artist
And I feel it
The singer is becoming more aware of their feelings
Now I feel it
Their emotions are becoming more intense and pronounced
I feel I feel I feel
Repetition reinforces the intensity of the emotions
Now I feel it
Their emotions are becoming more intense and pronounced
I feel I need I breathe I see
Their emotions are all-consuming, taking over their every thought and feeling
The pressure building up on me
Emotional pressure is mounting
And I need to leave
The artist needs to escape from their situation
I'm waiting for the time
They're waiting for the right moment to make their escape
To fly, to fly, to fly
The chorus repeats once more, reaffirming the singer's desire to escape
Contributed by Riley I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.