Imogen Heap

Imogen Jennifer Jane Heap (born: ), better known online as Imogen Heap is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Her work has been considered pioneering in pop and electropop music. In early 2002, Heap and English record producer Guy Sigsworth formed the electronic duo Frou Frou and released their only album to date, Details.
==History==
===Early Life===
Imogen Jennifer Jane Heap was born on 9 December 1977 in Havering, Greater London. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/imogen-heap-scala-london-6109572.html Her name was inspired by that of British composer Imogen Holst, as her mother wanted Heap to become a cellist like Holst. https://metro.co.uk/2006/10/23/60-seconds-imogen-heap-301429/ She played music from an early age, first learning the piano due to "wanting attention" as a middle child and realizing, according to her, that "it was something [she] could make a lot of noise with". https://archive.org/details/FutureMusicAutumn2009/page/n27/ She did not enjoy playing the music of classical composers such as Bach and Beethoven, and would instead attempt to play in their style to convince her parents she was practicing their music. https://www.westword.com/music/imogen-heap-5091189As a child, she began recording music by recording herself playing piano on cassette, then recording herself again singing over it. https://www.papermag.com/imogen-heap-profile-2635198880.html?rebelltitem=49 She soon began taking lessons and became classically trained in several instruments including piano, cello and clarinet while attending Friends School, a private, Quaker-run boarding school in Saffron Walden. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/8061156/Imogen-Heap-fully-connected.htmlhttps://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/imogen-heap-the-pop-star-with-music-at-her-fingertips-9wx2kqvvsrc At around age 10, she began composing Christmas carols for her school's choir. https://www.westword.com/music/imogen-heap-5091189 
Due to being placed a year above children her age, Heap claims she did not get along with many people from the school and spent most of her time in the music room practicing piano. https://archive.org/details/FutureMusicAutumn2009/page/n27/ She stated, "In boarding school...I was mocked about the clothes I wore, the way I looked, whatever. People there really did regard me as some kind of freak from the middle of nowhere. And these things do matter a lot when you are sixteen, seventeen." https://www.hotpress.com/music/the-heap-treatment-520597 Heap's mother, an art therapist, and father, a construction rock retailer, separated when she was twelve years old. Also at age twelve, she taught herself how to use Cubase on an Atari computer at Friends School. By the age of thirteen, she had begun writing songs. https://music.apple.com/us/artist/imogen-heap/22873602 At age fifteen, she began using reel-to-reel recording to record her music, using a home computer to program the music. https://www.papermag.com/imogen-heap-profile-2635198880.html?rebelltitem=49
===1995-1996===
After boarding school, she went on to study at the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology in Croydon, South London, where she first began regularly singing and writing songs due to loneliness. It was there that she recorded her first song to feature her vocals, "Missing You", which was released on the BRIT School's Class of 1994 album and earned her attention from manager Mickey Modern after he saw her performance at a talent showcase. https://www.westword.com/music/imogen-heap-5091189 After being introduced to Nik Kershaw by Modern, Heap recorded demos which were taken to Rondor Music. A few months later, Heap signed her first record contract, aged 18, with independent record label Almo Sounds. https://www.onamrecords.com/labels/almo-sounds 
In 1996, Heap began working with British experimental pop band Acacia, which featured her future collaborator Guy Sigsworth. While never a full member of the band, Heap was a guest vocalist and contributed to various Acacia singles and album tracks. https://www.abc.net.au/rage/guest/imogen-heap/9649240 Heap's first major live solo performance was as part of the line-up for the 1996 Prince's Trust Concert in Hyde Park. https://www.dailyxtra.com/music-imogen-heap-21573
===1998-2001===
Almo Sounds was acquired by Universal, forcing its artists to either move to other labels or be released. Heap was one of the artists who was dropped from the label, leaving her without a record contract. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/8061156/Imogen-Heap-fully-connected.html
During her time as an unsigned artist, Heap appeared on two singles: "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 1998 collaboration with British hip hop band Urban Species. "Blanket" was Heap's first charting single, reaching number 56 on the UK Singles Chart. https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/7471/urban-species-ft-imogen-heap/
===Frou Frou (2002-2003)===
Heap had kept in contact with Guy Sigsworth, and this led to the pair of them establishing the collaborative project Frou Frou.
The initial concept for Frou Frou was Sigsworth's, and the project was to have been an album written and produced by her with each track featuring a different singer, songwriter, poet or rapper. 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.
In late 2003, after an extensive promotional tour of the UK, Europe and the US, the duo was told that their record label Island Records would not be picking up the option for a second album. 
Heap and Sigsworth remain firm friends and have worked together since the project, including their temporary re-formation in late 2003, when they covered the Bonnie Tyler classic "Holding Out for a Hero" which was featured during the credits of the movie Shrek 2 after Jennifer Saunders' version in the film. Frou Frou saw a resurgence in popularity in 2004, when their album track "Let Go" was featured in the film Garden State, the soundtrack of which won a Grammy award. 
In a 2005 interview, Heap said of Frou Frou, "[It] was really like a kind of little holiday from my own work. Guy and I, we have always worked together, and then over the years, it became clear that we wanted to do a whole album together. It was very organic and spontaneous – just one of those wonderful things that happens. But there was never a mention of a second record from either of us, and not uncomfortably. We're just both kind of free spirits. I love to work with a lot of different people, but I was also just gagging to see what I could do on my own. But I'm sure in the future, Guy and I will get back together to do another record, or to record a few songs together." https://web.archive.org/web/20090106192318/http://news.ucwe.com/content/view/1244/29/
===2004-2007===
In December 2003, Heap announced on her website that she was going to write and produce her second solo album, using her site as a blog to publicize progress.
Heap recorded a rendition of the song "I'm a Lonely Little Petunia (In an Onion Patch)" for the seventh episode of the fourth season of the HBO drama series Six Feet Under, which premiered in August 2004. https://tv.avclub.com/six-feet-under-the-dare-1798181576
In May 2005, Heap released the lead single from her forthcoming album, "Hide and Seek". The song earned immense popularity after being used to score the season two finale of the Fox television series The O.C. on the same day as its release. https://www.papermag.com/imogen-heap-profile-2635198880.html?rebelltitem=49 It peaked in the top-40 of the Billboard Digital Songs chart, eventually receiving a gold certification from the RIAA and going on to be sampled in the song "Whatcha Say" by American singer Jason Derulo, which topped the Billboard Hot 100. https://books.google.com/books?id=xw4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA21https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&se=Imogen+Heap#search_section
Heap released the album on her own label, Megaphonic Records. The album was titled Speak for Yourself. Speak for Yourself was released in the UK on 18 July 2005 on CD and iTunes UK, where it entered the top 10 chart. The initial 10,000 physical copies pressed sold out, distributed through large and independent record stores and Heap's own online shop. In August 2005, Heap announced that she had licensed Speak for Yourself to RCA Records for the album's release in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The album was released in November 2005 and debuted at number 144 in the Billboard Top 200 album chart. In concert, Heap performed solo, controlling the sound through her laptop, as well as singing and playing the piano and array mbira. Also that month, Heap appeared on the soundtrack for the 2005 romantic comedy film Just Like Heaven, performing a cover of the song "Spooky" by American band Classics IV. https://web.archive.org/web/20230506070456/https://www.ign.com/articles/2005/08/24/just-like-heaven-soundtrack-on-the-way 
In late September and early October, Heap embarked on a tour of the UK, holding a competition on Myspace for different support acts for each venue before touring throughout Canada and the US in November and December. This was her first tour of North America that included a band, incorporating upright bass, percussion, and support acts Kid Beyond and Levi Weaver on beatbox and guitar, respectively. In December 2006, Heap was featured on the front page of The Green Room magazine.
On 7 December 2006, Heap received two Grammy nominations for the 49th Annual Grammy Awards, one for Best New Artist and the other for Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media for "Can't Take It In".
===2008-2010===
In October 2008, Heap gave a musical performance in the anti-human trafficking documentary and rockumentary film Call + Response, directed by Justin Dillon. https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/movies/call-response-a-rough-but-impassioned-call-to-end-human-trafficking/ She was also featured on two songs on Jeff Beck's live album Live at Ronnie Scott's and appeared in the accompanying DVD in April 2009. https://www.popmatters.com/jeff-beck-performing-this-week-live-at-ronnie-scotts-2496034643.html 
Heap received two nominations for the 49th Annual Grammy Awards, where she won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for her engineering work on Ellipse, making her the first female artist to win the award. https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgehoward/2015/07/17/imogen-heaps-mycelia-an-artists-approach-for-a-fair-trade-music-business-inspired-by-blockchain/?sh=67a35eca4969 
In 2010, Imogen Heap partnered with Thomas Ermacora of Bubbletank https://web.archive.org/web/20130624233928/http://thebubbletank.org/ to organise a series of online charitable events called Live 4 X.
The initial event was inspired by the 2010 Pakistan floods. Triggered by monsoon rains, the floods left approximately one-fifth of the country of Pakistan under water, affecting over 14 million people and damaging or destroying over 900,000 homes. Teaming up with Richard Branson's Virgin Unite and Vokle.com, Heap and Ermacora created a webcast/online fundraiser to raise awareness and money for those affected by the floods. 
The premise of Live 4 X thus established, Heap has since continued to refine the model, organize, host and perform a number of charitable, live-streaming concert events. By integrating live entertainment with educated discussion and technology, Live 4 X became an effective charitable outreach tool.
===2011-2014===
Following the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011, Heap told Washington Times Communities journalist and recording artist Jennifer Grassman that she intended to continue organising Live 4 X events to benefit various charitable causes. https://web.archive.org/web/20150716004637/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcrvGdsGq08
The title of Sparks, Heap's fourth studio album, was announced in September 2013, and the album was released on 18 August 2014 through Megaphonic Records. https://www.nme.com/news/music/imogen-heap-1250334https://drownedinsound.com/releases/18370/reviews/4148120 It debuted at number 40 on the UK Albums Chart, at number 21 on the Billboard 200, and at number one on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart. https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/collabro-hit-number-1-with-debut-album-stars__7519 Its deluxe boxset was nominated for the AIM Independent Music Award for Special Catalogue Release of the Year and for the Grammy Award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package in 2015. https://www.clashmusic.com/news/aim-independent-music-awards-2015-nominations/
===2015-Present===
In October 2015, Heap released the single "Tiny Human" using her blockchain-based platform Mycelia. https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music-theatre/2020/09/imogen-heap-i-m-so-frustrated-music-industry Sales of "Tiny Human" via Ethereum smart contracts as of October 2017 were £30,000. https://medium.com/humanizing-the-singularity/smart-contracts-for-the-music-industry-3e641f87cc7 After being contacted by movement director Steven Hoggett, Heap reworked and composed music from her cataloger to be used as the music in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the eighth installment of the Harry Potter series in the form of a West End play that opened in the summer of 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/theater/harry-potter-and-the-cursed-child-preview.html 
Heap co-wrote and produced the Taylor Swift song "Clean", which appeared as the closer to Swift's fifth studio album 1989 and led to her being part of the production team that won Album of the Year at the 58th Grammy Awards. https://www.mic.com/articles/135847/taylor-swift-s-music-won-her-album-of-the-year-here-are-the-people-behind-1989 She returned to produce the re-recording of the song for 1989 (Taylor's Version), released in 2023. https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/taylor-swift-clean-1989-taylors-version-imogen-heap-1235457439/ Heap was one of the artists featured in an episode of the 2016 PBS documentaries Soundbreaking and she narrated and composed music for the 2016 documentary Crossing Bhutan, which premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/soundbreaking-stories-from-the-cutting-edge-of-recorded-music-to-debut-november-14-23-2016-on-pbs-300359250.htmlhttps://www.indiewire.com/2016/02/exclusive-trailer-for-crossing-bhutan-making-its-world-premiere-at-the-santa-barbara-international-film-festival-83954/ Also in 2016, she was commissioned by French advertising agency BETC and British company Cow & Gate, in collaboration with researchers from Goldsmiths, University of London, to help write a song which would be proven to "make babies happy", which was eventually titled "The Happy Song". https://www.fastcompany.com/3064691/the-happy-song-babies-and-imogen-heap-co-wrote-a-baby-food-brand-jingle
Heap wrote, produced and recorded the song "Magic Me" as the score for the 2017 animated short film Escape, which premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival in April of that year. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/tribeca-film-festival-short-escape-debuts-online-996580 Heap also recorded "The Quiet" as the end credits song for the 2017 Square Enix video game The Quiet Man. https://www.dualshockers.com/the-quiet-man-soundtrack-imogen-heap/ She announced in November 2017 that she would be reuniting Frou Frou with Guy Sigsworth and would be embarking on the Mycelia World Tour with him to promote the release of Mycelia's Creative Passport program. https://vmagazine.com/article/heroes-imogen-heap/ In March 2018, she was awarded the Inspiration Award at the 2018 Music Producers Guild Awards. https://www.soundonsound.com/news/imogen-heap-receive-mpg-inspiration-award 
She hosted the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony in January 2020. https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/awards/8548981/2020-grammys-premiere-ceremony-imogen-heap-details In April 2020, she appeared as a main artist on the commercial re-release of the 2009 song "I'm God" by Italian-American record producer Clams Casino, which samples Heap's song "Just for Now", and released the single "Phase and Flow" as part of a collaboration with IBM. https://www.complex.com/music/2020/05/clams-casino-im-god-interview During the COVID-19 pandemic, she launched a self-titled app for fans to view unreleased material and demos and participate in listening parties with her through Discord for a monthly fee, and began work on a project called "Augmented Imogen", meant to be an AI version of herself. https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music-theatre/2020/09/imogen-heap-i-m-so-frustrated-music-industry In late March 2022, Imogen Heap partnered with Symphonic Distribution to re-release previous material, including a handful of Frou Frou demos, which will compile into the Off Cuts release. The first single "A New Kind of Love (Demo)" is slated to release 8 April. https://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/216979/symphonic-distribution-partners-with-artist-imogen
==Personal Life==
Heap began dating film director Michael Lebor in 2012. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/imogen-heap-the-pop-star-with-music-at-her-fingertips-9wx2kqvvsrc In June 2014, Heap announced in her video blog that she was pregnant with her first child with Lebor. She gave birth to their daughter later that year. 
==Legacy==
Heap has been regarded as influential in pop music, specifically in electropop and for using technology in her music. NPR's Lindsay Kimbell also referred to Heap as a "pioneer of electronic pop" in 2018. https://www.npr.org/2018/07/30/627396076/turning-the-tables-the-200-greatest-songs-by-21st-century-women-part-3 Billboard called Heap an "electro-pop innovator". https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/pride/9402786/chaz-cardigan-imogen-heap-career-advice/ In 2018, Stereogum's Margaret Farrell referred to Heap as "pop's unsung pioneer" and "an electronic pop mastermind", going on to describe her as "a mystical force that has loomed over pop music for nearly two decades". https://www.stereogum.com/2022304/imogen-heap-best-songs-playlist-frou-frou/lists/ In 2019, The New York Times similarly called Heap a "pop pioneer" whose work "has established her as an innovator in musical technology". https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/arts/music/nyc-this-weekend-pop-rock-jazz.html For Paper, Matt Moen called Heap "the Nikola Tesla of pop music" in that "[her] influence in the field of pop has largely gone unappreciated in her own time". https://www.papermag.com/imogen-heap-profile-2635198880.html?rebelltitem=49 Various outlets, including NPR and New Statesman, have called Heap a "tech pioneer". https://www.npr.org/2014/08/10/338018328/first-listen-imogen-heap-sparks Patrick Ryan of USA Today wrote that Heap "pioneered" the subgenre of folktronica, which combines elements of folk music and electronica. https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2019/01/18/viral-star-maggie-rogers-new-album-pharrell-snl/2595700002/
==Discography==
===Albums===
*iMegaphone (1998)
*Speak for Yourself (2005)
*Ellipse (2009)
*Sparks (2014)
===Compilation Albums===
*Icon (with Frou Frou) (2011)
===Soundtrack Albums===
*The Music of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - In Four Contemporary Suites (2018)
*Chordata Bytes I (with Dan O'Neill) (2022)
*Chordata Bytes II (with Dan O'Neill) (2022)
===Extended Plays===
*Live Session EP (iTunes Exclusive) (2006)
*iTunes Festival: London '07 (2009)
*Live Charity Improvisations: North American Tour 2010 (2010)
===Singles===
*Tiny Human (2015)
*The Happy Song (2016)
*Magic Me (2017)
*Half Time (Live at R1 Reaktorhallen) (2018)
*The Quiet (2019)
*Phase and Flow (2020)
*Last Night of an Empire (2020)
==Tours==
*Ellipse Tour (2009-2010)
*Mycelia Tour (2019-2020)
==References==
Category:Music YouTubers
Category:British YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2005