Imogen Heap and Guy Sigsworth (Frou Frou) are about to dish up a tasty nutritious blend of sultry yet spunky trip-hop in the form of the forthcoming single ‘Breathe In’ and debut album ‘Details’. Backed in the UK by LHB and Jo Wiley – this is about as ‘cred’ and as delightful as it gets for pop. And so spot on.
Fresh from her emphatic guest slot on LHB’s equally emphatic pop spectacle, ‘Coming Up For Air’, comes Imogen Heap — the one half of Frou Frou who provides the words to those effortlessly floating space capsules they call songs. Like the name of the band itself, they are quite difficult to translate, but nevertheless, I’m going to try.
If Everything But The Girl couldn’t quite pull the wool over people’s eyes long enough for them to forget such remarkable early stumblers as ‘Love Is Strange’, then MCA primed double-act, Frou Frou, are armed and equipped to prove that Massive Attack inflections in pop don’t have to be such short-lived and awkward affairs. Fragility and tenderness have always been difficult beasts to conquer. Spin that soft gossamer thread too thin and it goes limp and oddly pathetic. Dido has proved that with her somewhat overly sentimental ‘breaks upon listening’ brand of adult-oriented lounge. But this is where Frou Frou differ: they’re soft, yes, but they’re very, very strong – the Andrex or Charmin Ultra-Soft of rock — like Alanis Morissette with more substantial doses of Prozac at their disposal. Think of Mint Royale or Minotaur Shock remixing a cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’ as sung by Astrud Gilberto or Björk. Feisty, cool, aloof but oh so tenderly beautiful and as sweetly addictive as a Quality-Street tin full of tequila. Not quite as bombastic as Moloko, and not quite as gravity defying as Air, but a pure pleasure seeker all the same. And what a voice. Destined to grace a thousand and one Ibiza clubmix tapes this summer, don’t doubt it. Not that Imogen thinks much of it:
“I never even thought my voice was all that great— I didn’t take it seriously or think I’d do anything with it,” admits Imogen, who’d first set her sights on a career as a contemporary classical composer. “I started out playing piano, then took other instruments so I’d have a broad range of knowledge, and studied composition and arranging. I was really into being like Stockhausen.”
It seems it was only upon Imogen leaving her sheltered life in Essex, England, for boarding school, that she discovered that her voice was a vehicle for full-on venting:
“I grew up in the country and all I did was play piano. I knew nothing about popular culture,” she says. “Suddenly there was sex, drugs and rock-n-roll, but I was kind of an outcast, and for the first time in my life I had a lot to say but no one to talk to I began singing my own songs.”
Ultimately, Imogen’s newfound pop side took precedence, and while demoing for a solo album, she happened to catch sight of Guy at a London club:
“He had his own band at the time, and what they were doing was so exciting, I thought, ‘Hmm, I’d like to get a bit of that into my music.’” The track they did together, “Getting Scared,” became the first single off Imogen’s 1998 debut I Megaphone. The two continued to be drawn to one another’s work, until “One day Guy rang me up out of the blue and said, ‘Let’s go into the studio,’” says Imogen. “We weren’t sure how far to take it, but more and more it made sense,” adds Guy. “Something really special was happening.”
Not that it was always so easy:
“Initially it was very difficult for me. You can get away with a lot more fat as a solo artist,” says Imogen of the collaborative process, which extended to production. “Guy pushed me so much, not just lyrically and vocally but about recording, so that I was able to really get around the studio and co-produce. We both had to agree on everything; we tore each other’s hair out at times.” Soon enough their goals became clear, the desire to achieve them priming the team for the challenge. They chose a timeless-meets-technology approach, recording real instruments, then manipulating and layering them on computer, to lend a humanity and organic warmth often lacking in electronic music. Lyrically, they elected to revolve around ‘love’ — which Imogen calls “the best subject in the world” — yet sought to explore its dimensions in a way that reaches out to each individual listener. “We want our songs to feel personal, like one-on-one communication,” says Guy.
Inspiration is said to have come from a mingling of personal experience and an open-heart surgery approach to more universal gravities. The spark that ignited ‘It’s Good to Be in Love,’ for instance, was said to be a chance encounter between Guy and an old friend. “She looked great,” he recalls, “so I was asking: ‘New diet? Exercise?’ She said, ‘No, no-I’m in love!’” On the other hand ‘Breathe In’ tackles a difficult aspect of love that seems more pertinent than others to our times: communication conflicts. “With so much at our disposal these days — fax, email, phone, mobiles — we always seem to choose the one that’s least likely to make actual contact!” Guy points out. “In other words, you often call someone hoping you’ll get their answerphone because it’s easier that way.”
In love yourself? You soon will be.
Feature by Alan Sargeant (originally published Crud Magazine, March 30, 2002)