Having spent up until now writing music with brother Jesse, Hooper realised that it was time to explore a new musical journey. This isn’t just about a new “sound” as so many seem want to focus on, this is about singularly driving creation from inception to the stage. For an artist who seems to have been in this industry for eternity, Hooper felt like she still had a lot to learn.
“Both Jesse and I did think, ‘Yeah this works’ and there’s the whole ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ theory and we always seemed to be able to come up with the goods together but we needed to look at other options and to stretch ourselves,” Hooper says. “That came with complications and apprehension from both of us but I eventually realised that I wanted to do some writing separately and I wanted to work with a producer. I was paranoid that it would somehow look bad like, I dunno, I think I built it up in my head like people would think, ‘Oh the old going solo trick.’ Like Gwen Stefani so perfectly put it in the song What You Waiting For? ‘She thinks she’s so great now she’s gone solo’.”
Apart from this new creative project, Hooper has stepped onto the other side of the music industry, presenting FoxFM’s Australian Top 20 and taking on the role of interviewer rather than interviewee.
“I’ve been trying to not be the worst examples of an interviewer that I’ve experienced and trying to be the best examples but then catching myself sometimes and thinking, ‘Oh no, did I just ask that? Did I just ask that ridiculous dumb question that I’ve been asked a thousand times that’s so mundane?’,” she laughs. “I try to push myself further and let them talk about the things I know what they want to talk about.”
The album is on its way and two singles have served to whet the appetite of her fans, but she needed to step away from the process to be able to objectively assess whether she was happy with how things had gone. Being so used to having other people’s opinions – particularly brother Jesse – Hooper is also learning to overcome the desire for perfection.
“I took a break between when the album was technically finished until recently so that I could really look at what I wanted and make some decisions,” she explains. “I really wanted to move away from over production because I feel that has swamped all of my music in the past and has plagued my album experiences before. When I listen back to some of the old albums they’re just so busy and that’s not really my cup of tea at all.”
Her first single, Low High, arrived late last year – a chain-gang style track that fuses pop hooks with a dark and ethereal energy pushed ever forward by the backing of consummate local band and masters of all things eerie, Graveyard Train. Her latest single, Häxan, delves further into that simultaneously unnerving and inviting sound that Hooper has spent this time alone exploring while the title touches on the thematic drive of this album – sweetness and light-meets dark and stormy; mysticism meets Nick Cave-style doom.
From these two songs alone, over production doesn’t appear to be a problem. The debut, In Tongues, will be out around midyear, and Hooper is still developing her skills as band leader as she readies herself for a much needed return to live performance. “It’s been a long time, I’ve had a few experiences of jumping up on stage, not at my own gigs but at others, and I thought, ‘God I miss this.’ I really feel connected and ready to play these songs,” she says with a bundle of enthusiasm. Oh look, we just broke an interviewing record.
BY KRISSI WEISS
