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Imogen Heap
an Interview by Auralgasms - January 18, 2006
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After a terrific, but largely overlooked solo album, Imogen collaborated with Guy Sigsworth on the band Frou Frou. Appearances on the soundtracks to Garden State and The OC thrust her into the limelight. After a lengthy delay, Imogen has released her 2nd solo CD, Speak For Yourself highlighted by tracks like Goodnight and Go, Hide and Seek and Just For Now.
Imogen has followed up on the successful Hotel Cafe tour with a solo tour that is selling out all over the US. She was kind enough to take time out to chat with us at her Detroit tour stop about Frou Frou, her new solo record and what is next on the horizon.
Your career has gone through an unusual progression...a solo album, THEN a group project and then back to solo. What prompted this change?
There was no grand plan...it just kind of felt right at the time. The Frou Frou project was really spontaneous. Both of us were in labels at the time, having nightmares. I was trying to work on the second record and for whatever reason they weren't taking it any further...they kept me under contract though so I couldn't do anything.
Guy was having trouble with his label too, so we just got together one day and it didn't feel like it belonged to my label. If I did something as myself, it was in their hands. As soon as I started to do something else, I didn't feel like I was working for them.
So we did a song called Flicks and before we knew it we had 6 songs and it came up one Christmas, we said why don't we just do an album and see what happens. We both knew we could handle it and we liked each other. So we found the label Island and made a record.
There were never any future plans though, it was always just a project. It was never about how successful it could be. We just really enjoyed doing this one record and it was a great moment in time. We both really like doing different things, but I've always felt in my heart like a solo artist.
We do still work together...we've done a couple of things, a Britney song actually!
How would you describe the difference between your solo work and the Frou Frou work as it pertains to the listener? The difference in your approach?
Well, my solo work has definitely changed as a result of working with Guy, and I have done like 10 other collaborations since my first record. Its been 10 years since my first record and I have changed both personally and musically. I mean I love completely different kinds of music since I was younger.
Also, technology has been a big factor. I couldn't have made my first record or this record, 10 years ago with the technology that existed. I just feel very librated. I can make any single sound on the planet, I can just download a sound. I can make any record I want. There's no limitations now. In the past I would have to invite in whole orchestras, and now if I want a particular sound, there are great programs and I don't have to do that.
Well, when I play live I try to actually play as much possible. I want to give a performance and not just hit the play button. It still sounds similar to the record live, but I don't want to copy it. I just want to bring as much of it live as I can.
I like the fact that I can be so hands on now, I have played around on Ataris since I was 12 and gradually got more involved. Now I can work for hours and just get lost in it without having to worry about not knowing the program well enough. I can just create something and after 5 hours I have made this sound without really knowing how I had done it.
Before I made the record I had no vision of what I wanted to do and I had no songs before I went in. I spent the last year, just coming up with sounds and it became what it became. There was no grand plan.
Since there has been some confusion, let's clear it up. Straight from you, How do you pronounce the band's name and what was the meaning behind it?
'Froo Froo'. Guy actually had the name previously. Originally, what was he going to do was invite a bunch of vocalists like Madonna, Bjork and me and create an album. Flicks was my contribution.
Frou Frou in the beginning was a little bit of everything. He loves all things French...We would say we liked it because of the sound of swishing skirts...and it's very sex drugs and rock and roll in a 1900's kind of way. I think it's more to do with the fact that in the beginning the record was to be more of a little bit of everything...
Plus he loves the Cocteau Twins...they have a song called Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires.
After Frou Frou, when you went back to solo work, you produced and financed the album yourself. Why did you make the decision after working with a band? Was it a struggle or did you enjoy the freedom?
Like I said before the technology wasn't around when I made my first record 10 years ago. I couldn't have made the record I wanted to make. I have always played a big part in my music and gradually through the years I've done more and more and more.
Doing the record myself, in my house, was actually a lot less scary then doing it with a record deal. I've been burnt there quite a few times. I didn't want to feel the pressure, and have the label make promises they didn't keep. I always wanted to see what I could do going it on my own. I didn't think I'd make it as far as I did...I didn't think I'd finish the record. The more I did, the more I found I COULD do.
When I heard it the demos on KCRW, I was floored by that. It really gave me confidence.
What was the delay in the release of Speak For Yourself? It seemed close to a year from the time the internet savvy fans had heard the record from the time it was actually available.
In the States, that is true. I released it in the UK in July. That was 6 months from when it was finished. The problem with that was that I didn't have a record label to set it up. I didn't want to give it away to anyone. I figured in the UK, I could get exposure through Internet and Radio. I didn't want a label to have control of it. So it took me a long time, to set those things up on my own.
It took another 4 or 5 months to find a record deal in the States. I didn't want to rush anything.
Do you find it harder or easier to be an artist in the internet age. On the one hand, there are numerous new ways for fans to find you, yet sales are suffering.
The great thing about that is more people get to hear your music, than they previously could. I've sold 50,000 records in the States and a lot of that is word of mouth through kids talking about it. Without the Internet, I probably wouldn't have a record.
Unfortunately, my record company in the States, made the record copy-protected. It is not copy-protected in the UK. I think people should be able to do whatever the hell they want with it. I got really irritated when I bought the Goldfrapp record and couldn't even put it my computer.
I don't want people to have that experience. I've spent all this time making a great record and I want people to do what they like with it. They pay good money for it, and its wrong to tell them what to do with it.
At the end of the day, its on Limewire, its on Kazaa...if they want to get it free, then they're going to.
Describe the production of the track Hide and Seek. It is an unusual arrangement, and really seems to have struck a chord with your fans.
That's the one that took the least amount of time, out of the whole record. In the beginning that annoyed me, that everyone loved the one I did in one day. The one that took me weeks and weeks wasn't anyone's favorite.
I did Hide and Seek the day my computer blew up on me. I was putting in a card, and the powerboard went down. I was really irritated that I couldn't do anything that day, because I had just bought it.
I had learned a lesson on my last record, never to leave the studio on a downer. Try to do something creative before you leave.
Hide and Seek was basically like that. I didn't want to leave with a bad feeling so I picked up my harmonizer and played my keyboard and recorded it on my Mini-Disc recorder.
From the moment I put fingers to keys, and voice to harmonizer, the song just appeared. 4 ½ minutes later, there was the structure, the harmony, and the melody. Not the lyrics, though, I always add those later.
As I was doing it, I got very excited. It's never ever happened like that before.
The only song it was like that for was Sleep, the last song on my first record.
Then I spent about 4 days trying to figure out what the hell I played. It was all one performance, not tracked vocals.
As you say, people really seem to have an affinity for it. I think because it doesn't really have a relationship to any genre. It's not Pop, its not Rock, its not Electronic. You can't really say you don't listen to that kind of music. It's actually a bit like a hymn.
Tell us a little about the Hotel Café tour. What was it like to play with a collective of artists like that?
It was hilarious...really good fun. It was like a massive holiday, basically. We got all got along like a house on fire. I've never had that much fun on tour. We were all completely different. I had never even heard of any of the artists. By the end of it, we were all the best of mates.
I knew the Hotel Café. I had played there before and I knew Marco who runs it. When I played there last year it was a spontaneous gig...more like a video party. I had just done the video for Hide and Seek and had a small party for it. That's where I met him but he had always been a fan. He just said I'm putting together this tour and I'd love it if you would come on it.
At the time I was supposed to go on tour with Tori Amos but that didn't work out, and then this came along.
On tour, whether with the Hotel Café, solo, or Frou...what has been your favorite and least favorite places to play?
It's always difficult playing in front of a crowd that listens to completely different music. When I was 19 I played in this club...it all worked out for the best, but it looked like it was going to go horribly wrong. It was a rock club and the Hells Angels had turned up. They were looking at this little girl on stage. Luckily I had the worst throat that night and couldn't actually sing. That worked out for the best...they liked the fact that I sounded all rough.
The best gig, I don't know, really. This tour has been great because it's my show for the first time. I'm selling them out and I've never done that before. It's exciting to see people singing along.
Appearing on the Garden State soundtrack with Let Go seems to have opened up a whole new generation of fans for you. Were you handpicked by Zach Braff for that?
I heard the real story from Cary Brothers who was on the Hotel Café tour and good friend of Zach's. I thought somebody had given him a copy of my CD and he heard me from that. What happened was, originally they wanted somebody else for that end track and they wanted too much money. Zach said no, that they couldn't pay that.
Then they started panicking. They had everything else except that one last track. So, we got an email from Zach saying that he really loved the song and was interested in it for this movie he had written with Natalie Portman in it. So we said yes. We say yes to things all the time but usually they tease you. They just want permission to use the song if they decide they want to down the road.
Basically it was his girlfriend, when they were brainstorming with about a week to go, who said: what about this song Let Go? They put it in to that scene of the movie and saw the scene together with that song and said that's the one.
About a year later we had forgotten about it, and a friend told me they had heard Let Go on TV. I was like, really? What was it? They said it was this film called Garden State. I checked it out and it turned out to be that one I talked with Zach about.
You've also recently appeared on soundtracks like Garden State, Just Like Heaven, The OC and The Chronicles of Narnia. Do you have any designs on doing on scoring an entire soundtrack?
The best thing about doing the Narnia song was, I got to meet the Composer, Harry Gregson-Williams. I really liked the man. He was upstairs putting together battle scenes. I saw it all going off, the recording at Abbey Road, people running around, the string orchestras... I just loved the energy of it.
I was downstairs working on my song and he would come downstairs and listen to it and talk about what the scene was trying to do. It was the first time I had written a song specifically for a film.
I told my agent the next thing I am going to do is to work with Harry again. We are looking for a film to work on. It's not going to be traditional songs with vocals...I mean I don't want to do Shrek 5. I'm looking for more of an Indie film.
What about collaborations? Anyone you'd love to work with?
The people that I have ended up collaborating with, I hadn't thought of before. I absolutely love Zoe Keating who is opening the show tonight. She is really incredible. I love her melodies and would love to do something with her.
The kinds of artists I really like are more Electronic, like Squarepusher. Something with a choir would be really nice. I can't see myself really collaborating with another vocalist though. I'd be more interested in electronic musicians like maybe Riyuichi Sakomoto.
What's on your iPod?
Let's have a look...I like Milosh, an artist from Toronto...he's got a MySpace page. I really like Avril's Members Only. I'm a big fan of that record. I know I'm a little late on the boat, but I have just recently discovered Kenna. Zoe is my favorite thing that I have found recently. I'm just so inspired by her.
Is the list of artists you like, different from the artists that influence you?
Um, No. I don't like the kind of music that people think I sound like. I'm dont really consider myself a singer-songwriter. I'm more in the Electronic thing. I hear people compare me to Dido and Jem. Jem is a good friend but musically I feel we are different. It seems like I am always being compared to whatever the popular female artists at that time are: Madonna, Bjork, Dido, Kate Bush...none of them are really like me or like each other.
I'm actually really excited about an artist named Kate Havnevik. She's doing a record with Guy Sigsworth that you can hear on MySpace. I'm loving that record right now. So I shouldn't say I don't like Singer-Songwriters, because I do like her.
Is there anything else you would like your fans to know?
I am going to be coming back on tour in April, so if you didn't catch my this time, I'll be back. I am going to be playing Coachella in April too.