Killing Heidi Reflect On Twenty Years Of ‘Reflector’

Killing Heidi’s iconic debut album, Reflector, is turning twenty five, and to celebrate, the band is releasing a special anniversary edition and hitting the road on tour. A defining album of the Y2K era, Reflector captured a moment in time where explosive teen energy met the thrill of a new century.

Reflector, the fastest-selling Australian album in history at the time, is getting a special anniversary release on vinyl and CD, complete with demos and rarities. The band will also hit the road to perform the album in full next month, giving fans the chance to relive the band’s explosive moment of arrival. Jesse Hooper talks to Hi Fi Way about this anniversary tour.

Great to be talking to you, Jesse. This milestone is huge, twenty five years of Reflector! When I saw the press release, I thought, No, surely not! That’s an incredible achievement.
It really is trippy. In some ways, it feels like a million years ago, but at the same time, it doesn’t feel like twenty five years have passed. Time is a funny thing. We’re super proud, though, the fact that people still love these songs and resonate with them means so much to us.

We’re grateful that Reflector still holds such a strong place in people’s lives. It’s like going back in time, but we’ve also tried to reinvent things where we can. Seeing how attached people are to these songs and hearing their personal stories about them is truly special.

Killing Heidi was such a big part of Triple J’s golden era. So many of us grew up with these songs, and I still vividly remember the day Reflector came out, it’s firmly planted in my memory. In a way, it feels like I’ve grown up alongside you guys.
That’s something we hear a lot, people saying Reflector was part of a major life event, whether it was leaving high school, a first crush, or a first love. Triple J was a huge deal for young musicians at the time. We grew up in a regional area, and when Triple J became accessible to us, it totally changed our listening habits and introduced us to incredible Australian bands.

We were lucky to become part of that world. Triple J connected people to youth culture and international music in a way that shaped their creative and musical identities. It felt like there was this wave of amazing Australian bands emerging, and we were fortunate to have that radio avenue to reach listeners.

Playing festivals like Red Hot Summer must reaffirm that connection with fans and Killing Heidi’s legacy. Has it helped you reconnect with audiences?
Definitely! We love playing these big summer festivals. Back in the day, when we were actively releasing music, we played a lot of festivals, but they were mostly filled with current bands. Red Hot Summer has a different feel, it celebrates artists who had major success twenty or thirty years ago, and it mixes eras in a really cool way.

It gives us the opportunity to remind people of our music beyond Mascara. Since we only play a forty-minute set, it’s pretty much all singles, songs that had massive airplay. It’s been amazing to re-engage audiences, and the demographic is really diverse.

Sure, there’s an older crowd, but there are also tons of younger fans, people eighteen, nineteen, attending their first festival. Seeing iconic bands like Icehouse, Hunters & Collectors, Baby Animals, Eskimo Joe, and Wolfmother all on the same lineup is awesome. There’s a bit of music for everyone, which makes those festivals really special.

Does it still surprise you how much Reflector continues to build its legacy, especially with younger listeners?
It’s really curious, and maybe it’s always been happening, but we’ve just started noticing it more in the last year. Platforms like Spotify and YouTube give younger audiences access to older music in a way that wasn’t possible before.

A new generation is coming to our shows, some because their parents were fans, others because they discovered our music on their own. That’s incredibly exciting for us. The stories we told on Reflector were authentically ours as teenagers in the late ’90s, and the fact that they still connect with young audiences nearly thirty years later is amazing.

Have you gotten nostalgic while going through old archives, photos, videos, early recordings? Has it brought back a lot of great memories?
Absolutely! We’re re-releasing Reflector, but we’re also packaging it with a bunch of unreleased music for the anniversary edition. Some of these demos have been untouched for twenty five years, literally sitting in my dad’s stash of memorabilia from when we recorded pre-production at his house back in 1998.

Finding old photos has been hilarious and sentimental at the same time. Killing Heidi has always had a deep family connection, with me and my sister at its core, so revisiting these memories has been meaningful beyond just the music. It’s not just a professional project, it’s our journey as siblings. We’ve come across some funny things that make us laugh, and it’s nice to be able to reflect with more clarity. Those few years of crazy success between 2000 and 2003 were such a whirlwind, but when I look at a photo or hear a song, the memories come flooding back in a really specific way. It’s been a beautiful experience to explore it all again.

Has there been one moment or event while going through all this that stood out proudly or made you laugh more than expected?
I saw a clip from the ARIA Awards the other day, just us up on stage doing acknowledgments and thank-yous, and I was laughing at how excited we were. We showed up thinking, Okay, this is cool, but everyone on our team must have known we were going to win at least one or two awards. They were prepared, but they didn’t tell us anything. We were totally green, just kept getting up there, winning awards, and being so authentically overwhelmed.

There are also photos that stop us in our tracks, like one taken in Brooklyn on a rooftop with a Rolling Stone photographer. Looking at it now, it’s wild to think that just a year earlier, we were kids from Violet Town, and suddenly, we were on the other side of the world doing something bizarre and amazing.

Having an album like Reflector, did you feel pressure afterward to create a part two or something that could top it?
Definitely, Reflector was written when we were dreaming teenagers in Violet Town, there was no expectation of how it would be received. But the second album came off the back of this insane success, with a totally different focus.

Suddenly, we were working professionally, knowing people were anticipating the next step. It changed how we approached songwriting. The follow-up albums and singles got strong airplay, and the touring opportunities were huge, so we were lucky in that sense. But Reflector had a certain magic, its timing, Triple J, and that crossover into commercial radio. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. At that time, only Savage Garden had popped in a similar way, and many artists have since, but it was definitely a unique moment.

Do you ever wish you could step into a time machine and relive that era?
Oh yeah, absolutely. It was such a whirlwind that I don’t think I fully appreciated the opportunities and experiences we had. Part of that is just being young, excited, and caught up in the momentum.
I wouldn’t change anything, but I’d love to go back and relive it, to soak it in more, take a few extra photos. We didn’t have camera phones back then, which makes a big difference! If it happened now, everything would be documented, but back then, things were more off-the-grid.

How does it feel playing Reflector from start to finish on this tour?
We actually rehearsed the full album for Good Things Festival last December, preparing for a proper front-to-back live set. We spent so much time getting everything ready, but due to some technical issues, we had to drop a few songs from the set each time. So, we never got to play the entire album despite being fully prepared.

That’s why we’re so pumped this time, we’re finally going to do it! It’s a different approach for us because usually, we play singles from various eras and tend to finish with our biggest hits. But with Reflector, it kicks off strong, big bangers right from the start, then takes you on a journey. There are album tracks that we probably only ever played a handful of times back in the day, so revisiting those has been really fun.

Did some of those deeper cuts take extra rehearsing to remember how to play them?
Yep, definitely! Some fundamentals were easy to recall, but there were deeper production elements we had to figure out. We’ve had to reinvent string sections, keyboard parts, and backing vocals to make everything work with the current band setup.

It’s been a fun challenge, bringing those songs to life in a fresh way. It’s going to sound incredible.
I know this tour is all about celebrating this milestone, but do you ever think ahead to making new music?
We always say never say never, but right now, new music isn’t a top priority. This is the first time we’ll be releasing unheard versions of songs, which gives us something fresh for fans. As for original compositions, Ella is focused on her solo career, writing amazing songs for her solo album, so she’ll be moving into that later this year. But for now, it’s all about Reflector.

We’re all incredibly proud of you, hope you enjoy every moment of this celebration. Looking forward to seeing you at The Gov in Adelaide.
We love The Gov, it’s one of our favorite venues in Adelaide. We’ve played there plenty of times, so it feels like a fitting place to celebrate. I’m sure we played it back in the day on these same runs. We love coming to The Gov, come down, check it out, and take a nostalgia trip with us!

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Killing Heidi on the following dates, tickets from Destroy All Lines…