Imogen Heap |
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Since her 1998 debut album I, Megaphone, Imogen Heap has slowly but surely wrestled her way into the public's imagination thanks to her powerful, quirky vocals, and classically-arranged brand of electronic pop. Initial
exposure was followed by concerts and collaborations with artists as
diverse as Urban Species, Jeff Beck and Nik Kershaw. Then, in 2002,
Heap joined up with multi-talented producer Guy Sigsworth to deliver
another fine album, Details, collaborating as Frou Frou. This attracted
more good reviews and increased visibility, with the song Let Go featuring
in the 2004 movie Garden State, and another track Holding Out For A
Hero specially recorded for the soundtrack to Shrek 2. With
Heap's second solo album, Speak For Yourself, on the verge of a full
UK release - further success is almost guaranteed. Barcode speaks to
the multi-talented songstress... |
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My first question is very simple, is Imogen Heap your real name? It is, bizzarely enough. I was born and bred with it. My parents always joke about it. They couldn’t call me things like Sarah because if I had an initial S, then mixed with Heap I would be 'sheep', and if I had Caroline or Christina then I’d be 'cheap'. So I. Heap wasn’t so bad. I think I interviewed you about 6 years after your debut album I, Megaphone. Oh cool, did we meet in person or was it over the phone? Have I matured? Has my voice matured (laughs)? You sound quite similar actually; it’s a bit long ago to remember. You must have been very young then? I’m 27 now, so 21 then. But even then I thought it was quite obvious that you’d eventually be successful, would you say that everything has been going to plan since then? Erm... to tell you the truth I haven’t really had a plan as such. I think other people have had big plans for me, and said “oh, she’s gonna be the next big thing!” I’ve always had that since I was 18, people have always thought that something was just about to happen… and nothing actually has (laughs). Oh, not really. Little pockets of really good luck have happened, like Let Go got into the Garden State movie and that really, really helped things. That was probably the most popular I’ve been, because that really opened up a massive new audience that wouldn’t have heard it on the radio, because it wasn’t on the radio. And actually Frou Frou had split up at the point, we’d gone our separate ways and suddenly we had all these new fans and we had to break it to them gently that actually we weren’t touring. So from that moment, that’s when things really started to pick up for me, and I’ve just been having so much good luck recently with getting things into films and TV, The O.C. obviously being the biggest one. So I’m really, really glad that I’ve done it on my own this time and that any money I get off things like The O.C. actually comes to me, so I can actually fund things and do things at my own pace and the way I feel like it. My artwork is done exactly how I want it to be… it’s much more fun, it’s really hard work but I’m having really good fun at the moment. You didn’t ever think of entering Pop Idol to give yourself a boost? (Laughs) No actually… a horrible idea. I was kind of hoping that when the public saw how shallow it can actually be, how little talent somebody could actually have and still be massively famous, that it would kind of make them think, “oh God, that’s rubbish, I need to find a real artist". And actually as a result it went completely the opposite way, and everybody liked the artist who was your person next door or could be you. My prediction didn’t work (laughs). I think there’s plenty of room for both actually. There will always be a larger majority of people who don’t really like that sort of thing, and prefer real music. Yeah, I definitley think there’s a wider gap now, but in a way it’s good. There’s not a lot of middle ground stuff going on, it’s like either really arty and people just doing it on their own terms and people finding out about it, or it’s the complete opposite hyper-commercial route. But also you seem to be taking advantage of the whole Internet thing, iTunes, and self promotion? Yeah, it’s the perfect timing. And seeing the way that the word has spread from Let Go, because a lot of people wouldn’t have waited until the end of the credits, and especially in America it has created a whole little community. And ever since I started writing the (web) Blog as well, I’ve really seen a big reaction – people just interested in the process, and what it’s really like to do it from the beginning; making a record and being involved in that. You sent me a really nice home made promo CD of your new album, Speak For Yourself, but that was quite a long time ago, so why has it taken so long for the album to surface? Exactly, why has it! I don’t know, I feel like I’ve been working really, really hard and fast and trying to get things done as quickly as possible. A couple of years ago I’d been moaning at my record label, like “why is it taking so long!” but now that I’m doing it for myself I have had to do so much, I’ve had to sign so many contracts to set up with iTunes, and PPL, PPS, BPL… all these different acronyms. And it’s taken a month to get that sorted and find a team as well… I really love my team now… but even to get those guys on board, sometimes it takes a month just to get someone to listen to the album. And the actual designing of the album, it has taken forever to get that right; I had to actually create a digipak for myself because there wasn’t one on the planet that was the exact same layout that I wanted. It looks lovely. I love the picture of you cycling with St Paul’s Catherdral in the background. Thank you. Yeah, it’s amazing isn’t it? That’s another Internet thing that happened. There’s a website called Flickr, a photo hosting site, which has some really amazing photographers, and other people like me… who just use it for pictures on my mobile phone. And I was thinking about the artwork for the album and just thought I’d really love to get a shot of me on my bike, because a lot of the great ideas for this album came from me cycling to and from the studio. So I looked up ‘London’ on Flickr and thousands of photographs came up from the last few days, and I found about ten shots that I just kept thinking I really liked. And there was this guy called Kevin Meredith... his tag is Lomokev cos he takes shots on a Lomo camera. And I emailed him straight away and said would you be up for doing these shots of me in London, so the next day we took the shots. Had he heard of you at all? No he hadn’t. I sent him an email saying this is my website, this is what I do. And he wants to do it professionally, and I’m sure he’ll make it because he does amazing stuff. I really do like the album, but it doesn’t really have the anger of your debut album. No, I don’t have to be so angry with people now (laughs). Does this reflect a change in your personality or is your music more calculated now to be a certain way? Erm… I think when I was 18 I didn’t really understand why things had to be the way they were and I was less forgiving. When I wrote my first record I didn’t actually comprehend that other people would listen to it, I really just thought, “I write my songs, and there you go”. And it wasn’t until I had I, Megaphone in my hand that it actually occured to me for the first time that somebody else would listen to the lyrics over and over again. And when I started to listen to it over and over again, I found that I kind of whined quite a lot. I just thought, for God sake, cheer up… because I am actually quite a happy person generally, and I didn’t understand why my record seemed to be so like that… maybe it was cooler to be angry. I suppose you had a lot of energy as well? I’ve got tons of energy. Obviously theres really tough things that go on in everyone’s life, like family problems or lover problems or whatever. In time, I guess people grow to realise that things may be bad now but time will eventually heal it… and when you’re younger you maybe don’t see that. You’re much more mature now. Yeesssss (laughs) Also the lyrics on the first album were quite relationship-based, but a little less on Speak For Yourself. And on the track you’ve just released Hide and Seek, the lyrics are particularly random, and I just wondered what they were about? Do you think they’re random? (laughs). Maybe they’re not so obvious… yes. Well, you have to really think to imagine what the song might be about. What do you think the song’s about? Well… erm........ I haven’t got a clue (laughs) (Laughs) Do you know what? I’m one of these people who doesn’t pay much attention to lyrics. No, I’m like you... I don’t either. I don’t listen to people’s lyrics. I usually listen to lyrics when they’re really awful... they kind of stand out and you go “eurghh”. In fact the only persons lyrics I’ve ever really listened to is Morrissey. Oh, he’s a great lyricist yeah… But I’m asking the question because I figured a lot of people might wonder what the lyrics to Hide and Seek are about? Well, I’m not going to tell you exactly what it’s about, because I think that part of the reason why it is not so obvious is sometimes it’s good to have those songs that really mean something very dear to you, but maybe you don’t want to speak about it to the rest of the world. But, with that one, I wrote it so quickly, the lyrics I probably wrote in about 20 minutes, which is unheard of. But I like to be clever with words and I like to make them like a puzzle, I like the words to sound interesting in the mouth and create patterns within themselves. So with that one, it just literally came out of nowhere and I found myself getting really passionate about it and it just poured out of me. There was something in my life that obviously needed to be said. In a broad strokes way, it’s about losing something very dear to me and how much of an impact that person had on my life and about maybe how when something awful happens to somebody else, how other people react to it. It tied in with when I went to see Michael Moore’s Farenheit 911 and I remembered that image of George Bush being told and him completeley carrying on as if nothing had happened. And I just thought that was outrageous, if I was the president I would run out of their and fucking get onto the TV and say something amazing, and he wasn’t even reading his book and he had it upside down. And I was really horrified at how selfish and awful he was, and how emotionless he was and that kind of reminded me a little bit about somebody else behind this song. |
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“When
I wrote my first record I didn’t actually comprehend that other people
would listen to it.” |
Hide and Seek is currently doing very well on iTunes. Has that surprised you? Not because it’s not a good track, but because it’s probably the least commercial track on the album? Well, it would surprise me if it hadn’t had The O.C. placing, I don’t think we would be at number 7 if it wasnt for The O.C. to be honest. I’m quite surprised that it’s done better than it did in the States, because in the States I got to number 32 in the charts, but I’m also thinking maybe that’s because the Americans are slightly more Internet savvy, that they maybe know to go to Kazaa or Soulseeker and download it for free, whereas even though we know how to download things for free, some of us still don’t. But I’m completely overwhelmed and excited and very happy indeed. The devil in me really, really wanted this to be the single. When I was talking to record companies to license the record in the States, before I knew about The O.C., I said I’d really love it to be Hide and Seek. Firstly, because it’s so bold and my stuff never gets played on the radio, so I thought why should I play the game if they’re not helping me, so I’ll just do exactly what I think is the way to be doing it. A lot of your songs seem to get chosen for soundtracks and movies and things like that. I even heard Frou Frou when I was working out at a gym once. Do you feel more inclined towards writing that sort of material rather than straightforward pop songs? I can’t write pop songs, although some of them end up being quite poppy. When I was a kid I really did love, still do, classical music – I love the layers of the orchestra. And I think people using orchestral sounds in albums get a bad rap, because most of the time it’s like really cheesy strings, and there’s so many great layers you can build up through orchestral sounds - and obviously it’s very filmic. When I first started doing the record, one of the first virtual instruments I got was East West Gold Orchestra, that was given to me by East West, so it was just great to have all these samples that could really widen my scope. I still love all the electronic stuff as well, but there was no limitations this time, no record companies, no one else in the studio with me, and I could just spend hours and hours noodling. And I found out so much about my musical self, I hadn’t ever done a record entirely on my own before. And the last track as well, The Moment I Said It, another beautiful track. It sort of sits in an area of music that isn’t vacated by anybody. Yeah, that’s true. I love that song too. I think that’s the only piano one, and once I’d done it I was like “why didn’t I do more like this?” That was actually the last song that I did. I had the idea for a while, the songs I most like are Headlock, Hide and Seek and The Moment I Said It, and the reason I like them the most is because they took me the least time. For me they’re the most powerful songs and they just came so easily, and each time I actually wrote something really quickly was when my computer wasn’t working (laughs). I can easily spend like 10 hours programming a silly little bar of a song, but actually writing the lyric and having the music in front of you is actually not very helpful. You think you’re doing yourself good by listening over and over to bars and trying to inspire lyrics but it’s only when things go wrong and your brain is suddenly not where it normally is that it relaxes. So Headlock came really, really quickly. There was a snowstorm outside, which was absolutely beautiful and my computer was playing up so I stuck on an album by Readymade… do you know Readymade? Did he do something with David Sylvian? Yeah, he did. His album Bold has got some David Sylvian on it. And the only time I listen to music is when my computer went down, and he did this great track, Funiculaire, and suddenly all these lyrics were flying out of my head… so I wrote as many lyrics as I could put down until I got my computer back up and running. And The Moment I Said It as well was one where the computer again broke down, it was the end of the night and I’d just had a new piano delivered to me. So I thought I’d play my piano for a change, instead of playing my QWERTY keyboard. So I just played something and after a couple of minutes, the fast loop on the piano in the chorus came out – so I recorded that and had that for about 5 months. And then, when my computer broke down again, I was like, right, I’m gonna work on that song now. So next time you write an album, do you think you might try lots of different angles when you approach songs? The problem why it took me so long was because I was writing the songs, programming it and producing it all at the same time, and you can get carried away with the production of something and not actually finish the song, and that’s when you get really stuck, because it’s like the chicken and the egg. So I think for my next record, well actually I was joking that my next record will probably just be improvised piano - and spend a day on it rather than a year slogging away (laughs). But I think I will write the album first, just really simple - writing lyrics and melodies, and then go back in the studio. I did like the piano on The Moment I Said It, and there was a lot of piano on your first album and I would liked to have seen more piano on this one, but the songs are so good it doesn’t actually seem to make much difference. In hindsight it would have been nice maybe to have a bit more piano, but at the same time I think this record’s got so much more than I, Megaphone and I’ve definitely proved to myself a lot of things by doing this record. I hope that every record I do each one gets better and better, and everyone that I’ve worked with over the years, like Urban Species, Way Out West, and Jeff Beck, have been thrown into this in some way, and I’m sure that my next record will hopefully be even better. Did you actually work from home on your album, or go into a separate studio? Basically what happened was, after Frou Frou I really didn’t want to sign to another label, but I kind of realised that I didn’t have any money, in fact I had like minus a lot of thousands of pounds of money. So I went to lots of banks, and everyone refused me, and then I realised I had money in my flat, so I’m paying a huge mortgage now but as a result I could pay for my studio, and I bought shed loads of gear and I rented out this space in a business complex where there’s nothing go on. So there is nothing to distract me and nobody will come to visit me because it’s not in a very nice area. And I really like it because it’s an industrial estate and it’s really quiet late at night, and that’s when the really good ideas came. And the other thing that’s actually quite exciting is that I live right next to a train station, and my studio is next to a train line and there are trains like every five seconds going “doo-doo” all the time, and actually on the record there was one time when I was trying to do something and I couldn’t because I started to notice the train sound in the background, so I thought, why don’t I just put them on the record. Yeah, I wasn’t going to say but on Hide and Seek after about 50 seconds there’s a sound like a stray drum beat? (Laughs) Erm…well what it is…I wanted to get some atmosphere you see, and if you listen to it really loud you’ll hear other noises in there as well. It’s actually the movement of a frying pan off the cooker. You never thought that did you? That’s probably the only one you can really hear, but there are other noises in the background. If you listen on the headphones you can hear what sounds like rain, which is actually a frying pan frying in the kitchen. Do you use Pro Tools? I used Pro Tools HD for all the audio, then I used Nuendo for all my virtual instruments and my MIDI, digitally connected so there’s no loss of quality. Was that a difficult learning process, getting to grips with Pro Tools? No, I’ve used Pro Tools for years. I have learned a lot more since doing it on my own, but I’ve really enjoyed programming since I was twelve on a Mac Classic II, and I learned it on a program called Steingberg Notator. Then I used Logic when I was about 15, and Cubase at some point. Do you use any external synths, or is it all software? Most of it’s software, but my favourite little bit of external synth gear is my Korg EMX, which I lurve. I love the valves and I love the colour, and it’s great for tuning drums. I tend not to use loops, I’ll just anally pick a kick sound and build up another five kick sounds, but I won’t do it on MIDI, I’ll do it in audio on the grid, because I’m really anal about timing, and even if I can’t hear it but I can see it, I get really bitchy. You’ve also worked with a lot of people, on and off. One person who quite interests me is Nik Kershaw, did he have any involvement on the album at all? No he didn’t actually, but I’ve done something on his new record, which has just come out… called Now And Then. I’ve known him since I was seventeen, he was the first producer I worked with. I really, really like him and I’ve always really liked him. At one point he was doing stuff for us for Frou Frou, which didn’t actually surface, and he’s actually managed by the same people as me. So, he heard my record and he absolutely loved it, and then a couple of days later I got a phone call from the manager saying Nik wants you to produce his new single. And I was like “oh my God”, but Nik is like totally cool, and if it didn’t work out and I completely fluffed it then he would sort it out immediately. There was no pressure, and he basically gave me a great vocal, which had already got great lyrics in, really well sung, and he gave me the chord structure and just said, do what you like with it. Do you duet on the track? I do sing, not like a vocal thing, just a layered thing. So he just said, do what you like, so I did. It’s a bit odd because my idea of a producer is not somebody who produces a track to get it to sound like them, I don’t like that, I like producers who find the best of the artist that they’re working with and make it sound like an amazing version of them, rather than another version of the same producer. But Nik just wanted my take on this song, and not having ever produced somebody before I didn’t know how else to go about it, but they loved it and it is a single. I used to love his early stuff; he’s a very short guy isn’t he? He’s quite small yes. And you’re very tall. I’d love to see a photo of you two standing next to eachother. We’re quite hilarious. He was saying the other day to somebody else how Nik and I were walking down the street and this guy was walking down the other side and just burst into laughter. We really do look quite hilarious (laughs). The album’s coming out on the 18th July. So are you happy for Hide and Seek to continue promoting the album, or are are you going to release another single from the album? Well, I’m really happy that it’s done this well – to be honest, I didn’t expect it. We’re not releasing it as a purchasable hard copy single. It was just really a soft introduction to the album basically, and haven’t gone for the three single, big hit, and then drop the album, it’s just I want the album to be out there. It’s been around for a while, I mean I finished it in December and I just wanna get it out there. I really believe in the album as a piece of art, although I think Headlock is going to be the next single, which we’re probably talking about releasing in September. It’s just great that Hide and Seek has had this reaction, because even though Radio 1 are never going to A-list it, Jo Whiley played it the other day and it’s just good to be on their radar even with something as unconventional as Hide and Seek. |
| “I would love to do something with Squarepusher – I love him!” |
So they’re very useful these people? They are, they’ve kind of become my A&R men. Everything that’s actually on my website is taken from my flat. The carpet is the shagpile carpet in my living room, that blue thing that comes up - like an urchin - is actually my lampshade, the EMX – the box, that’s my favourite box. The suitcase; that IS my suitcase, and the fairy lights surround my kick drum that lights up. Do you have any gigs planned to promote the release. Err, I don’t… no (laughs). I’m definitely planning to do that; in fact, I’m making this crazy piano. This is a ridiculous thing, it’s a dream of mine to have this cyborg piano, which looks like a piano but it’s not. I love playing the piano live, a real piano, I hate playing a keyboard on a stand in front of 1000 people. I hate that, it’s so embarrassing, I just look like a stick insect stuck behind this piece of plastic. But at the same time I need a keyboard, because I need to trigger off all my stuff. So, in the beginning, if I have to tour the States or whatever, I won’t be able to afford a band so I was thinking how can I do it all by myself, and have a piano, and have all the laptops. So I’ve got this company who do the sets for Star Wars and Troy, and they’re making this white piano that looks like wood, but it’s not. And where the music stand would be is a flat screen, and there is a weighted keyboard that you can also MIDI up and is triggerable, and a Starship Enterprise main seat with all the gadgets and everything built into it. Then on the side of the piano, where there’s a curve, it’s going to be made of a frosted, see-through, plastic coating, and each note on the keyboard is gonna have a corresponding light, so when I play the piano you’ll see the lights move exactly as when I play the notes. And then, inside, when the piano opens up there’s gonna be little lights projected onto it, and a big white light that floods out from underneath the piano… it’s gonna look wicked. And do you enjoy touring and gigging? I love playing live, but only if I’m really well rehearsed. I don’t like turning up when I’m not really ready for it and haven’t been on stage for a while. I really like it when I get in the swing of things, because it’s totally the opposite of being in the studio alone for the whole year. Are you the nervous type? No, I’m only nervous if I don’t feel like I’m really well rehearsed. Because I know that things will go wrong if I’m not rehearsed. One of my piano teachers once said to me, it’s not nervousness that your feeling, it’s just excitement. I remember watching you once, in a place called the Garage (Islington - London)? Yes, upstairs – the little one. I think I’ve only ever played there once, and I had my keyboard and I played a couple of new songs that I’d never played before – it was just me wasn’t it? Yeah, that’s right. I remember there was a bar at the back and all these philistines wouldn’t stop talking. (Laughs) It’s not the audiences fault - well obviously it is because they’re talking, but when there’s a bar within the same vicinity I try to avoid doing those sort of gigs. So are we likely to hear any more of Frou Frou in the future? Yeah, it’s likely that we will do something in the future, I don’t know exactly when. We’re totally like mates, and we went out the other night and we still see eachother every now and then. I mean he (Guy Sigsworth) is like super busy, but we really, really like working with eachother, although I think it’s good that we went our separate ways when we did because it was such an intense period working together as we’re really both really creative and very controlling. And that’s great as well, but sometimes it’s not. Are there any other artists that you’d especially like to work with? Oh, there’s loads of people I’d like to work with, but I don’t know if they’d ever work with me. I would love to do something with Squarepusher – I love him! I saw Jamie Liddel play the other day and he was so amazing, and everything he played was purely from his mouth – so he was doing beatboxing, but putting it through his synths and coming out with some really banging beats. I’d love him to do a remix like that, on my record. Squarepusher’s an interesting one? My favourite one’s My Red Hot Car. That is complete and utter genius. He also did another single after that, Do You Know Squarepusher? Oh yeah! Is that the one that kind of starts with…”who’s ya fucking daddy”, is it that one? I LOVE THAT! Because obviously he spends hours and hours and hours...I doubt he gets any sleep cos how anal is that programming? But I love, it, it’s just so intense that one man can just spend all his time doing that (laughs). And the programming, it’s like nobody else knows how to do it. No, he’s a genius, an absolute master. He’s just so amazingly individual, and so creative, and pushing the boundaries more than anyone programming wise… and I love him to death. Ok, one more question. On your website you ran a competition to have dinner with one of your fans, when’s that happening? (Laughs) Yeah, 27th she’s coming over. I can’t believe what I was actually gonna do. My first idea for the competition was to do something that was so good that even somebody who didn’t really care for my music would want to send off the email. That was the idea, that everyone sends off as many emails as possible so that everyone hears about me. So, I spent quite a lot of money on the actual email. Did you see the email? Yeah, it was like a Flash-based thing. (Laughs) So I was thinking, what is a really amazing prize to win, and I’m so glad that my manager talked me out of this - probably the only thing he’s actually talked me out of doing, but I’m glad he did. My original idea was a prize that everyone in the world would want to win this prize, so therefore everyone in the world would send the email to all his or her mates. So my first plan was whoever wins in the States wins one of the prizes, whoever wins in Japan wins one of the prizes, blah, blah, blah so you’d end up with 12 people, and the prize would be to fly them all out to this amazing destination wherever they were in the world, and have like a week on this island in the middle of nowhere. But that would cost £100,000? (Laughs) At least!!! And I can’t belive that I was actually thinking of doing that – oh, my God. Even though people think this competition is crazy, they should have heard the first one. So someone said to me, I think that’s a bit extreme, maybe you should do something a little more personal. And I said, "what invite them round for a meal?" And I thought, "yeah, ok!". |
I
suppose it’s not necessary to always be told, as long as you can apply
the song to yourself in some sort of way?
Yeah,
I think that’s exactly right. I would much rather listen to a lyric
that enables me to find something within myself that I want to feel
or be reminded about. But if somebody’s telling me, detail by detail,
that I get up at 7 in the morning, I eat two eggs for breakfast, I
go and meet Sandra down the road…I don’t wanna hear that, I want to
be able to feel like I can experience the song as my own. Maybe I’ve
said too much (laughs).
There’s
another track I really like called Daylight Robbery, which
is quite different to everything else, quite rocky. I thought that
might make a good single as well. Yeah,
I agree with you. That was a really tricky one to do, and my fans
came to the rescue for that one when I was trying to figure out this
new program called Nuenedo, which I hadn’t used before. Arbiter had
let me borrow it for two weeks to get my head round it and see if
I wanted to buy it. And every week or so I get all these requests
saying we want something for an advert, and most of the time I’m like
“no, too busy”, but I thought it would be quite fun to take up one
of these requests and just do something on Nuendo. So the advert,
which was for Boomerang Insurance, never heard of them - American,
probably never got seen - basically has this guy running around a
beach throwing a boomerang around. And they wanted something uptempo
and rocky, and I played something into Nuendo and I pretty much did
the whole backing track really quickly, and got my boyfriend to play
drums on it, and I loved it and everybody really loved it. Then there
was like loads of pressure because everybody really liked it and wanted
to hear the song, but then I could not write the song – I could not
write the lyrics no matter how hard I tried. I did it about 8 times
but absolutely nothing worked at all and I was really frustrated.
I just couldn’t come up with what was I trying to say; one idea was
about actually falling in love with a robber who robbed a bank (Laughs).
And I’d come back to it every couple of months but fail, so I wrote
a web Blog and said, look guys I’m really having trouble with this,
so I gave them my three favourite ideas and out of the three they
chose the subject matter for the final one – 'bike rides through London',
so that’s what it’s about.Imogen
Heap interview, Barcode 2005 ©
No part of this interview may be reproduced under
any circumstances without the written or verbal permission of the editor.