Ella Hooper has shared her new single “Cowboy Man”, the latest preview of her forthcoming fourth solo album, Overnight Success.
Out today, “Cowboy Man” is the fourth single lifted from the album, following “Growing Up Is Hard To Do”, “I Got Eyes (On You)” and “When The Shit Went Down”.
The country-rock track finds Hooper — perhaps better-known for fronting millennial rock band Killing Heidi — having some fun with the current cowboy craze while drawing on her own experiences travelling to Nashville, where much of Overnight Success was created.
“‘Cowboy Man’ is one of those songs that when it landed in my brain I laughed out loud,” Hooper said. “I’m having fun with and poking fun at the whole cowboy cowgirl country pop culture explosion, as I’m aware it is having quite the moment.”
She added that beneath the joke was “a kernel of truth”, having travelled to Nashville several times to record the album while jokingly hoping she might also find her ideal cowboy husband.
“I keep coming home empty-handed, still single, but with this great song in tow, so it actually feels like I got the prize,” she joked.
The single arrives alongside a music video built around Hooper holding cowboy auditions. Directed by Lizzie Bailey and produced by Lauren Simpson, the clip features a collection of Hooper’s friends, musicians, actors and drag performers, including RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under winner Lazy Susan.
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“It was a real group effort and a very funny, silly, so grateful-for-my-creative-community kinda day,” Hooper said.
Overnight Success will arrive on October 2nd and features 11 tracks exploring heartbreak, family, ageing, desire and resilience through Hooper’s increasingly established blend of country and Americana.
The album follows 2023’s Small Town Temple, which debuted at No. 1 on the Australian Country chart.
Hooper said the new record represents another step forward in both her songwriting and her relationship with Americana.
“I worked really hard on this record, took risks and fought for things, sent myself broke making it over multiple trips to Nashville,” she said.
“It definitely feels like a level up, in my writing especially. I’m exploring my voice and my relationship to Americana, the sounds, the genre, its parameters. I’m not an easy act to pigeonhole; but God I feel like myself on this record!”
Hooper will launch Overnight Success with an Australian tour in October, supported by Ruby Mae, beginning at The Eltham in NSW on October 1st before visiting Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Newcastle, Sydney and Canberra.
Ella Hooper’s “Cowboy Man” is out now. Overnight Success will be released on October 2nd and can be pre-saved now.
