Imogen Heap

Imogen Heap (b. December 9, 1977) is a British singer-songwriter from Essex. She grew up playing music from an early age, and had begun to write songs by the time of her eleventh birthday.

Heap enjoyed a prestigious live debut – performing four songs, backed by friends Acacia, between sets by The Who and Eric Clapton at the 1996 Prince’s Trust Concert in Hyde Park, London. Her debut album, I-Megaphone (an anagram of “Imogen Heap”) was released in 1998 on Almo Sounds, an independent record label, internationally and garnered critical acclaim. However, as production of the album neared completion, it was announced that the record label had been sold and would be shut down. I-Megaphone featured collaborations with Guy Sigsworth and Dave Stewart. In Japan, the regional distributor, Zora, re-released the album in 2002, featuring “Blanket,” her collaboration with Urban Species which was released as a single in the UK, and a Frou Frou remix of one of her B-sides, a video to which was released exclusively to Japanese media. Following the disbanding of her UK and USA record label, I-Megaphone is now scarce in circulation, having not been re-printed since 1999.

At the same time as the Japanese re-release, Heap was working on new tracks with producer Guy Sigsworth, who had collaborated on “Getting Scared” from I-Megaphone. Together, they formed an electro-pop group Frou Frou, releasing an album called “Details” and singles, “Breathe In,” “It’s Good To Be In Love” and “Must Be Dreaming.” The album was a full collaboration between the two artists. Frou Frou were approached to cover “Holding Out for a Hero”, originally performed by Bonnie Tyler, for the soundtrack to the highly successful movie Shrek 2. An album track, “Let Go”, was featured in the movie Garden State in 2004.

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, even seeking them to be her A&R; team for the lyrics to “Daylight Robbery.” Heap set herself a deadline of one year to make the album (she booked the album mastering for December 2004), and re-mortgaged her flat to fund production costs, including the use of studio time and instruments (which she purchased as a birthday present to herself). Having been burned by previous challenges with record labels (Heap had been spurned twice by record companies, when Almo Sounds was sold, and when Frou Frou’s label staff focused on promoting other acts), Heap decided to form her own record label on which to release the new record. At the end of 2004, Heap premiered two album tracks online, enabling fans to pay for a digital download, entitled “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. In April 2005, The O.C. season two finale featured another track, the sparse vocodered-vocal track, “Hide And Seek”. The track was released immediately to digital download services such as iTunes where it became an instant fixture in the chart. The track was released as a digital download on the 5th July 2005 in the UK and peaked at #8 on the iTunes download chart.

The album, entitled Speak For Yourself, was then released in the UK on July 18th 2005 on her own record label, entitled Megaphonic Records. The album was also released to iTunes UK, where it entered the top 10, selling strongly. “Hide And Seek” also 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 were printed) 7″ vinyl in the UK in September. It is also a track on The Chillout Session 2006. Speak For Yourself was licensed to Sony BMG imprint RCA Victor in August 2005, enabling the record to be released in the USA, Canada and Mexico. It was released in those territories in November, and Heap appeared on the Hotel Cafe Tour promoting the record. Imogen also performed “Goodnight And Go” on The Late Show with David Letterman on 11th January 2006. Heap is slated to continue touring in 2006 in the US and UK to support the record.

As well as TV soundtracks (Frou Frou and Heap’s solo records have featured in shows as varied as The O.C. to CSI among others), Heap has also contributed solo tracks to movie soundtracks. Her cover of the song “Spooky” (made famous by the band Classics IV, and previously covered by Dusty Springfield) for the soundtrack to the Reese Witherspoon movie Just Like Heaven. Heap also wrote a special track entitled “Can’t Take It In” for the soundtrack to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She also appeared on the second soundtrack for the HBO television series Six Feet Under, entitled Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends, with a 50-second track that closed a season four episode, 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 the episode, it was a nursery rhyme that the matriarch Ruth had sung to her children, who in turn sang it to her son Nate’s child, Maya.

In addition to producing her own records, she has also produced a track for Nik Kershaw, and has collaborated either as a guest vocalist, co-writer or remixer for artists as diverse as Jeff Beck, Temposhark, LHB, Way Out West, Jon Bon Jovi, Mich Gerber, Sean Lennon, Urban Species, Blue October, Jon Hopkins and Acacia. She also worked on a track for Britney Spears’s fourth album, In The Zone entitled “Over To You Now,” co-writing and providing backing vocals on the track, which was produced by Guy Sigsworth. Although the track was not included on the album, it came to light in late 2005 on the UK and Japan DVD release of Spears’ Britney & Kevin: Chaotic TV show.

Recently, on Valentine’s Day in 2006, Imogen Heap re-released her first album, I Megaphone, on Apple’s iTunes Music Store and Roxio’s Napster as a digital download.

The second commercial single from the album, ‘Goodnight and Go’ is set to be released on CD and Limited Edition Numbered 7″ vinyl in the UK via White Rabbit Recordings/Sony BMG on May 8th. The single will include newly recorded b-side ‘Speeding Cars’ and ‘Immi’s Radio Mix’ of ‘Goodnight and Go.’