Greenhouse 19, Ella Hooper

Ella Hooper

Any Ella Hooper News is Good News

Words By Tammy Walters

It’s not a secret that Ella Hooper is dearly loved far and wide.

Whether she’s rocking out with her brother in Killing Heidi, making us laugh during her appearances on Spicks and Specks, joining A-leagues of rock royalty for special events including her recent run of Rock the House, or keeping us guessing as a contestant on The Masked Singer or serenading us over a live stream thanks to Geelong Arts Centre, Ella Hooper kept everyone well entertained during the tedious pandemic period. “I did a lot of weird stuff during the pandemic like The Masked Singer and things like that - made an album.” That album, set for release early in 2023, includes her two latest releases, the lulling ‘Old News’ and the raw ‘Achilles Heel’. ‘Old News’ was the first new music from the Australian golden girl since 2018’s disco dazzler ‘To The Bone’, a track positioned to be a phoenix moment for Hooper, reframing herself outside of the rock route. Surprisingly, no disco balls are spinning in the ‘Old News’ picture. This time Hooper digs her heels into the alt-country dirt. “A lot happens between songs and touring and I change so this new record I made during the lockdown during the pandemic is a lot more chill, a lot more adult and is reflecting the new old me,” Hooper explains. “It’s funny when you look at my catalogue; it’s a lot and I’m into following the muse. I love so many different kinds of music; I love alt-country, I love rock and roll, I love pop, I love blues, I love anything that’s good and that all comes out in my music. It’s a little schizophrenic but I have to try it all because I love it all. Experimenting with music is my joy in life so I have to let myself, you know. I’ve been in this industry for 25 years now so I’ve just got to let myself play.” ‘Old News’ takes inspiration from the Hooper parent’s record collection of 60’s and 70’s masterpieces, confettied with country colouring and Cooder, Ry Cooder that is. Contemporary muses came in the form of Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen. Produced by Marcel Borrack and Tim Harvey, ‘Old News’ sees Hooper engage in a songwriting collaboration with Sara Douga. Whilst no stranger to the co-write method from the Heidi days, this co-write was a new experience for Hooper.

“It’s so weird actually because I don’t think about Jesse and I as collaborating because he is just an extension of me and we’ve done it forever so I don’t think I have to bring the best version of myself to the co-write, but with Sara, she was quite an experienced co-writer and from that Nashville world where you get in the room and it’s a really different setting.

“We met when I was in Nashville in 2017, and we didn’t really get to hang out much. We started hanging out online and writing together which was great whilst I was in lockdown and there were the times when I was losing my mind from not touring and felt really stark and unproductive, we’d jump on zoom while I was waking up and she was putting the kids to bed and write a song.”

‘Old News’ and the more recent ‘Achilles Heel’ again mark a new beginning for Hooper as she explores maintaining her status as an active musician at this point in her career.

“I’m finding myself again and again and again,” she laughs, “I was feeling a bit apprehensive about putting out a new record and taking up space in the industry when I’ve been here so long and the voice inside my head would say ‘move out of the way, make room for someone else, you’re hogging the mic, you’ve already had all of those opportunities’, but then I started to fight the voices and say ‘why can’t I contribute and keep contributing when I have things to say’ and I think I will always have things to say. “This is about giving myself a rev up to allow myself to do that again!” Ella Hooper will be taking the songs on the road for an extensive national tour, freighting into Bannockburn Railway Hotel on Friday, November 4 and The Palais in Hepburn Springs on Saturday, November 5.

Tickets can be found at www. ellahoopermusic.com.au

LIOR

For the first time in more than a decade, Lior returns to Geelong for Live and Intimate Performance

Words by Tammy Walters

Credit Claudio Raschella

It all started with a promise - “we’ll grow old together / and this love will never / this old love will never die”.

We’ve been growing old with multi-ARIA award-winning artist and renowned songwriter, Lior, since 2005. He won our hearts with his debut single ‘This Old Love’ back then and has continued to serenade us in the most spectacular settings since.

Most recently, Lior has been embarking on a national showcase of his stupendous discography accompanied by the excellence of Australia’s best symphony orchestras. “It’s amazing. Particularly after the last two years, it’s nice to be back in these beautiful grand spaces and beautiful venues. From zero to one hundred,” says Lior.

“Over the years I have done orchestral shows in the past and a lot of my songs have orchestral arrangements so these shows have enabled me to have some new ones drawn up as well and some older ones refreshed and made much better. It’s a real journey going back and choosing songs across the whole catalogue and presenting them with some pretty interesting orchestral arrangements that I’ve managed to build on over the years.”

As part of his touring schedule, Lior, sans orchestra, will be returning to Geelong, playing at the newly renovated and reopened historically significant venue, The Palais Geelong, on Saturday 15 October 2022. Taking on a more intimate arrangement, this show will allow audiences to see Lior in his most natural element. “Geelong is a solo intimate show. It’s myself and my guitar – well myself and my five guitars. You know, these shows have their own magic because I can go off script. The orchestral shows have got to be planned because everyone has to follow me and I have charts and everything. So the magic of these shows is on the other end of the spectrum. I can goof around and let the show go where it goes, and converse with the crowd, and tell stories about the song, and if someone wants to hear a song they can yell it out and, all going well, I can play it,” he laughs.

“It has that beautiful lounge room feel. I haven’t been to Geelong in so long – I think it was the matter of the right venue to pop up and when the Palais got in touch I was like ‘yeah this looks like a great venue’. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve been to Geelong since the days of Autumn Flow so that’s like fifteen years which is amazing considering it’s only an hour down the road from Melbourne. “This whole experience with Geelong, it just goes to show that when good venues pop up, artists want to go there.”

Since the 2005 ARIA-certified gold debut album, Lior has released four studio albums and two EPs. Audiences will be pleased that a lot of this ground will be covered during his live set.

“The advantage of now having several bodies of work out there, and as you and I both know, when there is a familiarity that often translates to a deeper connection. I hope these Geelong shows speak to that.”

His EP collection includes last year’s collaborative effort, Animal In Hiding, with long-time performative collaborator, Domini Forster. Forster will join Lior at the Palais as both a supporting act and a guest to perform tracks from the 2021 body of work.

“Domini will be the support artist and will jump up and do a few songs from Animal in Hiding with me, which has been a really beautiful project. Dom has been my supporting artist for quite a few years and has been my backing vocalist and we have done a lot of singing together.” “Before Covid, we thought, ‘there’s a real synergy when we sing together, let’s see if that translates to songwriting’, and we started writing together to see how we’d go. The first song we wrote together, ‘Where Will We Be’, ended up on my most recent solo album and then we felt like there was potential for greater collaboration so we embarked on it. It became like a late sixties Simon and Garfunkel thing between us.”

You can see that connection come to life on the Live and Intimate stage at The Palais Geelong at 297 Moorabool Street, Geelong on Saturday, October 15.

ARTS GUIDE Exhibitions to see in October + November

Collection Leads: Rose Nolan—Word Work

Working in her signature palette of red and white, Rose Nolan is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work investigates the formal and linguistic qualities of words. Nolan uses language to transform architectural spaces—interior and exterior—to shift the meaning and interpretation of select words and phrases. This ‘Collection Leads’ exhibition contextualises the Gallery’s recent acquisition of Nolan’s Big Words— Trying to get it right or righter, 2018, with the institutional premiere of the major work Big Words (Not Mine)—Transcend the poverty of partial vision (floor version), 2021.

The Collection Leads exhibition runs until November 6 at the Geelong Gallery.

Geelong Illustrators: Hocus Pocus

Geelong Illustrators Studio Gallery is hosting a Halloween-themed group exhibition this month, with all new magical and original mystical artworks. The gallery is hosting an opening celebration on Friday, October 14 with market stalls selling witchy wares like jewellery, candles, patches, mini oracles and tarot readings. There’s even a Halloween dress-up competition.

Hocus Pocus takes place at Geelong Illustrators Studio Gallery until November 12. Rone: Time - Flinders St Station

In his most expansive project yet, internationally renowned Geelong street artist Tyrone ‘Rone’ Wright will take over one of Melbourne’s most iconic locations with Time. Set in the long-abandoned thirdfloor wing of Flinders Street Station, Time is a nostalgic love letter to mid-century Melbourne and a tribute to one of the city’s great icons. Across 11 installations, each room adorned with Rone’s haunting signature murals, the artist and his team have created an immersive, multisensory installation that audiences will remember for time to come.

Time opens to the public from October 28 until January 29 at Flinders Street Station, Level 3.

Michael Lawrey: Aireys – Through My Lens

Aireys – Through My Lens is an exhibition of unedited photography from Michael Lawrey that pays testimony to the early mornings across all seasons and weather patterns. From the Sandy Gully Cliffs at dawn to the sunrise at Aireys Inlet, the exhibition reflects a point in time that celebrates not only community but the beauty, energy and changing landscape of Aireys Inlet.

Aireys – Through My Lens is on show at Eagle Nest Fine Art Gallery in Aireys Inlet.

Treasures of Dai Gum San: Chinese artistry from the Golden Dragon Museum

Treasures of Dai Gum San showcases exquisite artistry across the renowned collection of Bendigo's Golden Dragon Museum, in metalwork, cloisonné, silk embroidery, paper craft, and ornamental wood and stone carving. Focused on the refined craftsmanship of the late Qing dynasty (1644 -1911), a curated selection of treasured items highlight the technical rigour, rich symbolism and cultural significance of traditional Chinese art and design and its grounding in longstanding traditions of artistic expression, making and embellishment.

Treasures of Dai Gum San is on at the Bendigo Art Gallery until February 19. Murray Walker: Time Traveller

Time traveller provides a glimpse into Murray Walker’s vast output of collage and assemblage sculpture over the past 40 years. His use of found objects, from driftwood to tin cans, discarded household items to welding slag, may appear deceptively primitive, if not outright ‘punk’, but these works embody layers of reference to literature, art history and popular culture.

Time Traveller runs until February 5 at the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

Melanie Sky: Coast to Coast

Arriving at The Space - Gallery + Workshops as part of a group exhibition, Melanie Sky presents her new collection of original artworks Coast to Coast. Inspired by the vast coastline of Australia, from East to West, this collection sees Melanie explore the colours and textures that vary across our expansive continent.

Coast to Coast runs until October 29 at The Space - Gallery + Workshops in Newtown.

Beth Gibbeson: A Thread of Light

Melbourne artist Beth Gibbeson brings her solo exhibition A Thread of Light to Newtown this month. Using bold, rich and warm colours, Beth’s paintings combine memories and experiences of the present life. Mixing her current surroundings, landscape and world with past experiences of journey and place, the interlocking and separation of shape, line, light and colour represent a fresh interpretation of memories that travel with her and become a dialogue of her life.

A Thread of Light runs from October 13 - November 6 at Boom Gallery in Newtown.

PakingtonPantry pakingtonpantry

23

3/328 Pakington Street, Newtown 7 days 8am - 2pm www.pakingtonpantry.com.au

BEAT MAG