Pop Stars and Pixies

El Hopper and Mike Wheeler don't hesitate when asked the question about how they first met. They avoided it all together. This interviewer didn't expect to get an answer, they are both obviously uncomfortable with answering it. There's a mystery there, readers.

- Pop Music Magazine

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It was 1973. Mike had just turned 15 and his dad had a new job and was moving the family again. This time he was going to be working in a lab doing whatever he did. But it was in some armpit of a town called Hawkins. Their claim to fame was that nothing ever happened there. For a kid it's always a bad time to move, but when you are 15 it means leaving good friends behind. Sometimes it means leaving a girlfriend behind, but in his case, that wasn't anything he had to worry about.

"Great." Mike snorted. New place, no friends, no girlfriend, no hobbies. Well the guitar but that wasn't a hobby a lot of guys his age took up. Especially not classical guitar. It's not like he was going be joining a band as a classical guitarist.

To keep Mike busy as a kid his parents had enrolled him into piano lessons and classical guitar lessons. Mike took to the guitar much to his own surprise, and figured he'd just stick with it. By the time he was 14 he was fairly proficient with it... but something was missing.

He couldn't put his finger on it. It wasn't like he wasn't enjoying playing the guitar, but the only real thrill he'd gotten from it was that he seemed to be really good at it. That's what his sister and parents said, but you can't go by family. Family is usually to harsh or too gushing when it comes to your talents. In Mike's case it was gushing. He couldn't get objective feedback from them so he was never sure of where is talent was.

Over the first month he knew what was missing. He had nobody to share his playing with. One of his friends in the last town they lived told him, "dude, you play great. You can always get chicks if you can play a guitar."

'Get chicks' isn't exactly what Mike had in mind. Maybe having a girlfriend that enjoyed his playing?

Mike snorted to himself. One thing was for sure, they hadn't tripped over themselves getting to Mike and his famous guitar playing.

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El Hopper, the lead singer of the pop band 'Eleven' is only 15 years old, but a lot of other musicians say she has a 4 octave voice. Ann Wilson of Heart, who also has a 4 octave vocal range is impressed. She's been quoted several times saying that El was wasting her talent in a pop band, regardless of how catchy the music is. "She's a kid, that's the kind of music she can relate to, When she gets older, maybe she'll write something more sophisticated. But record companies being what they are want to keep her on that money train. " Ann Wilson would know, given Heart's legal dealings with their previous record company.

- Pop Music Magazine

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As he usually did, one evening Mike was sitting just outside the basement door, cross-legged on the grass, playing guitar.

Earlier that day there's been a bit of a commotion next door. A moving truck had pulled up, and a few hours later a shiny black stretch limo pulled up and it looked like a family got out. Ok family might have been too broad a term. A large tall man got out followed by his son who had the supreme privilege of having his hair recently buzzed.

Yup, no bullies were going to bother him. At least in the first few minutes of school until they found him and his shaved gourd. Poor guy, maybe Mike would be lucky and this kid would take the heat off him. At his age the bullies tended to be a bit stronger and rougher, so the punches hurt a little more.

The limo had been followed by a black Chevy Blazer and two guys Mike could only describe as underworld goons got walked around the house, and then got back in the car and sat there.

He was concentrating on a complicated piece when he heard a girl's voice, "wow, you play great."

Mike looked up at her. Him. Her. It looked like the kid who got out of the limo earlier that day. She kept her hair short. Very short for a girl. Had to have been on purpose. Or her dad was really strict. Or… or something much worse, but Mike wouldn't ask her.

Despite the hair, or maybe because of it, Mike thought she was… pretty. Now that he got a close look at her, he could see that she was about the same age as he was.

She sat cross legged in front of him watching him play. He started to play Beethoven'a Sonata No. 8 Op. 13

And then she started singing to it.

It was the voice of an angel, and she seemed to be singing with words that fit the music perfectly.

He started making mistakes, he was so distracted by her voice. Eventually he couldn't recover and dampened the strings of the guitar.

"That was beautiful. Why did you stop?"

"Your voice distracted me. You are good."

She smiled and nodded. And then looked at him funny.

"Something I said?" Mike looked at her trying to figure out her expression.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Should I?"

She looked miffed. Not just a little miffed. A lot. "I'm El Hopper... yes the El Hopper."

"Um, ok, I'm Mike Wheeler… um the Mike Wheeler." He tried to be funny.

"So you are saying you don't know who I am?

Mike was confused, but smiling he said, "Um, El Hopper. The El Hopper."

"But do you know who El Hopper is?"

"Uh, You?"

"Oh for Pete's sake. I'm El Hopper, I'm pretty much Eleven."

"I thought you were closer to my age, but this is really starting to sound like a surreal version of 'Who's on First.'"

"Are you seriously that dense? I…." She pointed to herself, "Am. El. Hopper."

Mike continued to look at her.

"11?" She shook her head at him.

"Um, are you El Hopper or Eleven."

And then Mike thought he'd try to be funny again, "Is Pete your brother?"

"Ok, I get it, you're an idiot. Screw you." She got up and left.

Mike had no idea why this pretty girl was mad at him. It bothered him a little bit. She hadn't been able to explain herself to him, and that was obviously frustrating but he had no idea what she was getting at.

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Rumour has it that Eleven's chart topper "Dense" is about Mike Wheeler, but El Hopper will not comment on that either. This interviewer has tried to get the interviews with the band separately but they refuse to.

- Pop Music Magazine