Rarely has a song come along that just knocks you off your feet as has "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap. This song first came to the public consciousness via the TV show, "The OC". Its captivating melody and entrancing vocal makes you stop in your tracks and you just have to listen. "Hide and Seek" is from the record Speak For Yourself which is being released in North America this month and without a doubt, it is my favourite record of this year. Every single cut is magical and should propel Ms. Heap into the big leagues, if there is any justice at all in the world.

The British-born Heap was part of the duo Frou Frou with noted producer Guy Sigsworth for a time but also maintained her solo career. Her music is a jungle of electronic sounds with vocals that swoop and croon like a dizzy bat. The vocals are augmented by an array of effects that guide the listener in different directions. Rhythmic and engaging, this record is a journey that you cannot exit until it reaches its conclusion. antiMusic very happily spoke with Imogen Heap to find out how she creates her sonic masterpieces.

antiMusic: How long did Speak for Yourself take to record?

Imogen: In a nutshell, I bought all the gear to soup up my studio and had it delivered in time for my 26th birthday. I then booked my mastering session for the day before my next birthday so I wouldn't go over a year! I spent my 27th birthday walking through the moors in Devon with a crazy dog who belonged to the B&B I was staying at for the night after the session. I hadn't felt so light in quite a long time!

antiMusic: Did you have fairly firm ideas of songs shape up prior to sequestering yourself in the studio or did they evolve as you went along?

Imogen: None whatsoever! Each day as it came. The more I did the clearer the picture got. I kept a graph which had keys down the X and tempos down the Y to make sure I didn't double up on anything or go over old ground. The funny thing is that I completely left out E! Hence there are no songs in E...If you get the UK packaged album you'll see a little bit of the graph on the back cover.

antiMusic: Which songs presented themselves first?

Imogen: "Clear the Area" was the first to arrive on the scene. Early snippets of much of the album like "Daylight Robbery" and "The Walk" were formed early on but only got finished months later. "I'm in love with you" was a song I'd written whilst being on tour with Rufus Wainwright when I was 19. It's one I've always liked and went down well. I got all my new gear and the last thing I wanted to do was to spend two weeks writing a song...BORING! so I set to producing and sprucing up and old one. That was fun to do.

antiMusic: Can you please describe how you write? What comes first, the words or music?

Imogen: I wish I had a formula that worked. I have loads of ideas all the time waiting in a folder here or a lyric book there or recorded on my mobile phone's memory. Too many to ever finish. An idea kind of finds it way out of the various places in the studio and then if I decide to get it into the computer I pretty much finish it eventually. I don't have many sketches of songs on the computer. Once I start work on something in the studio it's then the long and winding road to the end. A lot of the songs have no resemblance to where they started out. I just refuse to give up on an idea. Usually because I have spent so long obsessing on a tiny detail, sound or loop that I don't want to feel like I wasted that time by giving up on it. I'm quite stubborn like that!

antiMusic: All your songs are heavily doctored but they all sound like they would be perfectly terrific with just voice and acoustic guitar or piano. Are you ever temped to just leave some of your songs naked?

Imogen: I've been performing a few of them live as just piano and voice. People really do like to hear them like that and it's sooo much easier to play than sampling. Sequencing live! I did leave "Hide and Seek" unclothed though. I'd always wanted to do an a cappella. It is just my voice...kinda.

antiMusic: Were there any songs from this record that were a bit of a challenge to either finish or perhaps record if they began to sound different than how you originally heard them?

Imogen: Every song was a challenge. Some pulling teeth, some cocktail sticks from a sausage. I have always a "shape" or course for dynamics in the music but not necessarily the ins and outs. When an idea takes form and gets a hold of you that's the most exciting part. Then there's either the fun part of putting it into action or it putting you out of action...not sure which.

antiMusic: Is there any particular significance to the title, Speak for Yourself?

Imogen: I had a folder on my desktop in the studio where I'd store anything that was for my stuff. I was still doing a lot of collaborations just at the start of making the album and I kept that one for my new stuff for me. It just ended up on there also as my boyfriend while at work one day was fiddling with a photo a friend had taken of me in LA. That fiddle ended up being the cover of the album! Just to mock it up he put my name on it and asked me for a working album title. That was all I could think of at the time....and it stuck.

antiMusic: Is there a theme to the record or what lyrical ideas were you trying to get across?

Imogen: No...in short. I just write whatever felt right at the time. A lot of people have said to me that it feels like a London album. I'm happy about that. I LOVE London. I live and breathe it. I cycled in and around it to and from the studio so it must have rubbed off on me somehow onto the album. It's just my friends, lover and family. That's who I spend my time with. Though admittedly not enough of any social life going on while making the album. One friend I think has abandoned me now. I do become the worst friend when making a record!.. your family have no choice though...

antiMusic: Are you a Pro-Tools person that has a studio-in-the-box wherever you go? Or do you only work at home in your familiar setup?

Imogen: I have many programs for different uses. I take my little Mbox on the road with me. I use Garage band to throw an idea down coz I've always got my laptop with me. Pro-Tools HD at my studio. Pro-Tools LE at home. I have so many Macs stuffed here and there as the new fancy looking ones come out. I just have to have it. 

antiMusic: You seem to favour the vocorder. What other gadgets do you utilize?

Imogen: Speak and Spell/Math, EMX 1, my trusty Ensoniq TS12 keyboard I've had since forever it seems, my Avalon 737 preamp for vocals a POD XT. Ton of acoustic instruments. Some I have no idea if they even have names! A gazillion plug-ins and virtual instruments. I am gadget queen tho in everyday life too. I've got my Sony DVD cam, my ipod, my phone, sometimes 2! (one US on UK) laptop, cables. That's just in my handbag!

antiMusic: Obviously, "The O.C."& "Garden State" have opened up some doors for you. Is this an avenue that you would be anxious to further explore in the future, either TV or movies?

Imogen: I want to get as many songs from this album in as many film and TV spots as possible. It really works for me. The reaction I get every time one of my songs is in a spot clicks. "Hide and Seek" would never have got on the radio in a million years in some parts of the world had it not been for "The OC" but because they can see the reaction it kind of gives them "permission" to play it. I've only said no to one advert so far....but it was for a "that time of the month" product and erm....well...you know.

antiMusic: How did your songs end up in the show/movie? Did you approach their music people or did they come to you?

Imogen: Both. Sometimes, like in "Garden State", Zach personally requested the use of the song. In the OC they have many different songs they could use and then it's up to people like www.zyncmusic.com to fight my corner - if they believe it's the right song for the spot - and get it onto the show

antiMusic: Considering there seems to be the pro and con of your time with Frou Frou (lots of public/media attention but perhaps being overshadowed by Guy Sigsworth), how do you look back on the experience?

Imogen: Fondly but I never want to have to do another interview where I'm just perceived as "the singer". It's so irritating. Even in taxis...they ask you what you do...I say I'm a musician...they say..."oh yeah...sing do you". If I just sang I'd say I'm a singer. If I was a guy they would ask me what instrument do I play. It does bug me. Working with Guy was a whirlwind crash course in hard disk recording. I was wonderful to work with somebody on such a collaborative level in every way from music...but I'd never collaborated lyrically with anyone before and I think that's where I have excelled the most from that experience. It's having that other person in the room with you. Policing your every lyric. Making sure that it's as good as it possibly can be because what I'm singing is not only representing what I have to say but also Guy. 

antiMusic: What is your musical background, in terms of voice or basic instruments?

Imogen: As far as I remember I've never not played the piano. I don't remember the first time I played it. It's just always been me and it. To improvise for hours on end is my favourite waste of time. I learned the cello and clarinet...I figured out the more instruments I played, the more academic lessons I got called out of for my music lesson! Because I wanted to be a composer as a kid too, I chose to learn a woodwind, a stringed instrument and a brass one...but I was too impatient for the trumpet! But if you play the piano you can kinda play anything you like now! It's great.

antiMusic: Did you play in bands growing up or were you a studio/basement musician?

Imogen: I was in a couple of school bands. We never did gigs or anything though. Just for projects and end of year stuff mainly. I've always preferred the solo thing. It would be fun though to have a gang of you taking on the world together. Getting in trouble and throwing TVs out the window...do bands still do that anymore? 

antiMusic: How did you gain your expertise in production, both traditional equipment and also computer?

Imogen: Through schools with good music depts and building up my studio slowly. Piece by piece. Once you know the workings of one program they all kind of speak the same language. I've always produced my own music in the way that nobody imposed a sound on me. I felt I was in control always but until recently didn't have the money or time to attempt to do it alone. Re-mortgaging your home definitely helps that situation. I'm not ready to produce others. I think a producer (when working with "real" artists) should bring the best out in them and not impose their "sound" onto somebody else's music. You need to find their sound and right now I'm just rather good at making things sound like me. There are no female producers producing people other than themselves that I can think of so there's a big gap to be filled! 

antiMusic: I hear both Bjork and Kate Bush in your sound. Would you agree and did you listen to them earlier on? Who else influenced your sound?

Imogen: I don't think...though I love these ladies, they influenced me. I didn't grow up listening to them. I found them much later in life. Michael Jackson records probably had the most influence on me from an pop world. When I was 12 he was non stop on my tape player. I just thought he was, like so many others GOD! It's the production. So complex yet makes you want to dance around the garden with your big foam headphones in makeshift tight shiny black trousers made out of dustbin liner and safety pins! I loved raving as a kid too. The complexity of the beats in Hardcore and Jungle really struck a chord with me. A lot of the cheesy keyboard sounds didn't really get on with my ears but the beats...my family listened and played classical music. I love the orchestral sound palette. Harps, bells, horns. Piano. They will always be timeless.

antiMusic: How receptive were the audiences on your recent Hotel Café tour?

Imogen: It was a fabulous tour in ever way. The other acts and I were all chalk and cheese and a few biscuits on the side but it worked wonderfully. We all got up together at the end and the more shows we did the more mental we got. I was very sad to see it end. BOOO! All the guys though have booked a table at the Hotel Cafe show tomorrow night. They're probably gonna get really drunk and heckle me! I do hope not...I would do it again in a shot. Looks like they may be going to Europe and Asia too! I am sooo there. I think we may have to start doing gigs in Hawaii and maybe Easter Island? I know we'd go down well..

antiMusic: Can you describe your live show. Do you have a band or is it you and your electronic wizardry?

Imogen: Girl flying a space ship and sings. That's what it looks like anyway! Flashing lights from the gear, leads draping over everything, keyboards, laptop, harmonizer, sampler, mixing desk, foot pedals galore (coz I only have two hands) an Mbira! www.thearraymbira.com which is my pick of the week instrument for the past 12 weeks! Plus a string of fairy lights curled in and out of the equipment.

antiMusic: Last but not least --- the most important question: When is your Canadian tour?

Imogen: I'm planning on coming over the pond Feb next year and I won't forget Canada!

antiMusic and Morley Seaver thanks Imogen Heap for this interview.

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