The Elliptical World of Imogen Heap

Oct 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Geary Yelton

THE STUDIO-SAVVY SINGER/MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST RECORDS HER NEW ALBUM IN HER CHILDHOOD HOME

Imogen Heap may not be a household name, but that could soon change with her latest release. Ellipse (RCA, 2009) is a stunning album produced in the recording studio she recently built in her home outside of London. Just 31 years old, she is an accomplished singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist who has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, one for Best New Artist in 2007 and another for Best Original Song Written for Film.

Two years ago, Heap bought and moved into the house she grew up in and announced that she would soon start recording her next album there. She began by refurbishing the home and converting what had been her childhood playroom into a recording space built to her specifications. She uploaded the first of 40 video clips to YouTube, detailing her struggles and accomplishments in roughly 10-minute installments. Devoted fans tuned in regularly to check on her progress. Heap expects these clips and some additional material to soon be released as a DVD detailing the making of Ellipse.

Her following on the Web is especially impressive, with nearly 1 million followers on Twitter and more than 350,000 MySpace friends on the day of the album's release. As the songwriting and recording of Ellipse progressed, Heap often turned to her fans for advice, soliciting their opinions about whether she should include a song on the album, for example, or which version of a recording they preferred. She streamed live piano performances on Ustream. tv and invited anyone following her Tweets to collaborate on her official biography (see Web Clip 1). She even asked fans to submit samples of their artwork and photography, and then chose the most impressive to contribute to the album art and packaging. All of this group participation gave her audience a sense of ownership and personal investment in Ellipse.

I interviewed Heap on the same day that she performed at TEDGlobal (July 21 to 24, 2009; Oxford, England), a gathering of movers and shakers in the worlds of technology, entertainment and design.

Did recording Ellipse take longer than you had expected?

Actually, no, it didn't. What took me longer was getting in the studio; actually doing the work was less time. Deciding to move into the old family house was quite a big financial decision, and then building the studio took eight months. The plan was to take one month, and I naïvely underestimated the time it would take to build the studio because I project-managed it myself and just had a few people working on it.

What can you tell me about your studio?

Well, you walk into the room and you'll notice that it's curved. I live in an elliptical-shaped house — hence, the title of the album. [The studio] was my old playroom. I didn't want you to feel like you're in a sterile environment, which I feel when I go to a lot of studios. [That] always baffles me because music is not about clean lines and flashy silver things. Music, when you get creating it, is kind of messy and a little bit higglety-pigglety.

There's a massive [Digidesign] ICON desk when you walk in that kind of dominates the room, which I don't tend to use very often, but I do like sitting at it because it makes me feel like a professional. On the left of the ICON desk is my Perspex piano, a clear plastic piano I built for my live shows. That's what [holds my computer display], my Nord and my little looping thing. On the right is the vocal booth, with multiple instruments.

Did you consider other mixing desks before you decided on the ICON?

I've used unautomated mixing desks, a Neve, like when I was 17; that's what I learned from. I've never actually considered having a desk again until I went into Jed Lieber's studio in the Sunset Marquis, and he sold me his ICON. I just fell in love because I thought it was so beautiful. It had all these beautiful sparkly lights, and it looks really nice, aesthetically. So I just thought, “If I'm going have a desk, it would be that because I want to keep it digital.” The whole record is all digital, even the mastering. I don't really want to affect the sound using a desk. I like knowing that what goes in, that's what it is and it stays there.

I [record] a lot of acoustic instruments and just process them as audio [data] in [Digidesign] Pro Tools, and manually toy with them like Play-Doh. I don't use much outboard gear at all. You go into some studios and you see racks and racks and racks of gear, but all I actually use is my Avalon 737 for any singular mic stuff, and then if I'm miking up anything else, I use my Focusrite Liquid Channel.

I don't like reverb very much; I much prefer delay. You put loads of reverb on everything and it just fills up the track. I can't get the detail that I like when I'm working with so many tracks. I just try to get the sound right before I put things like reverb on. As far as vocals go, I'll process it if I want really long, backward, messed-up vocals. Then I might use a bit of reverb, but I generally use Waves [SuperTap] 6-Tap delay. I'll make a copy of the lead vocals, and then go in and manually take out every single sibilant, even single t and s and d and anything that will sound like a delay when you hear it in the mix. It basically does what a reverb does, but it has more space and more structure to it.

What microphone did you use for vocals on Ellipse?

Always the same one: a Neumann TLM 103.

That's the same mic you've used for your previous albums.

Yeah, exactly. The last three records — the Frou Frou one, this one and Speak for Yourself — all the same mic. And then the same preamp/compressor, the Avalon 737.