#1 album in 5 easy steps: Songfacts on Killing Heidi

1. Recruit talent: Ella Hooper and her brother Jesse assembled a team of musicians from their High school in small town Victoria to form a band that later became known as Killing Heidi.

2. Make a demo: Local record store owner Jamie Durrant spotted the youngsters at a local arts festival in’96. With backing they headed into the recording studio and produced an untitled demo EP.

3. Get recognition: Now sporting a name derived from hard and soft word lists, Killing Heidi entered their demo in Triple J Unearthed. The track Kettle took out the regional finals.

4. Develop sound & skills: When producer Paul Kosky (Crowded House, Rage Against the Machine, Kate Ceberano) saw Killing Heidi live, he signed them to his label Wah Wah Records. Over the next 2 years he performed life giving A & R* on the band, focusing on their sound, performance and overall direction.

5. Get signed to a major label: Killing Heidi’s big break came in 1999 when Roadshow Music agreed to back the album Reflector (Weir, Mascara) which made #1 on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart with over 350,000 copies sold.

*A & R refers to Aardvarks and Rulers, or something like that.

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