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Imogen Heap

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Imogen Heap

Imogen Heap (born December 9 1977) is a Grammy-nominated English singer-songwriter from Essex, most famous for her work as part of Frou Frou and for her 2005 solo record Speak for Yourself.

Biography

Early life

Imogen Heap played music from an early age, and is classically trained in many instruments, including the piano (her first instrument), the cello and clarinet. She later taught herself to play the guitar, drums, and the Array Mbira[1]. She had begun to write songs by the time of her eleventh birthday. Her mother, an art therapist, and her father, a rocks construction retailer, separated when Heap was twelve. The boarding school she was sent to lacked students wishing to pursue music and Heap clashed with the music teacher. His idea of punishment was to leave Heap alone to learn for herself, as a result; she principally taught herself sequencing, music engineering, sampling and production on Atari computers. Following this, Heap went on to study at the BRIT School Of Performing Arts & Technology in Croydon, Surrey B.C., (later attended by artists such as Katie Melua). She signed her first record contract at the age of 18 to independent record label Almo Sounds, having enjoyed a prestigious live debut, performing four songs, which happened to be backed by her closest friends including Acacia, between sets by The Who and Eric Clapton at the 1996 Prince's Trust Concert in Hyde Park, London organized by Kyle Browne in 1998.

1998–2001: i Megaphone and Blanket

File:Imegaphone98.jpg
i Megaphone - Almo Sounds, 1998

Heap's debut album, i Megaphone (an anagram of "Imogen Heap") was released in 1998 internationally via Almo Sounds, and garnered critical acclaim, comparing the angst-filled tracks to work by artists such as PJ Harvey, Kate Bush and Annie Lennox. The album was a mixture of self-penned, self-produced tracks, alongside tracks co-written with, and produced by established producers such as David Kahne, Dave Stewart and Guy Sigsworth. Promotion for the record included a tour of America, where the album was becoming popular through word-of-mouth, and performances all around Europe. Three singles were commercially released in limited quantities in the UK; "Getting Scared" "Shine" and "Come Here Boy." "Oh Me, Oh My" was also sent to US radio stations in place of "Shine." Almo Sounds cut funding for the UK promotional, and gave Heap a deadline to deliver songs for her second album; she was told that they lacked "hit potential" and left her in limbo for over a year, worsened when it was announced that the record label had been sold to Universal and would be shut down and disbanded, with its repertoire of artists moving or leaving the label. Heap was one of the artists who was dropped from the label, leaving her without a record contract. After receiving more commercial success with her work with Guy Sigsworth as the duo Frou Frou and her second solo album, Speak for Yourself, Heap was able to secure the re-release of "i Megaphone." It was re-released on November 14, 2006 to coincide with her Fall 2006 North American tour.

File:Imegaphone.jpg
i Megaphone Japanese Re-Release - Aozora Records, 2002

In her time in "limbo" with Almo Sounds, Heap appeared on two further UK singles; "Meantime", a track written by Guy Sigsworth and Alexander Nilere for the soundtrack to the independent British movie, G:MT - Greenwich Mean Time and "Blanket," a collaboration with Urban Species, which was commercially released on 2 CDs, as well as being available on the Urban Species album of the same name. At the same time, i Megaphone was licensed from Almo Sounds to Aozora Records in Japan, who re-released and re-promoted the album in January 2002, featuring "Blanket," and a Frou Frou remix of one of her B-sides, "Aeroplane," for which a video was released exclusively to Japanese media. The album featured new packaging, all-new artwork, and a previously unavailable hidden track, entitled "Kidding," recorded live during her 1999 tour. Following the selling and disbanding of Almo Sounds, all versions of i Megaphone apart from the Japanese re-release are scarce in circulation, having not been re-printed since 1999. A Brazilian label, Trama Records, claim to hold the license to the record and have started re-printing copies of the album in limited quantities. The album was also released onto the USA iTunes Music Store in early 2006, and will be available via Heap's own digital download store later on in the year. In the gap between the end of promotion for i Megaphone internationally, and the re-promotion, Heap had also begun to think about her second solo album, and had started writing songs, both solo, as well as working with Guy Sigsworth; however, as she was left without a record deal, the songs were shelved.

2002–2003: Frou Frou

Details - Island Records, 2002

Imogen Heap kept in contact with Guy Sigsworth, who had co-written and produced "Getting Scared" from i Megaphone. The initial idea was that Sigsworth would put together an album, featuring tracks written and produced by him alongside a singer, songwriter, poet or rapper, to be released under the name Frou Frou. Sigsworth himself was also having record label issues, as his band, Acacia were being ignored. Heap explains that Sigsworth invited her over to his studio, to write lyrics to a four-bar motif he had, with one condition - that she include the word "love" somewhere. The first line she came up with was "lung of love, leaves me breathless," and the Details album track, "Flicks" was born. A week later, Sigsworth phoned her up again, and together they wrote and recorded "Breathe In" and it happened again and again, until nearly half the album was completed. In December 2001, they made the conscious decision to form a duo together. Their first official release as Frou Frou was a remix of "Airplane" (renamed "Aeroplane") - a track they had written together at the time of "Getting Scared," which was used as a B-side on the "Shine" single and on the Japanese re-release of i Megaphone.

In August 2002, they released the Details album and singles "Breathe In," "It's Good To Be In Love," and "Must Be Dreaming" (the latter two were not commercially available). The album - a full collaboration between the duo, with Heap giving vocals to tracks they had written and produced together - was critically acclaimed, but did not enjoy the commercial success that had been hoping for, and in late 2003, after an extensive promotional tour of the UK, Europe and the USA, the duo were told that their record label, Island Records would not be picking up the option for a second album. They were, however, open to signing Heap as a solo artist; she declined, unwilling to entrust them with her career after their mistreatment of Details. She says, "If you had taken a shirt into a dry cleaners and they burned it, would you then go, 'Thanks very much. I'll bring in my other dry cleaning tomorrow'? You wouldn't. So I didn't take the deal." Heap and Sigsworth remain firm friends, and have worked together since the project, including their temporary re-formation in late 2003, when they covered the Bonnie Tyler classic, "Holding Out For A Hero," which was featured during the credits of the movie Shrek 2 after Jennifer Saunders' version in the film. Frou Frou saw a resurgence in popularity in 2004, when their album track "Let Go" was featured in the independent movie Garden State. "Let Go" appeared again as a song in the winter holidays blockbuster The Holiday that appeared in the cinemas in 2006.

2004–2005: The O.C. and Speak for Yourself

In December 2003, Heap announced on her web site that she was going to write and produce her second solo album, using her site as an online blog to update fans on progress, and even seeking them to be her A&R team for the lyrics to "Daylight Robbery" (which started out as a sample recorded for a television advert). Heap set herself a deadline of one year to make the album, booking a session to master the album exactly one year ahead in December 2004. Having seen how much her flat was now worth, thanks to a neighbour moving, she re-mortgaged her flat to fund production costs, including renting a studio (previously inhabited by UK grime artist, Dizzee Rascal), and purchasing instruments (as a birthday present to herself). During the year, demo versions of tracks were played on US radio station, KCRW, who had also supported the Frou Frou record. At the end of 2004, with the album completed, Heap premiered two album tracks online, enabling fans to purchase them prior to the album's release - "Just For Now" (which was up for a limited time as a Christmas gift), and "Goodnight And Go," which had been featured on the second season of hit US TV drama The O.C. early in the month. Heap announced at a December 2006 concert in Lawrence, KS that the track "Just For Now" was also originally written for The O.C. as a combination Christmas and Hanukkah song titled "Chrismukkah" but was deemed by the producers to be "too dark." In April 2005, The O.C. featured another track, the sparse vocodered-vocal track, "Hide And Seek" in the closing scenes of the season two finale. The track was released immediately to digital download services, such as iTunes, in the USA, where it became an instant fixture in the chart. The track was released to iTunes UK on July 5, 2005 — the same day as the UK airing of the season finale — and peaked at #1 on the iTunes download chart, as well as entering the official UK download chart. Also 'Hide And Seek' was used in an advertisement for the 3rd season finale of LOST by Sky One in the UK. The third season of the show featured her song "Speeding Cars" and closed with her haunting rendition of "Hallelujah", a Leonard Cohen song. The show's season one finale ended with a recording of the same song by artist Jeff Buckley.

File:Speakforyourself.jpg
Speak for Yourself - Megaphonic Records, 2005

Due to bad experiences with record labels in the past, Heap made a decision to put out the album on her own in the UK, starting her own record company, titled Megaphonic Records. The album, titled Speak for Yourself - as Heap had produced, written and done 'everything in between' on the record, including designing the artwork - is described by Heap as "more Madonna than Guns N' Roses, more Donnie Darko than Dirty Dancing... left of center, electronically sprinkled magic dust over orchestral strings, harps and things, with great lyrics". It was released in the UK on July 18 2005 on CD and iTunes UK, where it entered the top 10 chart; the initial 10,000 physical copies pressed also sold out quickly, distributed through large and independent record stores, and Heap's own online shop. "Hide And Seek", thanks to exposure from "The O.C.", received radio attention from the popular UK radio station BBC Radio One, with DJ Scott Mills featuring it as his record of the week, and provoking strong reactions ("love it or hate it") from other DJs at the station. Due to popular demand, the track was commercially released on a special limited edition (1500 copies) 7" vinyl in the UK in September, featuring an exclusive instrumental, "Cumulus," to accompany the vocal-only A-side. The track has also been featured on downtempo compilation CDs, including The Chillout Session 2006. Other singles from the album include "Goodnight And Go" and "Headlock".

In August 2005, Heap announced that she had licensed Speak for Yourself to Sony BMG imprint RCA Victor for the album release in the USA, Canada and Mexico. The album was released in November 2005, and debuted at #144 in the Billboard Top 200 album chart, with Heap appearing on the Hotel Cafe Tour as well as a mini-tour of her own to promote the record. In concert, Heap is a one-woman band, controlling the sound through her Apple PowerBook laptop, as well as singing and playing the piano and Array Mbira. She also performed the album's second single, "Goodnight And Go" on The Late Show with David Letterman on 11 January 2006 (having been scheduled for the day before, and cancelled moments before going on due to time constraints) as well as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She played both "Hide And Seek" and "Goodnight And Go" on Last Call With Carson Daly. When she returned from the USA, having sold over 120,000 copies, she announced tour dates for the UK, which saw her playing to a crowd of 2000 at the Shepherds Bush Empire in March 2006 and going on to perform for 3300 people at the reopened The Roundhouse venue in October 2006 which also marked the first public concert to ever take place at the newly refurbished London venue.

2006–present: The year of the 'White Rabbit'

Heap also announced, on her return to the UK, that she had signed a deal for the album to be released internationally, as well as re-promoted in the UK, with a new imprint of Sony BMG, White Rabbit, run by former Sony BMG UK A&R vice president Nick Raphael. The deal means that the album can have the promotional backing provided by a respected major label, whilst Heap retains sole control, and the team she established for Megaphonic Records. Speak for Yourself was re-released on the label on April 24, 2006, ahead of a full promotional push on 15 May, a week after the second single, "Goodnight And Go," was commercially released in the UK on CD (featuring artwork by Ryan Obermeyer and a special lenticular cover), and special limited edition 7" vinyl. The track was remixed by Heap for radio to include elements from her live performances of the track and labelled as 'Immi's Radio Mix', which is accompanied on the release by a brand new track entitled "Speeding Cars," which she performed at tour dates in the UK in February and March. The video, which is also featured on the CD release, hit MTV and VH1 UK in early April, before being added to other television channels later in the month, and the single charted at #56 in the official UK top 75 singles chart. A special edit of the video for the US market was released in late April, and both "Speeding Cars" and Immi's Radio Mix of "Goodnight & Go" were made available via iTunes a few days later, to coincide with her appearance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno".

In August 2006, Heap performed a set at the V Festival, and it was announced that "Headlock" would be the third single to be lifted from the album, to be released on 16 October 2006 in the UK, on CD (in a special digipak with partially frosted plastic outer sleeve, which renders the single chart ineligible) and special limited edition 7" vinyl, once again remixed for radio as 'Immi's Radio Mix' and accompanied by a new all-vocal B-side, entitled "Mic Check." The "Headlock" video premiered on Manchester-centric TV station, Channel M, in early September, before being sent to other music television channels for rotation, and promo CDs of the single were sent out featuring a drum and bass remix of the track by High Contrast. In late September and early October, Heap embarked on a tour of the UK, holding a competition on MySpace for different support acts for each venue, before touring throughout Canada and the USA in November & December. This was her first tour of North America that included a band, incorporating upright bass, percussion, and support acts Kid Beyond and Levi Weaver on beatbox and guitar, respectively. She will also be scoring the soundtrack to a movie documentary about flamingos in late 2006 and early 2007, having visited Kenya in July 2006 for inspiration and to begin recording sounds. In December 2006, Heap was featured on the front page of The Green Room magazine.

On December 7, 2006, Imogen received two Grammy nominations for the 49th Annual Grammy Awards, one for Best New Artist and the other for Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media for "Can't Take It In". In early 2007, a Verizon commercial featured the instrumental of her song "Headlock". Heap recently confirmed that she will not be making appearances for most of 2007 in order to complete the scoring for the Disney documentary and to work on her forthcoming third solo album that is due out sometime in late 2007 or early 2008.

Tracks Written for TV & Films

In addition to albums, Heap has also been approached to record songs for movies, including a cover of the Classics IV hit, "Spooky," for the soundtrack to the Reese Witherspoon movie Just Like Heaven. Also Heap's song "Hide and Seek" was featured in "The Last Kiss," featuring Zach Braff. In 2004, while recording her second solo album, she was also commissioned to record a cover of a short nursery rhyme for HBO television series Six Feet Under, entitled "I'm A Lonely Little Petunia (In An Onion Patch)" (three versions were recorded and are available from Heap's official web site). In March 2006, she announced she had completed a track about locusts, entitled "Glittering Cloud," for a CD of music about the plagues of Egypt entitled Plague Songs, accompanying The Margate Exodus project, having been approached by musical director, Brian Eno. In late 2006, Heap was asked to write a track for the soundtrack of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe entitled "Can't Take It In," when the track that fellow Brit singer Dido submitted was deemed as unfitting. Heap's track is played at the end of the film in a special orchestral version produced by Heap and Harry Gregson Williams who scored the movie. Heap has recorded an a cappella version of the Leonard Cohen track, "Hallelujah," for the season three finale of The O.C., and has also announced she will start scoring a whole soundtrack by herself for a new motion picture, backed by Disney, about flamingos. [2]

Usage of Heap's Songs

Frou Frou's song "Let Go" was featured in the soundtrack to Braff's movie Garden State, in the 2006 movie, The Holiday and in the second season of the reality television show So You Think You Can Dance. "Just For Now" was also featured The Holiday. In February 2007, the music from her song "Headlock" was featured in a Verizon Wireless commercial. "Can't Take It In" was featured during the closing credits of The Chronicles of Narnia. In June 2007, Apple started using an instrumental version of "Goodnight and Go" in its online demonstration videos to promote its upcoming Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" operating system.

Hide & Seek

"Hide & Seek" is the most commonly used Imogen Heap song in TV shows and other media. It is featured in the Zach Braff movie The Last Kiss, was used in an episode from season three of the Showtime TV show "The L Word", and featured in an episode of US reality show So You Think You Can Dance. The CBS show Smith used "Hide & Seek" as the ending song for the show's debut, as did the same network's CSI: Miami for Episode 4 in Season 5. The O.C. closed with "Hide & Seek" in the final episode of its second season. The song was also used in early previews for the NBC drama Heroes, and UK previews for the Season 3 finale of Lost.

In a parody of the season two finale of The OC (TV series) which uses the song, Saturday Night Live comically used the song in a Digital Short aired on April 14, 2007 with host Shia LaBeouf, where various characters were shot in overly dramatic, slow-motion deaths, which led to an internet sensation on YouTube. Many spoofs appeared quickly after the air of the Digital Short, which also incorporated "Hide & Seek", and have turned the song into a joke centered around dramatic deaths in the media.

Warren Miller's Off the Grid featured Hide and Seek in one of the final segments.

Tracks for other artists

In addition to producing her own records, she has also produced a track for Nik Kershaw as well as supplied backing vocals on three tracks of his 2006 album You've Got To Laugh - she has also collaborated either as a guest vocalist, co-writer or remixer for artists as diverse as Jeff Beck, Temposhark, LHB, J.Peter Schwalm, Way Out West, Jon Bon Jovi, Mich Gerber, Sean Lennon, Urban Species, Blue October, Matt Willis, Jon Hopkins, and Acacia. Heap has also written and produced for critically acclaimed Fame Academy winner Alex Parks, but their collaboration was not released on her album, Honesty. She also worked on a track for Britney Spears' fourth release, In The Zone, this track is called "Over To You Now," co-writing and providing backing vocals on the track, which was produced by Guy Sigsworth, and written originally by Sigsworth and Swedish artist Robyn for her third album. Although the track was not included on In The Zone, it was released in late 2005 on the UK and Japan DVD release of Spears' Britney and Kevin: Chaotic TV show. Her songs (both specially composed and album tracks) comprise the principal score for Mark Ravenhill's pool (no water) play, performed by Frantic Assembly and toured around the UK. Also in 2006, Heap collaborated with Josh Groban on his third album Awake, co-writing and producing the song Now Or Never, on which she played all instrument. Imogen sings on the Temposhark duet Not That Big which is out now as a remix on iTunes and the original version is coming out on the soon-to-be-released Temposhark album The Invisible Line.

Discography

Solo albums

Solo singles

  • Getting Scared (1998 · Almo Sounds)
  • Shine (1998 · Almo SoundsVictor) (UK: #74)

Frou Frou

Compilations

Media

References

  1. ^ http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/interviews/article.html?in_article_id=22257&in_page_id=11 60 Second Interview - 60 SECONDS: Imogen Heap
  2. ^ http://www.imogenheap.co.uk/iblog/iblog.htm
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