🔗 Share this article

Platforms like TikTok has repopularised your song Headlock, but how did it feel in the early 2000s when you had to develop, publicize and distribute the Speak For Yourself album mostly by yourself?

Back then if you were blessed you got into popular press outlets. The primary exposure I got was in the specialist audio publications, but then Hide and Seek was in a popular TV show, Headlock got on the airwaves and I started getting notice. I wish platforms like TikTok existed and all this complimentary marketing 20 years ago … but if I’d received then the kind of focus I get now, I might have made different life choices, so I don’t regret a thing.

Is it true you refinanced your flat to finance Speak For Yourself?

I spent four years making an album in [the electronic duo] Frou Frou on Island Records, but it failed to earn back so I got no royalties. Creating more music with that label would have felt like returning to a place that damaged your treasured item. When I terminated that agreement, no bank would provide financing. Then I realised that my apartment in that area I’d bought for that price was worth significantly more a year later. I remortgaged it to make the album and moved forward confidently. Interestingly, after all the social media buzz recently I’ve just received my first royalties from Frou Frou after a quarter-century.

In the past, you recorded and toured with a legendary guitarist. How did the team-up occur?

We were introduced when I was 19 at a creative retreat in Miles Copeland’s castle in the the countryside. I was the junior participant and introverted so I got quite intoxicated. I was sitting outside attempting music to myself and Jeff said: “I can demonstrate techniques.” I said: “That’s impressive!” Afterwards I ended up drunkenly driving a golf caddy around the estate and hitting Miles’s mum’s valued ceramics. Seven days after I got a message from my manager asking: “You encountered Jeff Beck?” He told me he was this renowned artist – It surprised me – who wanted me to sing on his record. I sang his gorgeous Nadia as best I could and did performances with him. He was a gentle soul and I respected him deeply. Numerous artists from that generation are just so appreciative to have been able to do what they loved all those years, and their egos are very small in comparison to the amount of success they achieved.

‘I wish social media existed and all this no-cost advertising in that era’ … Imogen Heap, the city, the mid-2000s.

The Listening Chair is a innovative composition, intended to grow periodically every seven years. How hard was it to condense years of life into a brief segment?

It was challenging to accomplish, but I sat in a specially designed chair and asked audiences: “What music deserves creation?” There were hundreds and hundreds different answers, but all connected to life stages. For anyone aged 0-7 it was simple responses like “toy” or “piano”, from youth it was fun, teen years was about self-discovery and 28-35 “career dissatisfaction and that maybe I personal reevaluation.” I didn’t complete that age range because my family loss in my 42nd year and I just couldn’t do it, but I’m about to release the concluding work, a lengthy track called that name, about present identity. The Listening Chair is all accurate. The line “Personal humiliation … I’ll never live it down” is about the time my schoolmate – took my silly undergarment out of my drawer and tossed it. Then everyone played with it. I was deeply embarrassed.

How did you get the inspiration for that joyful music? It reliably cheers my one-year-old whenever I put it on, so gratitude.

An infant nutrition firm Cow & Gate wanted to create a song that would make babies happier, so they put me in a research setting. I iterated various bits of music depending on their responses. My little girl started some of the musical phrases. We’d taken her to the a museum so that’s where “the fun sounds” comes from. The sound at the outset is her amused by an animal. Young listeners enjoy the music, but it relaxes caregivers, too.

Were you a troublemaker in class and if so what were you opposing?

It troubles me for some of the things I did. The breaking point came when I told the matron to F-off and they removed me, but they still needed me to be the star performer for the end-of-term concert, so I ended up staying with the principal and she was exceptionally nice. I just found boarding school tedious. I was recently diagnosed with neurodivergence, which might explain why I’ve always wanted to shake it up and do new things.

What different looks have you sported?

Probably more recently, actually, all kinds of unusual tones. When I was younger I had self-image concerns, so like I’d wear garments to make my legs not look so slender or wear dramatic attire with feathers. For the extended period I’d tease my hair into a voluminous style because I felt my head was too small. It’s only in the past six years I’ve realised I actually appreciate my appearance – I just needed to change the cut.

It’s been 11 years since your last major record. Will we ever get a new one?

Certainly, I did the themed project [The Music of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – in Four Contemporary Suites], and a couple of years ago I made the music to an Audible podcast called Climate of Change with my collaborator that individual, who gave me a bunch of sounds like environmental samples, which we turned into a extended work. I just got tired of traditional formats, but now I’m really interested in spontaneity and making up lyrics in the moment. I’ve spent extended periods caged up in the studio and I’ve missed a lot of life. There will be a album eventually which will be the last of that era but I’m more passionate about instantaneous composition.

‘I’ve spent thousands of hours caged up in the studio and I’ve foregone opportunities’ … Imogen appears in that city, March 2025.

In 2014, Taylor Swift invited fans to her property to hear her new album 1989 while she provided snacks. It seemed a very typical thing to do. Had you discussed fan interaction when you partnered musically, that title?

Not exactly. I think, like me, she just values audience feedback. I’m constantly dragging people to the studio going: “What do you think?” It’s touching to see if something you’ve just completed connects people. I’ve had many supporters round to gatherings and I’m sure her fans are as nice as mine.

Previously, a piece about your ambition to use artificial intelligence onstage. Fans expressed concerns. Is it still ongoing?

Definitely. When people think of technology they maybe think of this independent entity making all the music while I’m sitting there being a puppet. I see it as a collaboration. Say I’m in a outdoor space and there’s {dog sounds