Last week I did something I have never done before. I watched a live concert streaming on my iPhone. It’s not the type of thing I do everyday but jumped at the chance when I found out Imogen Heap would stream her final US show in New York with access on both the Billboard.com site as well as mobile via the iPhone. I have to say that even though it was viewed on a small screen, it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen. The Grammy nominated artist brings a unique experience to her shows. When you go to see Imogen Heap perform you know you’re getting your money’s worth. Her songs are layered from basic piano to electronic beats to sounds she’s recorded herself produced from items found around her house. Imogen is an innovator and pioneer of sound. She is currently touring through Europe promoting her latest highly anticipated album Ellipse but not to worry American fans, Imogen is slated to return to the states in April. Make sure to keep an eye out for tickets because they will go fast and you definitely do not want to miss this show!
Recently Imogen took some time from her hectic tour schedule for a quick chat with me about her ambitious project of creating her own home studio in the very house she grew up in, the life her music takes on after it leaves her hands and forgetting to give her house a sound credit on the album. No worries though, I don’t think the house is going to sue but you never know!
EM: I wanted to start off by asking about the new studio, which has been well documented via your video blog on YouTube. It’s in a room of your childhood home, why build your own recording studio? Why take on such an extensive project?
Imogen Heap: Actually in the end it’s a lot cheaper to build your own studio but that’s not the reason why I built it. The reason is to have the comfort and time to just come down when you need to as inspiration hits at five in the morning. You don’t have to ring up a studio engineer and ring up security people to try and get the studio that you’re going to opened.
The way I work is very unconventional…well conventional for musicians but you just never know when inspiration hits then you want it there ready for you. If I go into a studio I don’t feel like it works. I’ve tried to work so 9-6 kind of make yourself be productive in that time but it just doesn’t work out. I prefer to work much later on in the day when you know either interviews or other stuff that I do is out of the way and my management stops calling me and I can find some time to myself in the evening. In the middle of the night is the best time for me to work. But it is cheaper in the long run. It’s expensive in the front end but I had a lot of stuff of my own already and it doesn’t make sense to travel somewhere else when you can just have it in your own space.
EM: How did the making of the album DVD affect the process of actually creating the album? Did it have any affect on it?
IH: Yes it did actually. I originally started making the DVD, a fan had suggested that when I go away on my writing trip that I take a camera with me and talk about the process of making a song. I’d never done it right from the beginning before. During the process of “Speak for Yourself” I started blogging, written blogging, about half way through and really found it really helpful to me to be able to put down my thoughts and kind of put the day into order in my head come in the next day having written an objective about what I was going to do the next day. The visual side of things it’s the same kind of thing where I had to say what I’d done that day. Over the course of a year it really, really helped me see the progression myself especially the video blog so I could look back and go wow, things really have moved on from three months ago even though it doesn’t feel like it when you’re in the midst of it, it feels like its taking forever and you’re not really getting anywhere. But when you see it every two weeks and you see the progression visually from the studio transformation and also musically and where the songs have ended up.
Yeah, the DVD side of things my friend Justine said, “That would be so great for your family if we could see the transformation of the house and for you in the future. Maybe we could do something as a continuation from your song writing.” So she carried on filming it. When I started to make the actual music side of things eight months later, she continued filming that. There were times when she was there, more towards the end, then I would get a bit frustrated because I was like I haven’t got time Justine’s getting in my way but it was actually really helpful. Because what happens when somebody is watching you? You get a lot more done. You don’t make quit as many cups of tea; you don’t take a little extra hour over lunch. So I really got stuff done when she was there. And you think not just how a sound would sound but when you are making a video blog of it or you’re filming it you want it to look interesting too. So I would start to think visually about what I should put on this song that would be interesting for people to watch. I’d get my bed sheet from up in my bedroom. I was making sounds and it reminded me of wine glasses so I went up stairs and went into the kitchen cabinet and brought a load of wine glasses down filled with water and played them and that ended up being on the actual record. And the whole house actually in really different ways ended up being on the record for that reason too.
EM: Well I hope you gave your house a credit on the record somewhere!
IH: Yeah I know that’s a good point. I didn’t do that, damn it!
EM: With gadgets and computers and digital sound in general at your fingertips, is just a basic piano still part of songwriting for you?
IH: Yeah, I went back to it with this album. I sort of ignored the piano for the last record. This album I intentionally decided to write the record back to basics with just piano and vocal. So A. I could go on a writing trip and not need my studio to make beats and stuff. I can just go away and have some time for myself, which I haven’t done since I was about fifteen I think [laughs]. I went away and it stumbled off into a little holiday and just had a really great time and having an objective look at what’s been going on since I signed my first record deal because it’s really been completely non stop since then and its been a bit of an awakening actually and a really great time. It’s the first time I’ve been away traveling on my own, tons of touring on my own and that type of thing. Not go to a destination and have no plans, just do my thing. I went wherever the pianos were. The first spot that I chose I just got back off touring in February of 2007 and I desperately just wanted to go somewhere else. But how do you choose where to go…the possibilities the whole world. So I go into Google Earth and I spun it around a few times and thought I’m going to find the place, which is the furthest point away from anything else and it turned out to be Hawaii. I chose Hawaii and I dropped into Google Earth Hawaii, grand piano, luxury accommodations and I found this amazing place on Maui, which is on the non-touristy side and I wrote a quarter of the album there in the first two weeks so it was a good spot, a very good spot. I wrote, “Wait it Out” and “Little Bird” there.
EM: I wanted to ask you about the song “Whatcha Say” with Jason Derulo. Was that collaboration or just a sample that he did?
IH: No, just a sample. I got an email one day saying what do you think of this, somebody’s using “Hide and Seek” in their song. I’d heard a remix but I hadn’t heard somebody do this before. I listened to it and I really loved hearing the song in a completely new light. When you write in a studio on your own kind of humbly working away you don’t know what kind of life it’s going to have. Once I’ve written a song and it’s recorded and it’s out in the public domain I don’t feel like it belongs to me anymore. I feel like it’s got a life of its own trajectory now, I wanna leave it and let it do its thing. I find it very difficult to kind of say oh no, no. I don’t know if I heard it on the radio I would go and buy it, but it’s not about that for me it’s about letting the song breathe. It’s amazing the number of people on this tour who have said you know I heard your track on the radio and I wanted to know who the voice was and I found you and here I am and I’m so grateful.
For more information about Imgoen Heap, visit:
http://www.youtube.com/imogenheap
http://www.myspace.com/imogenheap
Twitter: @ImogenHeap
Interview by Tiffany N. D’Emidio
Twitter: TiffanyDEmidio