23Mar2001 -
The Killing Heidi Realm: USA Today
Chat <return to top>
Talk to Australian power-alt band Killing Heidi about
how they were discovered (lead singer Ella and her guitarist brother,
Jesse, were spotted by record industry executives at the 1996 Pushover
Festival); what the band's name means; whether they'll be playing
in your town; and their plans for the future.
Melbourne,
Australia: Since your first single
in 1999, being Weir, until now, the band has gone through a durastic
change of images and costumes. Has the thought crossed you mind
that there could be too much Heidi in too little time? : Caveman Killing Heidi: We do care about our image. It's something
that's important to us. We want to be entertaining visually as well
as sonically. We want to keep our image fresh. Sydney,NSW,Australia: Hey! I was wondering,
are you going to be releasing a Behind The Scenes video of KH? If
so, could you say when abouts it might be ready for releasing? (Middle
of this year, late this year, early 2002??) :) Thanks a lot! You
guys are awesome!! And I can't wait to see you guys again for a
Sydney instore! lol Seeya *~Claire~* http://www.reflectingsuperstars.com/ Killing Heidi: The idea has crossed our minds,
but currently I don't think we really have enough footage or touring
hours clocked up to present a comprehensive video. But it's definitely
something we'll look into. Maybe with the next album. Madison, Wisconsin: Hey! I was wondering (being
from Australia) if silverchair has had alot of influence on you
guys or your music? And when you come to The Annex in Madison will
you please play "superman/supergirl"? Please... Killing Heidi: Hahaha!
I love Silverchair, and they have opened a lot of doors for us musically.
"Superman/Supergirl" is one of my favorites, so we'll definitely
try and play it. chris, Grand Forks, North Dakota: Um, mezmerized
fan here in ND that would like to know if the band has any plans
to tour the US extensively? Keep the frigid north in mind! Killing Heidi: Hahaha!
Yes, definitely we'd love to, but nothing's on the tour schedule
as of yet. But always keep your eyes open for us. Lake Heights, Wollongong, NSW: Cool Site (the
new Aussie one) When are you going to release new singles and stuff,
any more off reflector, when will we get to hear it on the radio
etc. (In Australia). Monty Killing Heidi: We're working on some songs
at the moment, but I'm not sure when the release will be. Maybe
when we get back from America. Detroit, Michigan: Hey! You guys are so rad!!
I love you! I was wondering if your planning to do another short
tour after this one? Ellie Killing Heidi: Definitely. We'll be back in
a month or two. Comment from Killing Heidi: Unfortunately I
don't know where we're going to be, but I'd love to go to Michigan. Los Angeles: What t.v. show or special would
you guys want to or be willing to do? Saturday Night Live? TRL?
Who would be fun to open up for and go on tour with? Killing Heidi: Saturday Night Live or the David
Letterman show would be unreal. We'd love to go on tour with Garbage
or No Doubt, or any good band really. Melbourne, Australia: Reflector has now been
released in New Zealand, USA, and Japan. Are there any plans for
it to be released in Europe/UK? : Caveman Killing Heidi: Definitely. But again, we're
not sure of how we're going to carry it out. Chicago, IL: Will you be touring to Chicago?
Killing Heidi: Yes, hopefully. We were there
briefly once before. Hopefully we'll get back there. {Jodes from Tasmania, australia): Hey guys!!!
Just wondering, what will the next single be, and when will it be
release (here in oz). Will we see that vinyl soon?! ;) Killing Heidi: Can't say. But keep your ears open and you'll
hear something before the year's out. Missoula, MT: Can you please come to the University
Of Montana to perform for us? Spokane was the closest on your tour,
but most college students are under 21 so we missed out. Killing Heidi: Yeah, that's a bummer. Spokane
was really good. We'll have to do some all-ages shows next time
around. And unis would be good too! Sydney, NSW, Australia: will you get a killing
heidi online merch store!? coz it would be soooo kool if we ( all
the fanz) could buy more KH stuff other than those awsome t'shirts!!
Killing Heidi: That's a good idea. Nothing's
organized, but I'll definitely bring it up. Bronx, NY: What bands have had the biggest
influence on your music? Killing Heidi: I like the Smashing Pumpkins,
Coldplay, PJ Harvey, Bob Dylan. I like a lot of old music. Binda, Portland: What is your position on online
file sharing, and how do you feel about Napster? Killing Heidi: I guess I have a few fears about
it, but admittedly I do it myself, so I guess I'm of two minds. Binda, Portland: Ella- your fashion sense is
eclectically funky- who are your favourite designers? Killing Heidi: Hmmmm. I don't really know too
much about designers these days, but I do appreciate good fashion.
Most of the time, I make my own clothes, which is why they look
so unique. Carmel, IN: What are some of the major differences
you notice between Australia and the US?? Killing Heidi: I guess there's the accent,
but it's also deeper things, like the quicker pace over here, and
people have to be a bit more careful because there's so many people.
Australia is a bit like a small town compared to New York! Manhattan, New York: Where in Australia do
you spend your spare time? Like, where do you guys hang out and
stuff? Killing Heidi: I like to spend my time at home
when I can, because we're so busy. But I have a really cool pad
and two rabbits that I look after. I love to go bushwalking as well. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Hey, we miss you
down here!! Will u be doing a OZ national tour soon? Good Luck in
the US! Kiri Killing Heidi: Yes, we hope so! Definitely
for the new album. We'd love to see Brisbane again, too. Carmel, IN: What exactly was the song "Mascara"
written about?? Killing Heidi: It was about an experience I
had during my school time, where everyone kind of breaks off into
social groups, and they're very exclusive. If you're a Goth, you
can't be a sportie. If you're a sportie, you can't be a hippie.
I found that to be very restrictive. So "Mascara" was kind of breaking
out against that. Binda- Portland: Are you being recognised in
the streets by people here in the US? Killing Heidi: Not yet! Portland OR: I am going to avoid the obvious
"Napster" question here. Your web site is one of the best I've seen.
You also have net performances scheduled and online interviews such
as this. What is your perspective as an artist as to the role of
the web and your fans. - drydenmaker Killing Heidi: I think it's huge. We've got
a lot of fans on the net, internationally especially. It's great
for us. Australia is so far away from anything that we've relied
on it to get across the seas in other ways. Thanks for the Web site
comment. I like it too! Sydney, NSW: You have achieved great recognition
in Australia! Both your hit single Mascara and album, REFLECTOR
going to No.1, you have won 4 ARIA awards, played live numerous
times on the top 3 'free to air' television stations. You have played
most of the major festivals in Australia and on the main stage at
the Big Day Out. How did you feel going from 'household name' in
your home country to playing in Spokane recently where you are virtually
unknown? mauler Killing Heidi: It's really interesting, and
it's good for you in a way, too. It is refreshing but also a bit
scary. NYC: How did you get your name Killing Heidi: We came up with it before our
first show. It just sounded right because it had the harshness and
the softness, just like the music. It means "the end of innocence",
basically. Comment from Killing Heidi: Thanks so much!
Check out killingheidi.net, .com.au. See you around! Get the album!
Thanks a lot!
23Mar2001
- USA: Music/The Week <return to top> KILLING HEIDI Reflector (3:33/ Universal)
Australia has graciously hosted our latest Survivor maroons. Should
we repay the hospitality by welcoming the country's chart-bestriding
Heidi into our homes? Eighteen-year-old singer Ella Hooper and crew
seem well-behaved enough, but that's the problem. Teen rockers in
black vinyl shouldn't sound this tame. The band's radio-rock blend
and Hooper's lilting voice might make you sympathetic at first,
but I'm betting you'll vote Heidi off our island before long. C-Robert
Cherry (reviewer)
12Mar2001 -
AUSTRALIA:
Thousands take the plunge into theme park of history <return to top>
By Stephen Brook.
AS the public thronged through the National Museum of Australia
for the first time yesterday, they left it looking at times more
like a theme park than our newest cultural institution.
The water surrounding the Garden of Australian Dreams became a swimming
pool as kids splashed about in the Canberra sun, while giant Ned
Kellys, musicians and circus acrobats entertained crowds. The day
ended long after sunset with a carpark rock concert featuring Midnight
Oil and Killing Heidi.
A pre-dawn traditional smoking ceremony was performed by the Ngunnawal
tribe to honour Katie Bender, the 12-year-old girl who died after
being struck by a flying masonry during the implosion of the hospital
that formerly stood on the site.
The first of one million visitors the cultural and social history
museum hopes to welcome in its first year eagerly explored the galleries.
The displays ranged from a porthole recovered by former prime minister
Harold Holt off the beach on which he later drowned to a bizarre
collection of knitted kangaroos.
Opening the museum, John Howard said it presented history in a new
and different way.
"What it does unusually, and I think very attractively, is seek
to interpret the history of our nation, not only in terms of events
and objects but also in terms of the life experience from different
backgrounds," the Prime Minister said.
The Kelly family, of Canberra, planned to come back to the museum
on another day when the crowds had thinned. All five-year-old Liam
wanted was a chance for a swim, but his mother Caroline said the
galleries had been interesting, with plenty of hands-on exhibits
for the youngsters.
"It's good that it's happened," said her husband David. But he disagreed
with the museum's boast that it was the first of a new generation
of museums.
"There hasn't been enough money spent by the Government. When you
compare it to the money that was spent on the new museum of Victoria,
I think that's reflected in the size and quality of the exhibits,"
Mr Kelly said.
Museum chairman Tony Staley was more upbeat. "It really is a dream
come true," he said. "Even before Federation a museum of Australia
was dreamed of."
The museum is free apart from the temporary Gold and Civilisation
exhibition.
Editorial - Page 12 Opinion - Page 13.
(c) Nationwide News Proprietary Ltd, 2001.
Source:
AUSTRALIAN (THE) 12/03/2001 P3
11Mar2001
- TPA: Gig report 11.03.01 <return to top>
Killing Heidi w Midnight Oil @ Canberra National Museum
Opening Concert approx 10000 punters. Great show - Comic Kitty Flanagan
announced them and the heavens opened up with the most amazing thunderstorm.
The spectacular lightning bolts and thunder cracks in the first
few songs added another dimension. Great to see the Oils kids meeting
the Heidi backstage.... oh yeah the museum is wild!
05Mar2001 -
NEW ZEALAND: HAMILTON ROCKS <return to top>
By Winston ALDWORTH.
Hamilton was ready to rock yesterday. And rock it did.
More than 10,000 people, mostly teenagers, packed WestpacTrust Park
as five bands played for six hours in the biggest concert the city
has seen in years.
The Summer Jam concert was organised by Hamilton radio station The
Edge. Station manager Darryl Paton said bands played for free and
proceeds went to cancer support group Canteen.
"It was something that no one had ever tried in Hamilton before
and there was a really good vibe in the crowd."
It was too early to know how much had finally been raised, he told
the Waikato Times today.
The 10,000 concert-goers paid $19 each.
Mr Paton said the Edge would probably try to organise a similar
concert next year.
"Normally you have to go up to Auckland for this stuff, so the crowd
was really into it."
The all-Australasian line-up featured Christchurch mainstream rock
favourites Zed and chart-toppers Killing Heidi (from Australia),
Garageland, Stellar* and Breathe.
Hamilton acting senior sergeant Phil Bell said the Summer Jam crowd
was well-behaved.
Music lovers now have a week of University Orientation Festival
entertainment ahead of them. - Winston Aldworth.
(c) The Waikato Times, INL 2001.
Source:
WAIKATO TIMES 05/03/2001 P1
05Mar2001 -
NEW
ZEALAND: SUMMER AFTERNOON JAM GAVE A FRENZIED BOOST TO CANTEEN <return to top>By
Stephen STEWART.
What: Summer Jam 2001
Where: Queens Wharf Centre, Saturday
Reviewed by: Stephen Stewart
Take 4000 teenagers, put them in a big dark building and subject
them to six hours of thunderous rock music and flashing lights.
Anxious parents - and I know there were plenty - dubious about letting
their daughters and sons attend can relax. Starting at a young teens-friendly
3pm, the recipe of four top Kiwi bands and one top Aussie group,
tickets for only $19 and strict security ensuring no booze, drugs
or trouble, was a formula for success.
Even better with the knowledge that all the performers were doing
it for free, the proceeds going to help CanTeen, the child cancer
support group.
The crowd was impressive even before the show began, snaking from
the front of the building right around to the carpark entrance at
the back. Two of those with us in the queue were from Nelson - at
under $20 a ticket it was worth coming across on the ferry.
Bags were inspected, opened drink bottles were seized, and backpacks
taken off their owners (they could reclaim them later).
Then the crowd was inside, to be blasted by Breathe. What they lack
in subtlety they make up for in noise - but the kids seemed to like
it. Don't Stop The Revolution - and the floor and handrails were
shaking 80m from the stage.
Then it was Garageland, rhythmic drumming introducing a tighter,
slicker outfit with plenty of promise. In the mosh pit in front
of the stage, the teens' arms were waving more wildly then than
ever. A big hole suddenly appeared and about 20 people went down,
but the security people were quickly in action, restoring order
and spraying water misters to cool the fevered teens.
At 5.30 deafening shrieks greeted top Aussie group Killing Heidi.
Viewed from behind the mosh pit, lead singer Ella Hooper could be
seen through a sea of waving hands, her dreadlocks and braids flying.
Mascara proved a big hit.
My daughter, somewhere in there, said later she was impressed with
the Aussies, even if she didn't recognise most of their songs, but
distinctly unimpressed with a competition later in which a man won
$100 for kissing someone elses's bare backside on stage ...
At 7.45 the juggernaut was rolling on, Zed pounding through their
hits the day after taking three top prizes in the NZ Music Awards.
Glorifillia and Renegade Fighter became a blur of noise, crowd surfers
were rolling on top of the mosh pit, red and blue lighting illuminating
the frenzied scene.
The band's off to the States, Europe and Japan soon, so this was
the last chance for the fans to see them up close.
At 8pm it was Stellar's turn, coming on to a darkened stage before
quietly opening their first number, the lights going up dramatically
as What You Do got to the thunderous bit.
Boh Runga was a slight figure on stage as the band churned through
a succession of hits - Every Girl, Part of Me, Undone and the simply
great Violent.
At 8.35 they were off and the crowd dispersed - but five minutes
later the band came back for Slow Burn, enabling a two-part crowd
release.
By 9pm it was all over. The teens really got their money's worth.
(c) The Evening Post, INL 2001.
Source:
THE EVENING POST (NEW ZEALAND) 05/03/2001 P15
03Mar2001 -
NEW ZEALAND: AUSSIES
READY TO ROCK WITH KIWI STARS <return to top>
By Bess MANSON.
LOOKING every inch the successful Aussie rockers they have become,
Killing Heidi are eager to show Wellington what they are made of.
The band that scooped four Australian Record Industry Awards last
year for their album Reflector joins the best in New Zealand music
today at the Summer Jam 2001.
Complete with assorted piercings and luminous dreadlocks, they share
the bill with Stellar, Breathe, Garageland and Zed in a six-hour
music marathon at the Queens Wharf Events Centre.
The charity concert will benefit Canteen - an organisation that
supports young people with cancer.
Killing Heidi's Ella Hooper, brother Jesse, Warren Jenkin and Adam
Pedretti have enjoyed enormous success in Australia since their
first album. After a year of touring they have the rock star thing
down pat, sitting in the hotel bar over cocktails in the early afternoon
(except Ella who sips a soft drink). But it's five o'clock somewhere,
right?
Fame is okay but the weird thing about "making it" is that you finally
have money and everyone starts giving you free stuff, Jenkin said.
Ella Hooper, youngest in the band at 18 and the co-writer of their
music with Jesse, sums it up: "I had one pair of yellow thongs that
lasted me for a whole year, winter and summer. Now I have more shoes
than you can shake a stick at and I still wear my thongs."
The band is looking forward to playing with New Zealand's top rock
acts. "But we have a lot to prove here," Pedretti said. "These guys
are established here. This is their backyard. For Killing Heidi
to come in at this level is an honour."
(c) The Dominion, INL 2001.
Source:
THE DOMINION 03/03/2001 P3
01Mar2001 -
NEW
ZEALAND: AUSSIE SENSATION KILLING HEIDI TAKES TIME OUT IN QUEENSTOWN
<return to top>
By Meaghan MILLER.
QUEENSTOWN - At home in Australia, Killing Heidi band members get
hassled by fans in the supermarket.
New Zealand fans are only just discovering the Aussie sensation,
which is already teetering on a breakthrough in the United States
and Britain.
In Queenstown this week to relax and enjoy relative anonymity, 18-year-old
Ella Hooper and her brother Jeremy, 20, plus fellow band members
Adam Pedretti and Warren Jenkins are on their way.
The massive success in Australia of the band's debut album, Reflector,
had put it on a rollercoaster ride that, on the whole, had been
great, they said.
"There was a time - the first six months - when it was mental, the
hype and the curiosity," Ella said.
With rave reviews from The Big Day Out concerts on both sides of
the Tasman, coming back to New Zealand to start the process of promoting
the debut album was a good grounding for the band, Jeremy said.
"In Australia, we're on the top of the perch but we came out here
and it's good, the band is right back down there." The overnight
Aussie success was a long time coming for the brother and sister
act, who began as a duo when Ella was 13. They won a national radio
talent search with an original song, got slapped with the label
"teen rockers," picked up two more band members along the way and
the rest was hard work.
Slowly shedding the "teen rockers" title (Jeremy turned 20 last
week), the band is in New Zealand to play a series of Summer Jam
gigs in association with the child cancer foundation Canteen and
to woo New Zealand fans.
A second album is already widely anticipated in Australia.
"It's so good, we are so surprised by our success," Ella said.
It was also nice not to have to "scunge" off their mum and dad,
who had always encouraged their children's music interest, she said.
"We're not billionaires but the money is starting to trickle through."
Killing Heidi leaves Queenstown tomorrow to play its final two New
Zealand gigs at Wellington and Hamilton.
(c) The Southland Times Company Limited, INL.
