Imogen Heap interview

From Acacia to Frou Frou, work with Bon Jovi and Jeff Beck, and of course her own solo career, it’s fair to say Imogen Heap is something of a veteran when it comes to this music business malarkey. A career littered with chart topping albums, Grammy nominations, and film and television scores, the release of her latest single, First Train Home, might be more of a milestone for her burgeoning directorial career (she directed the single’s accompanying video) than a musical one, but it begs a question of longevity in an increasingly commercially cut throat industry. “I’ve managed to keep going because I believe my songs stand the test of time.” The 31 year old singer from London, seems at war with herself, whilst with an exuberant confidence there seems an underlying tone of nervousness, a lady that continuously questions herself and always tries to reach targets that some would question were too high for her. That being said her latest single provides glimmers of encouragement, befitting modern day standards.

Heap has a dedicated fan base, one that had to wait for over two years for her latest album Elipse, “It was horrible, messages kept flooding in, when’s the album coming? How far have you got with it? All I could do was regularly give updates on my Twitter; people were growing impatient, then on day of release, the positive responses I received kept me up all night long, it truly was the highlight of my career.” Elipse is enchanting, fresh and vibrant and Imogen Heap has struck gold with her latest instalment. With the furore of illegal downloads around and having opinions spouted seemingly all the time by Lilly Allen, Imogen has a slightly different view “ I understand the concerns of some artists, but I think if my music wasn’t downloaded, I wouldn’t be here today, at the end of the day, word of mouth is the key to filling venues.” When mentioning gigs, the Grammy nominated singer/songwriter oozes excitement and whether it’s her first performance or her last, the same adrenalin and enjoyment remains.

In, 'First train home', Imogen appears to reach out for a much wider audience, whereas in previous album, ‘Speak for Yourself’, each and every song was directed at her safety net fan base.
“To be honest, I continuously question each and every song I release, for example, the song ‘Hide and Seek’ was a self indulgent attempt, one of which I really had to work hard at. For ‘The Walk’, which for me sums up my outlook and approach to releasing material, I had five different sections in the song, there was management and critics saying ‘cut this down’, and I milled over it for ages before thinking screw it, lets keep them all.”

Heap states that her song lyrics come from personal experience, but are encoded rather than being directly confessional.
“With my latest single, it goes way back to when things were all going wrong. Eight months ago we all sat down in a half-built studio, it was a really bad atmosphere; I needed to get out. I remember getting a call from my friends and we decided to go and party, more than a few drinks later, I was dancing, or should I say trying to boogie like my idol MJ. After the odd moonwalk or two I decided it was time to go home, then the whole depressing day started flooding back to me in my drunken state and I started to have a panic attack. I just wanted to get home, I rang up National Railway enquiries and pleaded with them to tell me the time of the first train home. As soon as the call finished I began writing and now here I am chatting about it”.



Words by: Sean Downs