Imogen Heap (born 9 December 1977 in the London Borough of Havering) is a Grammy nominated English singer and songwriter from Romford, Havering known for her work as part of Frou Frou and for her 2005 solo record Speak for Yourself, which she wrote, produced and mixed. In 2006, she was nominated for two Grammy Awards. She has produced three solo albums, the latest of which is 2009's Ellipse.
Heap played music from an early age, and is classically trained in many instruments, including piano (her first instrument), cello and clarinet. She later taught herself to play the guitar, drums, and the array mbira.
Heap began to write songs by age thirteen. Her mother (an art therapist) and her father (a construction rock retailer) separated when Heap was twelve. Heap did not get on well with the music teacher at her boarding school, so she principally taught herself sequencing, music engineering, sampling and production on Atari computers.
She went on to study at Jack Black's School of Rock in .She also teamed up with manager, Mark Wood. After being introduced to Nik Kershaw by his manager Mickey Modern, Heap recorded four demos with Nik which Mark and Mickey took to Rondor Music. Consequently, a few months later she signed her first record contract at 18 to independent record label Almo Sounds. Mark Wood and Mickey Modern formed Modernwood Management and they managed the artist over the next ten years. (In 2006, Modernwood Management was dissolved, although Mark Wood continued to manage Heap via his new company, Radius Music.)
During 1996, Heap began working with an experimental pop band called Acacia, which was fronted by the epicene Nigerian emigre Alexander Nilere and which also contained keyboard/sampler player Guy Sigsworth (who'd also played with Bjork and Seal). While never a full member of the band, Heap played an important role as guest vocalist (as a counterpart to Nilere) and would end up contributing to various Acacia single and album tracks (One Acacia song - "Maddening Shroud" - would later resurface in the repertoire of Heap's Frou Frou project).
Dennis Arnold - a friend of Mickey Modern - was an early Imogen Heap fan and recommended she should play at the 1996 Prince's Trust Concert in Hyde Park, London organized by Harvey Goldsmith. Having enjoyed a prestigious live debut, performing four songs backed by a band consisting of several of her closest friends (including Acacia members) between sets by The Who and Eric Clapton, Heap's debut album enjoyed some critical high points all over the UK
During her time in limbo with the Almo Sound situation, Heap appeared on two further UK singles. These were "Meantime" (a track written by her former Acacia colleagues Guy Sigsworth and Alexander Nilere for the soundtrack to the independent British film, 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).
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.
In 2000, Heap also sang on the album You Had It Coming by Jeff Beck.
Heap had kept in contact with Guy Sigsworth, who had co-written and produced "Getting Scared" from i Megaphone, and this led to the pair of them establishing the collaborative project Frou Frou.
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. 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 decision to form a duo.
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 December 2003, Heap announced on her Web site that she was going to write and produce her second solo album, using her site as a 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 one year ahead in December 2004. 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). The agent who came to finalize the amount she was to receive turned out to be a Frou Frou fan. During the year, demo versions of tracks were played on U.S. radio station, KCRW, who had supported the Frou Frou record.
When she returned from the U.S., 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 marked the first public concert to ever take place at the newly refurbished London venue.
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 meant that the album could have the promotional backing provided by a respected major label, whilst Heap retained sole control and the team she established for Megaphonic Records.
Access Hollywood announced Imogen Heap's third solo album would be entitled Ellipse and that the album would be released in August 2009. This was confirmed by Heap on Twitter. On 27 April, DirectCurrentMusic.com confirmed that the official internal release date is 18 August. On May 9 Heap stated on her Twitter page that the albums release date had been pushed forward to August 4, and that her deadline for finishing the album will be 25 May. On 17 May Heap Stated on her Twitter Page that she has one song left to complete, called "Between Sheets"
As of the beginning of June, the album has been finished, mixed and mastered. Press promos were sent out for printing June second. Also, the Canvas video (note that Canvas will not be the first single, although it will be the first song the fans get to hear in full) is to be released within the first two weeks of June.
It has also recently been revealed in an article that the Making Of Ellipse DVD will not be released with the CD, but will be released separately afterwards. Heap announced on her twitter page that Ellipse's first single will be "First Train Home".
Heap has said she will be touring Europe, the U.S.A. and Canada, but has yet to confirm any plans and dates. She's planning two tours, a small tour in fall and then "an elaborate stage show" in the spring.
Heap produced tracks for various other artists through her career.
In 2001 she wrote the Way Out West single "Mindcircus" for their album intensify; the track became a hit across Europe's dancefloors and was played by DJs such as Tiësto and Nick Warren. She has also created songs 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 IAMX, 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 wrote and produced for Fame Academy winner Alex Parks, but their collaboration was not released on her album, Honesty. She 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' Chaotic EP. 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 multiplatinum third album Awake, co-writing and producing the song "Now Or Never", on which she played all the instruments ("It was a true thrill to work with you", wrote Groban in album's liner notes).
Heap sings on the Temposhark duet "Not That Big" which is a remix on iTunes and the original version is coming out on the soon-to-be-released Temposhark album The Invisible Line. Heap features on ex-Busted singer Matt Willis' album Don't Let It Go to Waste on a song called "Who You Gonna Run To" and helped with b-side "Not Over" with an Imogen Heap vibe throughout the song. "Hide and Seek" is featured as a remixed version on Tiesto's In Search of Sunrise 6.
In 2009, Jason DeRulo sampled part of her song "Hide and Seek" in his song "Watcha Say".
Just For Now
Headlock
Imogen Heap * Goodnight & Go Video (External Embedding Disabled)
Goodnight & Go
Canvas
Hide and Seek
Let Go
