For Killing Heidi frontwoman Ella Hooper, the band's 2000 debut single Weir was their "jewel in the crown".
"Weir is the one people want to hear, Weir is the one that people had their special occasions to, all their high school leaving ceremonies, and it takes them back to a certain time and place," Hooper told ABC Radio Melbourne's Friday Revue.
But lyrically the song was an expression of Hooper's frustration at her rock career separating her from her teenage friends.
Originally from Violet Town in country Victoria, Killing Heidi won triple j's Unearthed competition in 1996 when Hooper was just 13.
Over the next few years she regularly caught the train to Melbourne to record the band's debut album, Reflector.
The lyrics of Weir reflected how displaced she felt while recording in the city.
"I think I was being a bit of a pill.
"I was missing my friends and I was missing my afterschool habits and hobbies, which was jumping off the bus in the middle of summer and ... swimming in the weir with my girlfriends and hanging out at each other's houses.
"Weir is about that beautiful time where friendship rules your life.
"There's nothing more important than talking to the girls, hanging with the girls, you're with them all day at school and then you're on the phone with them all night; you know that that kind of phase where it's your reason for being — that's what Weir is."
Creating a classic rock story
Hooper said the process of writing Weir was a "classic rock story" of the sort "you read so often in rock encyclopaedias".
It was among the last songs the band wrote for the album, and was written after producer Paul Kosky told them "you need a single".
Hooper said that meant a song that was "something bombastic, obviously, something that grabs your attention".
"Hence the chorus, we're being so in your face and it's like everything's at 11.
"It's such a hard song to sing, honestly it's a real ballbreaker.
The song peaked at number five on the Australian charts and Hooper credits the song with laying the groundwork for the number one hit Mascara, but she hasn't always liked the single.
"I've gone up, down and all around with it, and there's been times where I've really discounted Weir," she said.
"It's so simple, it's so repetitive — it literally has repeating lyrics every verse so you can sing along to it."
Hooper said she now loved the song, which acted as the "big finish, the climax of the set" for Killing Heidi's live shows.
"It's honest, it's straight to the point and that's powerful in its own naive way."
The Friday Revue broadcasts in front of a live audience throughout November as part of Australian Music Month.
