Imogen Heap - Have You Got It In You? - Radio Paradise -Internet Radio

In December 2003, Heap announced on her web site that she was going to write and produce her second solo album, using her site as an online blog to update fans on progress, and even seeking them to be her A&R team for the lyrics to "Daylight Robbery" (which started out as a sample recorded for a television advert).

Heap set herself a deadline of one year to make the album, booking a session to master the album exactly one year ahead in December 2004. She re-mortgaged her flat to fund production costs, including renting a studio (previously inhabited by UK grime artist, Dizzee Rascal), and purchasing instruments (as a birthday present to herself). The agent who came to finalize the amount she was to receive turned out to be a Frou Frou fan. During the year, demo versions of tracks were played on U.S. radio station, KCRW, who had also supported the Frou Frou record.

At the end of 2004, with the album completed, Heap premiered two album tracks online, enabling fans to purchase them prior to the album's release – "Just for Now" (which was up for a limited time as a Christmas gift), and "Goodnight and Go", which had been featured on the second season of hit US TV drama The O.C. early in the month. Heap announced at a December 2006 concert in Lawrence, KS that the track "Just for Now" was also originally written for The O.C. as a combination Christmas and Hanukkah song titled "Chrismukkah" but was deemed by the producers to be "too dark."

In April 2005, The O.C. featured another track, the sparse vocodered-vocal track, "Hide and Seek" in the closing scenes of the season two finale. The track was released immediately to digital download services, such as iTunes, in the U.S., where it became a fixture in the chart. The track was released to iTunes UK on 5 July 2005 — the same day as the UK airing of the season finale — and peaked at #1 on the iTunes download chart, as well as entering the official UK download chart.

The third season of The O.C. featured Heap's song "Speeding Cars" and closed with her haunting rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". The show's season one finale ended with a recording of the same song by artist Jeff Buckley.

Due to bad experiences with record labels in the past, Heap made a decision to put out the album on her own in the UK, starting her own record company, titled Megaphonic Records. The album, titled Speak for Yourself – as Heap had produced, written and done 'everything in between' on the record, including designing the artwork – was described by Heap as "more Madonna than Guns N' Roses, more Donnie Darko than Dirty Dancing... left of center, electronically sprinkled magic dust over orchestral strings, harps and things, with great lyrics".

baltimorelovejoy
(Philadelphia, PA)

Posted: Jan 30, 2009 - 11:05

Once I found out this wasn't a man singing falsetto, I started really liking Heap.

ekalvi
(Waterloo, ON, Canada)

Posted: Sep 10, 2008 - 08:30

Vocoder anyone?

Hide and Seek is the only good Imogen Heap song, and that's because of the SNL short. Man, I love that skit.

tony99

Posted: Sep 10, 2008 - 08:28

Frou Frou RIP

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