Gagging for Imogen Heap

From sound decks to tweet decks, studios and status updates, Imogen Heap has had monumental success. Recently hailed as ‘The Download Queen’, her latest album ‘Ellipse’ has sent download into overload, making her one of the most successful independent artists in the UK. With ‘First Train Home’ set to storm the download charts once again, the queen herself discusses terrible parties, working with Mika and why Twitter is something to tweet about.

It is with trepidation that I answer the phone; what is there to ask a woman who consistently has thousands of fans monitoring her every moment online? My fears are unfounded, a simple ‘hello’, a brief moment of standard speakerphone misbehaviour and we are on the same page. This is perhaps what has made Imogen the idol for independent artists that she is. A history of youtube blogging and regular Twitter communication with her fans has radiated her charm to the world. Speaking to her over the phone, it becomes clear that the sweetness in her voice merely echoes her personality. ‘I owe a lot to the people following my blogs’, she says of her fans. ‘People have been following the production of the album through Twitter, and they’re absolutely gagging for it.  People following every process of making the record has made the album almost like a wound up spring, and people are ready to go and get it’.

It is such acknowledgement of the important influence of her fan base that sets Imogen aside. It becomes clear from listening to her talk so passionately about her fans that their input is almost as important as hers. ‘The thing about Twitter and Myspace is, it makes it apparent how different the market is from even four years ago. Music’s more accessible; people can really follow what you’re doing.’

Where so many artists seek comfort in the care of a producer, Heap has always taken an independent stance.  ‘I wrote my first album when I was 17’, she modestly declares, ‘and it’s just been a bit mad since then really. I’ve always done this on my own terms’. On her role as a producer and working with former Frou Frou partner Guy Sigsworth she says, ‘a producer has a specific role when they work with an artist. I didn’t want to work with Guy on my first album because I didn’t want him to smother me, but I ended up learning so much from him. I don’t see myself as producing; it’s just that it all comes together. At the same time as writing I’m starting to actually hear it, it’s not producing the record, it’s making a song’.

Independent she may be, but her collaborations are legendary. Having worked with artists as diverse as Bon Jovi, Jon Hopkins and Matt Willis, it would be difficult one might assume, to pick a favourite. ‘My favourite collaboration I would have to say would be working with Urban Species on a song called blanket. It just felt so comfortable; it’s something I really enjoyed working on. What amazed me about that was finding out that I could actually write without writing for myself, and that was a great realisation to have at 17. Very recently of course I’ve been working with Mika and I just adore him, he’s a lovely guy to be around, and he’s a great artist.’

 It would seem that her collaborations are as diverse as her projects; from theatre to film, television to instrumentals, her music has become a hybrid for performance and diversity. ‘I want to make music that’s not just background noise as you drive past cars. I want to make music that leaves space for other things to happen. Pop music just shouts at you, it’s in your face. I like giving it another context’.

If Imogen’s musical style is eclectic and theatrical, it would seem that her newly released album ‘Ellipse’ is to be no exception. On ‘First Train Home’, the first single to be released from the album, she comments, ‘it felt right to release it first; it just feels like a good introduction to the rest of the mix. I was in Brighton for the night, I had been stressed in the studio when my friend rings me up and says “I never see you anymore, please come to my party”. I’d been working all day, and decided to just go, but I just couldn’t have a good time. Everyone was in a good mood, I felt like I was just putting a downer on the party, but I was stuck there. I eventually went to check the train times, and the first train home was at something like ten to six, I just knew I had to get home. As soon as I got back, I started playing the piano and wrote the song. It’s a good introduction.’ Ironic that such sour celebration produced such a critically celebrated single.

As artists as successful as Imogen Heap in the world of independent music know, to have a hit is to eternally live up to it. ‘Hide and Seek’, has become the iconic song of her career. It has become the yard stick to which songs are measured against, and with ‘Hide and Seek Version Two’ and Jason DeRulo’s sample ‘Watcha Say’ to add extra publicity to the song, it was always going to be a challenge to create something with as much impact. ‘Hide and Seek had a complete life of its own’ says Heap, ‘I love hearing it in a different context, and I love the context it was in. The way people responded to that song was so unexpected. It had so many legs, it was unreal. Out of the new album, I think the song that people will respond to, and the song with the most play is Half Life’.

At the peak of career, with over 1,500,000 followers on Twitter and dedicated fans across the globe, Ellipse is set to be yet another jewel in the Download Queen’s crown; and long may she reign over us.