Sometimes an artist comes up so quickly it feels like it was instantaneous. No hard work was required. No years and years of being rejected, playing bars and coffee shops. Just woke up and bam! Tickets are selling, seats are filled. One could say that about Ella Hooper, whose teenage pop rock band became a huge success in Australia. But there’s the other side: not getting to be a teenager, struggling with adjustment from playing with your friends to sold out stadiums, covers of Rolling Stone, etc. It’s that balance of the good with the bad that lead to “Overnight Success” – Hooper’s latest single and title track from her album. Today, the Violet Town native is exclusively premiering the music video with The Country Note.
“I know songwriters say of their material, ‘they’re like my children, I couldn’t pick a favourite..’ and I get it, but..I do think “Overnight Success”—the song—might just be my favourite, haha!” says Hooper. “It encapsulates something I’ve been trying to put my finger on, or a side of my internal world that I haven’t been able to bring into sharp focus before, something about my childhood dreams of being a singer, an entertainer, and whether all that dreaming may have brought about the reality that I then lived, and honestly struggled with—teenage success, being thrust into the adult world of showbiz, and the struggle to retain the romance, the dreaminess when the reality of doing your art as job and for a living with all of the quirks and compromises is quite decidedly unromantic at times, but at the end of the day, it’s STILL a magical craft that has such a hold on me.”
The video lends a view into that life, with Hooper creating the perfect visual metaphor of how that success came and what it takes to keep on keepin’ on:
“The concept of me making a ‘success potion’ backstage came to me as sort of nod to MacBeths’ witches, a gross concoction requiring an eye of this, a toe of that, but all the things it takes to be successful and survive and thrive in a life in music,” explains Hooper. “It was a chance to include former versions of my creative self too, rock and roll era me, singer-songwriter me, fancy pants red carpet me, empowered me, lost me…the whole lot! I took the idea to my frequent collaborator, photographer and director, Laura May Grogan and she introduced the mirror device—as she is obsessed with mirrors, and it added a great device for us to work the flow of scenes around. I could not have envisioned how much time and effort Laura was going to put in to building that mirror-box, she made it from scratch, attaching a tube light, getting the dimensions just right, I am in her debt as it totally makes the clip I think! We had an all female crew too, from DOP to lighting to editing to HMU, and created what you see on a tiny budget and via the help of many friends – independent artist budgets being what they are! – Laura and I actually got quite emotional when we wrapped, as it feels like a really special project and offering something with a lot of us both in it.”
Overnight success
No, there’s no such thing
But you know who you are
Don’t gotta prove anything
You can dazzle and shine
Like that sequin dress
You can burn right down
Like a cigarette
Just a trick of the light
Overnight success
Check out the exclusive video premiere of “Overnight Success” below:
“Overnight Success” is available for download and streaming here.
For more information on Ella Hooper, visit her website ellahooper.com and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.