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hello you lot.... I'm really nervous (though my mum always told me just before piano exams that this was just a form of excitement) of what you're all going to make of the song in it's entirety. I've never given so much of the making of a song away before and was cautious in the beginning for fear it would spoil the surprise but I just can't help myself. I want you all to hear what I'm up to.

Every now and then I pop my head in here and there to see what you guys are saying about the blogs and all. In a place where it's mostly just me and a screen staring at each other, your words egg me on in all the right ways. I feel the want for it but not angry impatience and drumming fingers, so a big thank you for baring with me! I know some of you are beside yourselves with excitement with "not now but soon".

I really hope it pays off with all this build up! This song is a small window into what the album's going to turn out like. I don't even know myself how it's going to end up. This song may not even end up on the album.

In a fortnight my studio will finally be fully wired up and ready to roll. I can't wait to get fully immersed into the depths of the next 10 or 11 songs and treat each one as much as a complete individual as I dare. The studio has taken so much longer,
soooooooooo much longer than I thought when I started out building it and now I'm really on a race to get the album completed and out to you by the end of the year. My friend's and family tell me I'll manage it as somehow I always do under pressure....this time I'm forcing myself to believe them as the task seems mountainous from where I stand at it's feet. Setting deadlines does have a habit of getting things finished.

More soon as always and a big thank you again to you all xxx love fluv, immi xxx

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hello xx no.9 here it is x doorbells and stuff, Ryan's phoenix and mum's special seasoning pot. They all have 'em. Cheers! Enjoy xxx

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Episode 8 of the vBlog has arrived, check out Immi's 'snake light' and hear about her run in with an angry bumble bee, as well all the latest news from the house of Heap!

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vBlog #5 is alive!

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Hello...
I thought you may find this amusing...

Humming (mp3)

QWERTY-ing(mp3)

Whistling (mp3)

These 3 snips are part of about 30 mins of me, 1am at Honolulu airport.
I found a quiet little space to stretch out (apart from a cleaning lady), check emails etc while I was waiting for my delayed by 2 hour flight to Fiji. I soon began to pass the time away by humming, whistling and typing to the music (the cleaning lady began cleaning further away from me now whilst throwing me funny looks) being played over the speakers, some of it I actually really liked...liking airport music? only in Hawaii.

Somehow I don't think any of these idea will make the album!

I've got so much more to tell you. This place I'm staying in now is just so breathtaking I can't even put it into words! Will update you on this place when i get to Tasmania as the internet connection is too slow here to upload some little clips i've filmed on my phone. YOu won't believe it! xxx i xxx

Love love to you all xxxx
immi

p.s. This is what I typed for one of the qwerty jams.
Really deep stuff man...
mm...

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This is my view! Taken 5 mins before I started this blog (which is probably going to be a couple of hours by the time I finish this blog!). I am having a whale (apparently you can hear them from my "home" sometimes) of a time. This is a very relaxed whale. One that's writing songs, cooking food (ah, the novelty of being in one place long enough to cook, buy groceries), learning Japanese (very very slowly in it's own time) lapping the little pool about 50 times each morning and braving the extreme undulating nature of this island's land mass on my rented bicycle. It's made up entirely of 2 volcanos. So quite hilly. Well, half up half down.

Yes my lovelies, I am in beautiful Maui where I shower with toads, play piano with a little mouse (I'm calling Percy) sniffing at the window and eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with the odd lizard. Here's one that seems to enjoy coin collecting. I didn't take this but was trying to find a lizard/gecko for my blog but these ones have decided though not shy they are in the camera dept.

















This one here's a Mourning Gecko, though I've seen them at all times of day. Sorry, it's still comic relief day in Hawai, I had to squeeze one bad joke in here somewhere!

While i'm here

Two fish in a tank...One fish says to the other
"So how do you drive this thing?"

I'm at the beginning of a 60 day trip to some places I have and some I haven't been to. My studio's in a right mess from a year of touring and taking it apart, London always seems to get me doing things other than those I should (i.e right now, writing the new album) so the week or two before I left I spun my world round a little bit with google earth and zoomed into the place which seemed furthest away from anywhere. It turned out to be Hawaii! Then I Googled, Hawaii, "grand piano" self catering, and eventually found this place I'm in now. My goodness is it cool, hot whatever. Did you know I grew up in round house? Well now you do. I really like being in round spaces and Octagonal spaces come a close 2nd. Well this one's 6 interconnecting octaganol rooms, on a cliff, over looking the sea, with a waterfall about 100 yards away in full view and most importantly a gorgeous grand piano. We are getting along famously. It's been sooooo long since I've been able to play and play and play for hours on end whenever I want!

Here's a couple of pics I took. I love that panoramic feature where you join up 3 images in the phone. A little tricky with perspective to get it right on curve...anyway...here y'are.



For the last album I wrote a blog pretty much everyday for about the last 6 months out of the year it took. Well, it was so useful for me to do it that I'm doing it again. It really kept me on my toes. Funny how you get more done when you're being kept an eye on! So expect regular blogs, through the ups and downs in the making of the new album. I hadn't written ANYTHING for it before 3 days ago. So you are right here at the start. I would have started blogging earlier but I just couldn't keep it in anymore. The 2 songs at the moment are called "Wait it out" (for the movie) and "Pit stop". Completely chalk and cheese and I'm sure you'd expect nothing less.

So I'm here for 2 weeks (5 days in now), then to Taveuni, an island of Fiji, then to Sydney for a night to see a couple of mates before heading down to Tasmania for a couple of weeks. Then.... to Japan. I LOVE that country and have been dying for an excuse to get back there. 5 days in crazy Tokyo then up to Hokkaido for the rest of the fortnight. I'm going to meet Coppe too so very excited about that! I love that girl's music. Then after this...to Hong Kong for a couple of nights, then to Koh Samui, Thailand for a couple of weeks. I'm going to catch up with Milosh and his girl, Yen. He's out there writing his much anticipated new album. Hopefully we'll do a I'll show you mine if you show me yours little play off session. :) I think our Zoe's going to try and get out there too. Then for the last 4 days, i'll be in Bangkok. Phew! I can't bleedin' wait!

I have never been away and done anything like this before. I'm still winding down. I know this coz I've written nearly two songs i love already (one for a movie...but I can't tell you about that yet...mmm....I'll ask him and see if I can...), getting up at the blur of dawn, learning Japanese, emailing like a dog...I haven't really been out the house yet! I kind of feel like I have to earn my keep as it were. Write a couple of good'n's then go and explore. I've got some new friends here. Liam, who's been taking me around a bit, teaching me the odd Hawaiian word and taking me to the grocery store, his boyfriend, Luis (who so far I've only met up a ladder) and Cindy who looks after the place I'm staying in and also takes me into town a bit. We're all going snorkeling at some point too. Gotta be done in Maui. Will fill you in of course.

Goodness me...there's so much that's gone by and I haven't blogged on. That's part of the reason for my non-blogging of late. I started..did about 2 hours and only got about 1 week in! It has been mental.

In very short...(will update as I remember)... in memorological order...

The grammys (I sat 2 seats back from Prince!) Poor James Blunt was behind me and didn't see much past the garden patch of my hair. It really did just seem like a natural extension from the feather mohawk... and of course, the dress. Fantastic Pinar who pulled it together with Jackie in 5 days! Pinar got in touch with me through myspace about 8 months ago. She'd made a dress for me before (that I've worn for pretty much every gig since coz I love it so much) and when i heard I was nominated (the day before my birthday) I asked her if she'd make it. So..a couple of month's worth of emailing back and forth on ideas and this is what we came up with! We went and bought flowers and grass for my hair, fitted the outfit, chose the fabrics, bought shoes, fixed the parasol, named the frog (gary)...not bad and then they made it! All in the nick of time. Believe it or not, it didn't even cross my mind until I stepped onto the red carpet that I may be wearing something a little too adventurous for some. On a catwalk it'd be quite at home! People loved or hated it. Much like "hide and seek". But I sure loved wearing that outfit. It was so much fun. It's going into the soon to be opened for it's 50th anniversary, the Grammy Museum! haha...forever! Except Gary-the-grammy-frog stays with me. I even got to wear some rather fancy jewellery worth....wait for it....one necklace and one watch came to $600,000 on the form I had to sign for insurance reasons! My GOD! I had no idea. I went to this thing the day before that everyone who's nominated gets to go to. You get to wear really fancy stuff, they get it on TV...now because I was gonna be on TV with "best new artist" (giggle) I was important enough to wear all these glittery diamonds. So thank you
Christopher Designs, I felt like a princess and maybe the prince was Gary! One mag who didn't like my outfit (there were quite a few...not that it bothers me in the slightest) said something about "let's hope for the frog's sake that it doesn't turn into a prince" I thought that was pretty funny :) I may never be a Bond girl but I've been a Pond Girl. Ah...anyway. I had a great time. needless to say the people that came up to me for a chat weren't the super slick, celery stick, can't think where's my lipsticks types but people I'd actually like to spend an evening with. I made some friends that night. So again Pinar. Thank youuuuuu!

Joshua Radin....who I toured with on the Hotel Cafe tour, asked me to remix a song from his latest album. It's called "Only You". Apparently it was played by Chris Dohridas on the wondefil KCRW the other day...More news on that when I get it.

The US tour. Wow...what a trip! My birthday that we celebrated here! Some friends popped over to see me, we drank, soaked (all 20 of us) in the hot tub, looked at the stars, ate lovely home cooked food. Marble, where we stayed in this lodge, was pretty much inbetween Salk Lake City and Denver. Another google earth find! Thankyou for all the birthday love everyone and also for those of you who wrote me messages in the birthday book that Sam and Lisa from Map the Music put together for me. Really lovely to have that xxx


Wow I think about 10 lakes worth of rain just fell from the sky!

Then in Jan, the European tour which was totally different from the States and UK shows. Much smaller clubs. nice to shake it up a bit. See the white's of your eyes and all that.. Zoe was on tour with me again. Always nice to hang with her. In fact we were 4 ladies 2 men on that one. We kept 'em in check! Hooked up with the Nemo boys in Berlin. We went on to a club afterwards and ended up getting so drunk we didn't say goodbye! Sorry guys. We all had a great night though. You have got to large it up in Berlin.

Then I spent a few days in Bern after the last gig at the end of the tour to see my friends, and my God Daughter Nalini. I went into her bedroom and there on her bed in pride of place was the stuffed elephant I bought her when she was a wee baby. Ahhh...I do love that town. If you are ever in Switzerland promise me you'll go. Go in the summer and float down the River Aare. The club is belons to my mate Gert. It is a very bijou little place. Underground. And the entrance was too small to fit my mammoth perspex piano case in...so...with a non-gig looming...Gert asked the shop people above him if he could take it round the back of his club via thier french windows one floor up! haha. I just found this on my phone. I wouldn't enter it into any film festivals or anything...click here to watch it!

New Years...I went to Tanzania to bring in the New Year with the Flamingo film guys. We were sung to by a local Masai tribe. Heaven is on earth. It was so beautiful. Of course the guys egged me on to sing something back. I said I would but only if we'd all sing something together in return first. Out of all the song's on the planet the one we sand was doing "London's burning" in cannon. Goodness. It was quite awful! I wonder what they thought of that! We ate goat and ungali (kind of like Polenta). A great New Year's Eve. This is from Camp Natron, where it all goes on.




It was SOO unseasonalby (which seems to be the norm) rainy while we there. I had immense fun in the land rover while the guys slid accross the mud fields. We spent about 5 minutes going sideways coming out of Camp Manyara. Also with Sophie navigating through a mammoth puddle or two. There were a lot of safari goers who weren't going anywhere fast in that mud but I was in good hands.
This is some of Sophie's expert land rover maneoverings, going through a typical puddle post downpour. You'd need more than wellies to defy this one: "Megapuddle"

This is my virgin hovercraft flight on lake Manyara! It just glides over and between land and water. Again, rubbish camerwork. I'll leave that to the experts (who is flying the machine). His name's Leander. There were of course many much more beautiful things I could have taken footage of but... i didn't. You'll have to wait for the film to come out :)

"Mzungus on Lake Manyara"

Phew. Well drat. I've just 2 mins past midnight. Took me a lot longer than I thought.
Love to you all. I'll be checking in soon with more stories.

I've left all kinds of things out like frog noises, hot tub in the garden, how lovely it is here at night with fire on and a cool breeze breathing through the house.

Love fluv!
immi xx

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Hey there. Lots ot write about but right now I'm am as stuffed as the turkey I just ate. Hope you're all having a great day. This is how i started my day, adorned in a rather attractive chocolate face mask while preparing the turkey.

It's been a great year and there's still 6 days to go! I've booked some flights to go to Tanzania on the 28th to welcome in the New Year with thousands of other big pink feathered birds (it's those flamingos again).

Love and kisses. Will write more soon xxxxx i xxxxx

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Hi there. So soon i hear you say!

I'm back on a another plane. Got a window seat and the view alone is worth the price of the ticket. Going this way across the earth is great if you like long sunsets. Which I do.


What a crazy last few days it's been. Got back from NY then spent the weekend doing various bits and bobs to prepare for going away for 7 weeks. That involved buying wallpaper on ebay (quite regency and perhaps a little over-the-top for my little flat) and taking pictures of clouds from my balcony for the mural I want painting on my living room ceiling while I'm away. I moved into the flat 5 years ago and apart from putting in a new kitchen and laying down some woodblock flooring throughout I haven't done a thing to it. Just no time really and now It's about time I did! So some lovely people are going to be beavering away at doing these bits for me while I'm away. That way when I get back (just in time for christmas) i'll have a fab new living room!

Then on Monday I was rehearsing with the Nemo, Jez (percussionist), Guy (of the frou variety) and Arve Henriksen. We only managed to get all the gear up and running from 6pm but that was all the time we needed. Nemo and I just whizzed through what we'd been doing for the past dates on tour to refresh, Jez was left to his own devices to add sparkly bits, vibes and his general percussivites (I know that's not a word but I like it), Arve turned up and just floored us all with his sheer trumpeting beauty. I just asked him to simply play whatever he felt like. My ears love that man. I always regretted directing him so much with what he did on the album. I went to see him live after our session together and wished I'd just let him go more. Guy came in around 8. it was so nice to see him again. I do kind of miss him now and then. We decided to do "Let Go" and "Breathe in". He on his harpsichord thing and also his clavichord (though it is sooooo quiet that we just couldn't get it amplified enough for him to play at the gig on Tuesday at the Roundhouse. It was invented as a practice instrument all those moons ago and not intended for electro/pop/rock/whatever concerts in huge round rooms. Jez, Arve, Guy and I just began to play Let go. Not having any idea how we were going to do it but after 6 minutes of improvising and song it just found it's natural being. Such a wonderful moment for me. Then pack down and get ready for the gig the next day.

I was running, well actually cycling about that day between studio and home and gig. I had to finish some music up for the Pool (No water) London press night that was the day after. Got it done then rushed home to get my stuff together and up to the Roundhouse to practice flying!

I am so happy that me entering on stage via a broomstick worked out. When I first realized that the London show fell on Halloween my first thought was I was to fly in on a broomstick. It took our crew a few days to realize I wasn't joking! Derek (our tour manager) found the perfect flying machine (a broomstick from Heals) the day before that was more than suitably witchy. I had quite a bit of fun in the day being a witch and cackling. Though when it came to the real thing I was so excited to be up there I forgot to cackle. I donned these rather attractive padded cycling shorts underneath the harness. Relieved the pain of 11 stone of witch a little from my inner thighs. I have to say I had to give myself a pat on the back after that entrance. Coming on, singing, holding a broomstick and triggering the music from my mini wireless MIDI keyboard. You got to girl some credit! It was all going so well. We got the harness off (the cycling shorts stayed on throughout). and I ran onto stage. I knew something was up straight away when the tempo on my "parrot" (aka my sampler/Electrix Repeater) didn't read what it should have done and the AX1 (the red keyboard) wasn't playing the VST (virtual instrument). Real bummer. So I made up something to try to get me out of my gear's revolt and ended the song.

Now I had to sleuth the problem. So it was time to introduce "the band". My electronic band. My worst nightmare had come true. The one where I'm not prepared. Nothing works. I have no back-up. Everyone's looking at me. Waiting. I'm sweating and running through all the gear in my head to see If I can figure it out. It's exactly what happened in soundcheck. Abelton Live (the sequencing software I use on my mac) said that it wasn't detecting an audio device. This means that Abelton will not play. No MIDI will work, no samples will trigger, I can't play any of my VSTs (piano, organ, stringsm celeste etc....) I can't even do hide and seek coz the vocoder can't read the AX1. UGH! The only thing that worked in soundcheck was to turn everything off and start up 3 times in a row. That's all i could do. So i did. And it all came alive again. I've never had that before. I'm going to spend the next 3 days in Montreal making sure I don't find myself in that situation again. Sod's law it would be the big London show with all the press and radio there. Hey ho! Thanks to everyone for being so patient though. I didn't loose my nerve too much because you were all cool about it. Willing it to work for me. So once that was out the way...I had a great time. Loved every minute of it (apart from another gremlin in Loose Ends). The magic moment for me was "Let go" with Arve, Jez and of course Guy. We did film that night so one day I can look back on it all. It'll be fun to show me flying across the stage on a broomstick, apple dunking and dancing and singing between various instruments on stage with a huge pink feather mohawk to my grandkids in 70 years when they think I'm just an old boring biddy!

All round a fantastic night. Both Nemo and Arve were both as wonderfully different to each other as they were fantastic in their performance. Saw lots of friends after the show. All my family were there. Life is sweet.

So the next day i packed and waited in for the gas man who was turning up between 9-6...why can't they just give us a time!? Of course they turned up at 5pm so i could've gone out all that time and got bits I needed. Then in the evening I went to see Pool (No water) at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith. I'd been waiting I guess for a year, since we started talking about it, to see it finished. I really enjoyed it. It was so much fun to hear my music on the stage with the performers acting and dancing with it. If anyone fancies a night out to the (physical) theatre then I recommend it. Some scenes are a bit much for some but I found it the whole thing pulled me here and there between disgust and laughter which I like. So that was that. Two fantastic big nights for me in a row. Now I really am feeling a high as a kite (much higher in fact looking down at the clouds).

So now I can just relax and concentrate on the tour ahead. it's the longest I've been on tour and from what I hear we have quite a fancy bus too to drive/eat/drink/sleep/shower/do internet on! How spoilt am I right now? On the plane with Jez, Walter (tour manager, sound engineer and pretty much everything in between), Matt our lighting guy and Klong. Speaking of Klong his true father, Simon Henwood, has an exhibition in New York starting 10th dec. Show him some love if you're in NY. We're going to be hooking up with the rest of the guys touring with us over the next few days whilst rehearsing etc. Very excited about it all. I explained who they all were at the end of my last blog if you want to see the full group of us.

Right. I have a sandwich waiting to be eaten and i iz hungry. I'll check in with you soon. xxx immi xxx

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Live pics by lisa (nabbed from Nemo's website)

So…I’m on a plane heading for NYC. There’s about 4 hours still to go with no internet connection. It’s the perfect opportunity to catch up on everything with y’all.

Tomorrow i’m playing “hide and seek” at the MTVu Woodie awards. Fingers crossed I can make that high note! Apparently I’m opening the show, which is great, as it means I get to relax for the rest of the evening and get to watch Beck play. I’m pretty excited about it to be honest. I’ve never been invited to an award thingy as a nominee before. Thank you to all those people who put me forward it was very unexpected and a very welcome surprise. I feel loved ….*tear*. My first thoughts of course would normally have been “Oh my!!! what will I wear?” but thankfully this lovely lady named Pinar Eris (say hi, she got in touch with me through my website asking me if I’d like her to make a dress for me….er…..let me think about that for a minute….yes!) has spared me a week of indecision as she’s made me this beautiful outfit. Last time I was in LA I met up with her, took measurements in my hotel room and went looking for fabrics, birds and butterflies together. I imagined I’d get it when I got to LA next (the gig at the Wiltern) but bye gum she’s already finished it. It’s going to be waiting for me at the hotel in 5/6 hours. I love it when a plan (even though I didn’t really plan it) comes together!

So….as usual where to start? It’s been another good few months. I think I’d like to start by thanking all those of you who have come to see us (Nemo, daily myspace band/artist winner and myself) on the UK tour. I really did have so much fun and every night I got to play my beautiful clear perspex piano thing. I’ve been dreaming of it for a year but have only now got it together. Boy oh boy is she (I think it’s a she anyway) special. The shape of a baby grand piano but with all my electronic techno geeky gubbins within so I can still do all I need to do. Complete of course with coloured lights and ivy twisting through it. Here she is!



A huge sorry to those of you who had tickets to see me in Norwich, Cambridge and Oxford. I’ve never had to cancel a gig before in 10 years of doing this and then 3 in a row. I felt awful in every way. I just had a cold at the end of the day. Most frustrating! I could have done almost anything else but sing. I tried every cough medicine, pastille, tea, lozenge, steam-vapour-washing-up-bowl-towel-over-my-head, sofa-sinking-movie-watching trick in the book and It’s STILL wouldn’t budge. The dog ends are still with me now. We’re rescheduling the lost gigs for 3 week of January. I hope you can make it then instead.

Touring with Nemo has been great. They are a band from London who I go to see every gig I can of theirs coz I LOVE going to hear them play. I was chatting to James (singer) about the upcoming UK tour after their last London show and he asked if they could open and … well… there we are. They come up on stage with me and play a few songs too so I can leap about a bit. It’s a real rish to be on stage with them. Loved every minute of it.

The first band/ artist on each night have been the winners from my myspace competition. So many people sent in requests to play it caught me a little off guard! At least 100 entries per gig for their chosen cities. I was struggling to get through them in time before the gig. Thank you to everyone who has put their band/ friend’s band forward. I’ve gotten quite into 8bit-chip-hop (I don't know what they call it but hot dang is it good!) As a result thanks to Pixelh8

So I’m just looking in my calendar now to remind myself of all the millions of things I’ve been doing since I caught you last. I
have to go back as far as July! In short…(actually reading back now…in long)

Headlock video.

11th July – Headlock video shoot with Simon Henwood
It was so much fun working with him. In the silhouette outfit my tail was made up of my long purple sheepskin rug thing that I have in my bedroom…wrapped up in string and stuffed with stuff. The tip of the tail is a feather duster my mum bought me (coz she thought I’d like the orange feathers…not to dust with…) I had so much fun getting the outfits together for this video. I’d like to thank Harriet’s Muse again for the loan of that delicious egg shell green dress (pictured) that I spilt miso soup on…eeek….but I got it out. I got him to help me get together this little short for the Silver ticket/golden apple draw. He got me running down Oxford street in a wet suit
fully kitted out with tank and all! Also in a tiger suit, an old creeky lady and a spaceman . Check out Klong (who’s sitting with me in the spacesuit with my suitcase on Shaftsbury ave). He doubles up as the perfect sleep cushion/companion for these long-haul flights (round my neck now). “Klong can neither see or hear you but senses your kindness”…ahhhh.



Here's a link to the competition video. Winner annonced at the Rondhouse London gig 31st oct.

13th July – I finished this song I’ve been working on for the Plague songs CD
called “Glittering Cloud” which is one part of The Margate Exodus. It’s out now on itunes UK and up on my Myspace
if you’d like to hear it. I was called up a couple of months ago by Brian Eno (yelp) asking me if I’d liked to get involved and to call up his mate Michael Morris (who's behind Artangel) to find out more. Here’s what I wrote for the inlay of the Plague songs booklet about it.

"My mission, should I choose to accept it was "to write a song about Locusts" That had to be the strangest request I've ever had so of course I took it on! What I had no idea idea of is that for the most part our locust is actually a pretty nice solitary kinda guy. It's only until the rains fall and they're forced to hand out together to eat and breed they become the creature we all know and hate...Our locust is battling between his two sides. In the verses he's trying to explain that he's misunderstood, that he's not really like that and and in the chorus, he's become the tribal cop-eating warrior! I thought that when they are swarming they're probably having a fantastic time about it. Hedonistic even. I imagined them all at some huge rave or something"

15th July – began preparing the studio for my next guest….enter…Josh Groban.
Now…let me fill you in a little on this one. I know it may seem a little bit of an odd coupling but that’s exactly (as I’m sure you know this about me by now) why I did it. I love a good challenge. Josh is also the sweetest guy. He’s been to see me play quite a few times and had always expressed that he’d love to get into the studio “bed “ with me – as it were. We had fun exchanging nonsensical sentences, mingling somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean courtesy of ichat (my favourite route to freeing the “flow” when it isn’t there to start with) to come up with an idea for a song. Josh came up with a cracker “nothing monster” and even though we didn’t use it, it got us rolling on an idea. He came to London for 3 days to write the song with me at “the hideaway” (my studio). We worked really hard on it and wouldn’t let it rest until we were both satisfied that all fluff and fat had been removed from our song. Then Josh went back to LA to continue working on the rest of the album and I, finding days here and there between travelling and festivals etc, finished it eventually. It’s the first time I’ve recorded male vocals and written and then produced a song for another artist. I want to thank Josh for asking me as I learnt a lot in the process and think we came up with something really really good. Josh’s album comes out 7th Nov and our tune is “Now or Never”. Check it out.

22nd July – off to Dallas to meet up with the lovely Ryan Obermeyer. He has designed the artwork for Headlock (single out last week) and it is just breathtaking! 3 fold, spot gloss full colour digipack (complete with flamingos) and clear slip case (with condensation effect). We didn’t get into quite as much trouble as last time (cookie box encounter) but I did have a ride on the back of some big biker’s Harley, twice, with this huge feather mohawk I was donning from the photo shoot! Quite a sight I can tell ya… Here’s the Minisite he’s put together about the making of it. I have spent a long time just drooling over the single artwork. I really can’t believe the CD has such a beautiful outfit.

25th July – Up to Seattle to fulfil my promise to Heidi. It’s been a long time coming! The competition was way back in December but Ballooning season in Seattle was not going to arrive any earlier for anyone. Strictly June through September. I invited Zoe to come along (and also roped her into filming some footage for us), coz I hardly ever see her out of touring… plus she conveniently lives in Portland – a short (for the US) jaunt up the freeway. Zoe very kindly picked me up from the airport and we made our way to Woodinville and checked into this great hotel a few minutes walk from Tully’s coffee shop (our rendezvous). At around 6pm Heidi arrives. The first time I met our Heidi was at the Neumos gig in Jan this year…in drag no less! That stubble was pretty realistic in the dark and the rain. This time Heidi was fresh faced and as excited as we were. We had a few drinks in the garden then pegged it up to the coffee place where we met up with our remaining passenger, Heidi’s mum, Barbara. Filled out some forms…we signed away, not reading the small print…just get me in that big picnic basket! Our pilot, Eddie, has been flying balloons for over 30 years and apparently had never come down in one…yet, It was a gorgeous evening. We arrived at a nice grassy spot “fill up” with air. The guys set the basket on it’s side and switched on the fans to inflate our balloon. We took some footage of ourselves inside the balloon before it got roared on by the propane burners, (that was cool). It’s so wonderful up there. Blue blue sky. We could see for miles and Mt Rainier in the distance was clear as a bell, which is the first time I’ve seen it as it’s always been overcast when I’ve been here previously. We were just loving it. It’s just so calm, floating, drifting effortlessly and then….the loudest sound every minute or so as Eddie topped up our balloon with some more propane. Those burners really do make a big racket! I think we were up there for about an hour? It went so so quickly of course. Horses below us were jumping about at the sight of us and all the dogs in the area went crazy, barking their heads off at the sound of the burners overhead (they give off this high pitch frequency). Heidi grew up in Seattle and was pointing out all these places that she and her mum knew. Up and down we went with the currents and then before we knew it…we were in a field deflating it as the sun set. Just lovely! I really want to do it again. It strangely felt so natural to be up there. Then we went back to the lovely hotel and had us some chat and drinks (pics from Heidi)

Seens as I was in such a beautiful place in the world after the ballooning I thought i'd go for a spot of kayaking here in a place called Alderbrook. I was minding my own business in the fjord and what pops it's head out the water but a seal! I LOVE seals...really really love them.

So then a few weeks of Josh Groban mixing, flamingo film meetings a couple of Pool (no water) talks (I’ll get into that later) and various interviews takes me to…

The next big thing which was V fest 18th Aug. My first festival ever as a performer. ( I don’t really like that word…I sound like a monkey or something but can’t think of a better one right now). So many people came to see me! I was quite touched actually. I thought the tent would be maybe 1/3 – 1.2 full but it was PAKCED! (perhaps even more packed in Stafford as it started to piss it down with rain just as I came on and people ran for the nearest shelter…I planned it all of course).

Then I had a few days to start on a remix that I’m doing for one of my favorite atists, Milosh. He’s asked me to have a go at The City (which I still haven’t managed to finish….eek). Had to cut that short to record the B-side for Headlock. I only had a few days so I spent it singing all kinds of funny sounds and out came “Mic Check”. I just love it! I have been wanting to record a track like the way I do “Just for now” live for ages. All vocals. This however takes that idea to a whole new level and I even had a go at some special Heap style blip/beatboxing! Must be heard to be believed. It’s up on myspace too, for now.

30th August: Edinburgh gig at the beautiful sounding Queen's hall, which doubled up as some catch up time for me my mum and my mum’s brother, Uncle James. You see my mum’s a Scott and I am also part Scottish on my dad’s side. Now my Dad worked out a while back that I’m 9/16 Scottish (In case you were losing sleep over the fractional intricacies of my ancestry...or something).

2nd Sept – off for my all too regular dose of La la land. Initially I was just going over for The Last Kiss musical get together session for Zach Braff's 103.1 radio takeover. It was good to see Cary Brothers and label mate Rachel Yamagata again from the Hotel cafe tour tour the previous year. Zach , I might add, is pretty cute. It was a fun day. Even the piano microphone falling onto the strings just as I played “let go” worked out quite nicely. You can hear what we recorded that day on Rehearsals.com. Later in the week we saw a screening of the film and I enjoyed it. It’s out in the UK now for people this (or that in 3 hours) side of the pond. “Hide and Seek” gets a prime spot (thanks again to Zach who did the same for Frou Frou’s “let go” in Garden State) which is fantastic. Later than night a few of us went to the Chateau Marmont (oo er…don’t you know). I met a guy there who came up to me to say he was a fan and loved the record and could I go and meet his director friend. Which I did. We got chatting and ended up talking about Kenna (who I think’s great). Anyway, they asked me to go to lunch with them….and that Kenna would be there too as he’s going to be involved in the music for this film that they want me to do something for also…So…maybe…there’s a Kenna/Immi tune on the sweet horizon!

Before I left London, I sent some emails out to various folk I know there and also folk I don’t (but would like to) meet while I’m there. One of these guys was BT . Now I have to say I was a little funny about meeting him as he’d mentioned in an interview that he and I were going to be doing something together on his new album, which I would love to do…except he hadn’t asked me yet! I thought that was a tad presumptuous of him. Nevertheless we met and I loved him. We’re going to do something in the new year when we can both find the time. He out geeked me by quite some margin so I picked his brains.

I also squeezed in a little dinner with my old pal Dave Stewart, from "I megaphone" days, which coincidentally is being re-released (FINALLY after 7 years) next month. I ended up in a studio (seems to be a running theme) adding a little vocal heapness to this Greenpeace song he was working on (also Annie Lennox is on it…mmmm). I extended my trip so as I could play at his/greenpeace’s 30th birthday party. We sang the song and I did a couple of others too. Met up with quite a few other people I haven’t seen for ages which was fun.

Then…in the SAME week…I was summoned, by Hans Zimmer into his rather ornate LA studio to “Jam” with him and his musical buddies on this new film he’s scoring called The Holiday. I only had my harmonizer and sampler with me so I jammed all vocal. It was soooo nice to get into a roomful of fantastic musicians and just simply…play/sing…whatever came into my head. I haven’t done that in a while. That’s how I’m going to start off work with the flamingo score now for sure (come January) and I can hardly wait! So if you go and see the film (out 8th dec, bizarrely exactly a year after the Narnia film) you’ll hear plenty of my warblings throughout.

Then…got back…more press then…rehearsals with Nemo for the UK tour. Then Justine, my good friend who makes great short films of jelly arses and synchronized swimming (amongst other things) and who also films a lot of me too (we hope that one day we’ll get all the footage together and do something with it) got married to the wonderfully quirky and handsome Toseki! Congrats my lovelies. A little bit of Heap trivia…Norma, who cooked THE most amazing food for the reception afterwards also plays “the interfering old bat” in the silver ticket video thingi.


Here for a few days in between rehearsing I worked on the music for the Pool (no water) production. A while back Steven Hoggett and Scott Graham the directors/founders of the Frantic Assembly group asked me if I’d be interested in having my music (mostly from "speak for yourself") set to physical theatre. He gave me a first draft of the play, written by Mark Ravenhill and on another plane journey, I had a read and I was in. So in this week I went for the first time to see a rehearsal and watched the 4 actor/dancers move to my music. It was such a thrill! Very powerful stuff. Please go and see it. Some of it is quite full on though I warn you. Here you can see when and where they are on. I am so looking forward to going to see it on 1st Nov in London. I went back to the studio after taking notes and played with the music accordingly to fit with the different sections. I took some lyrics out here and added some more vocals there, extended bits and added beats. I enjoyed reworking them to be used in this context. What they do with Mic Check is so awesome! Can’t wait to see it. Here is an article Mark wrote about the process of writing play for Frantic.

Then more rehearsals…then UK tour!! Which almost brings me up to the present day…here…sore assed in my seat now for a good few hours 20,000 feet over the Atlantic cloud blanket with 2 hours to go until landing. Are you really still reading?

Just yesterday I was on XFM singing some choons live on air…dashed back to the studio to prepare for tomorrow’s Woodie gig then packed frantically, sleep, wake, cab, airport, plane…now!

When I get back it’s the London Roundhouse gig. Nemo will be there too. I’m really looking forward to it. Arve Henriksen is also going to be playing that night too. PLEASE get there early to both Nemo and Arve Henriksen play. I saw Arve play at 93feet east in London and hands down it’s my favourite gig ever. I cannot express how good this guy is. Truly inspirational. I was with Guy (who may be popping on stage for a couple also!) at Arve’s gig and I think he was worried about me as I was crying so much! It really was so beautiful, it hurt. I will also be golden apple dunking (as it’s Halloween) for those of you who found sliver tickets on the UK tour. Whoever’s number I grab in my pearly whites will be on their way to NYC for the gig on the 8th Nov with hotels and everything paid for! Yummy. I hear that Nemo’s fans will be turning up in fancy dress…so please feel free to do the same should you so desire. I have a little something up my sleeve too…it’s a secret though and I can’t tell.

So…what about after that? Well sadly, Magnet has pulled out of the North American tour (7th Nov – 20th Dec). I was pretty gutted about it at the time but all is fine now. I know many of you would have surely loved him if you don’t already know his music. He is fantastic live. It’s just him and his lap-steel guitar. Never mind… the show must go on and indeed it will with the incredible Kid Beyond opening. It is freaky what this guy can do with his voice. He’s also going to be helping me along in a few songs too. I wonder if he’ll teach me a few tricks? I do hope so!

Also opening for the US tour is Levi Weaver. Now Levi won the Birmingham myspace competition slot and those of you who came to that gig loved him! He sold out all his CDs (80+) in no time. I really enjoyed his set so he's going to come along also. Armed with cello bow, melodica and loopy stuff. Also playing on stage with me later on. You see what I'm doing here....it's all about pulling your resources! I am really up for this US tour I tell you. We've got Rob Jost also coming along with us and he's going to be playing double bass and french horn. Also Jez Wiles (my next door neighbor) to come bang and chime his various percussive noodlie bits (mainly vibes). It's gonna be a good'n!

There’s also European, Japanese, Australian and poss South African dates all coming up in the beginning of next year too. Hopefully I’ll catch some of you along the way.

The announcement has been made….we’re landing in 15mins. That was the fastest 7 hours in west.

Love to you
Be in touch soon
xxxxxxxxx
Your immi

Labels: imogenheap

I'm back now and in the thick of it again. Well actually right now I'm in seat no. 21D on a plane heading for Dallas, Texas to do a photo shoot with Ryan Obermeyer for the Headlock single cover. I can't believe it was only 2 weeks ago that I got back. It's going to be good to write this blog and put my toe back in there a little. Mmm... Where to start? Of course the first thing people ask when you see everyone again is "so... how was it?!" and it's been so hard to put the trip into words for my family and friends. There was so much to take in. I know this sounds really bizarre but I was so insanely busy before I left that it hadn't actually registered I was going to be encountering all those animals we saw at the zoo when we were kids five minutes after I got off the plane to cross the Tanzanian border. It was like I was on a film set or I was watching it all from my sofa or something. Zebras and wildebeest entering on cue, in surround sound, crystal clear onto the most impressive, cinematic vistas. What I'd just seen didn't really sink in until I was on my way home. I'm hoping I'll be able to jump back to where I left off when I return during the making of the film. Now I fully understand why people like to go back repeatedly to places they've visited before. I always thought that was a bit of a waste when we have so few opportunities in our lifetimes to really travel, but I get it now. You do spend most of your holiday time getting acquainted with your new surroundings, figuring out a little of the language etc. Once that's all out of the way then you're in.

Before I left I wasn't sure what I was going to bring back with me apart from the field recordings of course, which I did manage to snaffle 6 hours worth of. From our flatulent hippos, to the murmurs and poppings of Ol Doniyo Lengai, the active resident volcano at Lake Natron. I was trying to explain to my sister the most useful thing I returned with. It sounds cheesy I know but it's this feeling for the music. (Bear with me here!) You know when you fancy something to eat, you can almost taste it in your mouth, but you have no idea what it is your craving? So you go through your food at home or in a supermarket looking for things that feel closest like they belong to this meal you can't quite put your finger on. You may know only that it's something sweet or that it has to have beetroot in it. Every time you pull something into your basket you start to form a collection of items that satisfy the feeling. (You still there?!) It's like the way I write my songs, but I didn't realize this until now. I couldn't really officially describe to you what I was trying musically or lyrically to achieve but from the beginning to the end everything I chose to throw into the pot was because it hovered closest to this feeling. So basically, I have that now for this film and I didn't have it before and previous to my being there I didn't realize I was missing it or needed it. Maybe because pretty much everything else I've written before this I've had a personal emotional reason for doing so. A need to write that piece of music to satisfy something within me. Though I loved the challenge of writing a film score for the first time I hadn't had an emotional connection with the film really until this trip. Which is exactly why Leander, Matt and Mel flew me out there! So thumbs up on that one. You got me now!

Well to give you a little detail of the activities we got up to I thought you'd like to see the route we took once we got to the Empakai crater, not far from the much better known Ngorongoro crater.


Our hiking route

The first night after the last blog update we stayed at this place called Ndutu lodge in Serengeti. The journey there from Seronera was across wide, short grass plains scattered mainly with gazelles, impalas and ostrich. I've decided I really like ostriches. The male's flesh flushes pink when it's horny! They are huge birds. From a distance they look like small shrubs because their torsos are so big and brown but their necks are so delicate and long that they dissolve into the sky. I guess that's a good thing if there's a hungry lion or two about, although I can't imagine a bush being their idea of a good bit of nosh!

We got to the lodge just in time for one of many beautiful sunsets. Then we sat around the bonfire looking up into the night sky, finding Saturn and its moons. A few cold beers were also just the ticket. (The beer over there is called Kilimanjaro and it's GOOD!) I was taking pics of us around the bonfire and then went to have a shower before dinner, leaving my brand new Erricson 810i mobile phone on the seat. Doh! I didn't realize until the next morning I'd left it and after a frantic search it was nowhere to be found. Now the guys at the lodge are all an honest bunch, which pointed to another culprit altogether – the resident hyenas! So somewhere around Lake Ndutu there is a vibrating hyena with a very dodgy laugh. There you go. Apparently they'll take anything...

This was, however, the only 'camera' I'd brought with me, so I could send pics to the moblog and also so I wouldn't have to carry a camera along with all the other techno kit I was carrying. So now I didn't have one, but thankfully Leander took loads of pics and footage for my scrapbook and this blog and actually it was quite nice not to have a camera, always looking through the lens at the most beautiful moments.


Leander

Anyway, that was the last of the beds. From now on it was camping all the way. The next morning we set off to drive about Lake Ndutu and for me to get my first proper glimpse of the stars of our film - the flamingos!


Flock of flamingos

The thing about flamingos which I learnt pretty quickly is that they're not that into us getting too close to them. They like to keep a good wide berth! So In order to combat this situation I went down the local fancy dress shop and bought myself a 6 foot flamingo suit. I was very convincing! (Of course not - there were no fancy dress shops round there, but I do wonder how these guys are going to film them!) I did however get some great recordings of them flying away from me, mostly flapping and honking from various distances.

Mel and me

Also later on that night at the Empakai crater they flew over us. We could see them silhouetted against the moonlight. It was wonderful to stand there at the edge of this crater in the dead of night surrounded by the sound of frogs and crickets. This only after I'd recovered from my laughing fit after hearing a hyena call for the first time. It's so hard not to laugh when you know you shouldn't. You'd think after 3 years of silent morning meetings at Quaker school I'd have that down by now, but I never did seem to master it!

From time to time new groups of flamingos would pass high over us, honking and squeaking as they made their way to distant Lake Natron.

That night we had a candle-lit meal even though it was freezing up there! We were at about 9,000 feet I think. Bed, early, get up, early.

Now I'd like to introduce Manangoi, a Maasai warrior Mat and Mel knew and had brought along with us for the rest of the trip as a guide and friend. He'd walked for 3 days solid just to meet us. This is apparently like a walk in the park to him. He always looked so fabulous in his red shuka (robe) and sandals.


Manangoi

There I was with laptop, video camera, sound recording device, those crazy binaural mics that look like ancient 80's headphones on my head (but boy do they get the job done!), tons of sun cream, straw hat, massive hiking boots and anything else I could squeeze onto my person. I must have been the source of some amusement to him!


Manangoi and me

Here he's listening to my new song, the all vocal b-side to Headlock! How cool is that!? I was laughing because he was singing along in a way that people do when they can't hear themselves for the music in their headphones. That was a great moment. He is a fabulous singer though. We had fun round a campfire one night when he sang songs about 'bringing the cows home' and 'the night before the killing of the lion'. I tried to sing along for a bit. The rhythms are so different to what I'm used to in our mostly click track 4/4 musical world. I made up some melodies while he sung this great riff where he would sing by both letting air out and in. That was great fun. Leander filmed that too so when the 'making-of' gets put together I'm sure that'll be in there somewhere. I have to find a place for him in the score. Don't think 'Deep Forest' please! You know me...

Next day. Rise and shine, early morning. We're off down to the lake inside the crater. On our way through the forest I come across my first strangler tree. Now THAT is a tree..


Strangler tree - Mel and Manangoi

At the lake edge I had another few attempts at sneaking up on the 'flamin' joes' (as Matt calls them) but they were having none of it! The thing I discovered about recording with this binaural mic set up is that if it's all sounding perfect, you stop and press record and then 10 seconds into it the flies arrive to see what you're all about. So I have lots of recordings with these flies buzzing around my head. Maybe the same set of flies followed me for the whole trip. Who knows?

We circled the lake and passed by the odd herd of cows with their many bells on. Got some good recordings there. Sitting for a short lunch break and a quick nap, lapping up the sound of the crater. Every now and then Leander would film me doing something for the 'making-of'. While I was waiting for him to set up I sat on a rock at the lake edge and a couple of young Maasai boys, who were no more than 6 and 9, came to keep me company. I don't think they get to see many people like myself around those parts (it's quite off the beaten track). We were looking and laughing at each other, touching each others hands and they were checking out my ears. I decided to sing a little something as I couldn't speak the language, and then the elder one started singing along with me! (Check it's in record. Phew!) I can't quite imagine any of the kids around my block doing that somehow. Maybe for a moped? Still? Nah..

Goodness this is taking forever! Sorry but if you're still here, well, then you're still here. So anyway, we walked back up the crater to camp, which turned out to be a much longer climb than I'd at first thought. I was starting to feel a little ill at this point. That's what happens to me every Christmas. I stop for a few days and out comes the sniffles and shivers. Also I think the altitude wasn't helping. Anyway, dinner, chat, early night...

Next morning, bright and early, as today we're walking to Lengai. Started off with a cup of coffee and a creative discussion with Matt about our shared vision for the soundtrack. Not a bad meeting space if you can get it!


Me and Matt

When we started our walk our guides told us it would take 4 hours but actually it ended up being more like 8! It was really misty that day and we couldn't really see very far off the road we were walking along, plus, unfortunately, I was now feeling really crappy. So after a few hours of walking I got a lift ahead of them with a passing jeep to the next campsite. I was completely delirious, got to camp, jumped into the tent and was out for the count until dinner! That night England played Portugal in the World Cup 1/4 final. Matt had a small portable radio with him and we listened to the game whilst eating our dinner, with Lengai as dark and mysterious as Mordor before us, bats flying around us as we perched huddled together on the freezing hill with the wind whipping through our campsite. It was a very confusing game to listen to: the only time the commentators spoke in English rather than Swahili was to insult our players. Fair enough!

Bed, early, a night of feverish sweating, but then I was fine in the morning. We were walking down to lower ground now to meet up with Matt's camera assistant Bazil and the Land Rover. The donkeys (oh yeah, forgot to mention them!) were carrying our tents etc down the trail. Sadly, near meeting the other guys at the jeep we came across a dead donkey. Not one of ours, but it had only just died which Mel said we can at least be thankful for on account of the potential smell, but our donkeys seemed genuinely disturbed by the sight of their dead friend and refused to go past it, which was the only way out of the gorge other than turning back a long way. So the Maasai guys who were leading the donkeys had to shift the dead one out of the way. It was a sad, disturbing moment.


The Crimson Wing

Sooooo? Now we're on our way to Lake Natron. This is flamingo central and was to be our home for the next 3 days, We were staying at an old abandoned missionary house on the eastern side of the lake. It was octagonal. We could see the lake shimmering in the distance and Lengai towering to the south. There were these hot springs about 10 mins walk from the house where we'd paddle about in as each night we saw one incredible sunset after another.


Natron sunset from hot springs

We sat up and chatted about the film and what to do next. I played some musical ideas from some of the other musicians who are also going to be involved. For me it's such a treat in so many ways this score because I now have an excuse to call up all these amazing people that I'd love to work with! Very exciting. Anyway, nearly there. Mustn't stray. I've got 50 mins remaining battery!

The first morning at the house at Natron, Bazil was teaching me how to make Tanzanian chapatis when we heard a helicopter closing in from the distance. It was Alan Root. Now here's a guy who's been bitten by just about everything you can be bitten by out there, puff adders, gorillas, leopards, to name just a few. He's made tons of nature films. He was coming to pick me up and fly me up to the top of Mt Lengai, the Maasai Mountain of God!


Heli flight

Apparently next time I go there I HAVE to climb it with them! It is really super steep so double time at the gym until then... I got some great recordings up there and some far reaching views. It was quite disturbing walking about up there. The hardened larva is very brittle and when you walk over it near the mouth of the volcano it sounds like there's not very much between you and a big gaping hole underneath. Slowly slowly. I edged closer to get some poppings. The volcano had erupted only two months before so it was a lot less vocal than usual.

There's a little video blog I did for you up there for you guys that I'll post soon...



The day before the last day we drove across the salt flats to the other side of the lake to walk up a waterfall. Now here's where I'm going to try and explain something that may seem a little odd after all that I've said. All the time I was there, it was without a doubt an incredible experience. I could see and smell and hear everything around me but I don't know if I was really there for a lot of it. I have been trying to analyze it. Maybe because these last 10 years I've been living my life always a fortnight ahead of myself i.e. finishing a b-side, or video, or tour. Trying to meet deadlines and I haven't really stopped. Everything has been work related in some way. This was too of course but I was getting frustrated with myself for not being able to really BE there, you know? I guess in being somewhere very much in the present you have to rein yourself in. Stop yourself from looking back or looking ahead. Just gather yourself so it's just you at that moment and soak it up. As we were crossing from the east to the west side of the lake I got it. Zebras were galloping along side our Jeep and glassy mirages were forming behind them, mirroring the lake and the hills. There was no road, we just went whichever way we thought was best along the salt and sand. Typical, it was the last full day on the trip and I finally figure this out! Or at least start to. I think maybe it's also about living in the city. In fact that's exactly what it is. There are a few trees with the odd bird in them 7 floors down in the communal green space and then there's the River Thames just there, the occasional city fox scavaging about at night through the rubbish bins but apart from that there's nothing much to remind you of the natural world. I think I need a bit more of that. Which is why I'm taking an extra couple of days in Woodinville after the balloon ride on Tuesday with our competition winner Heidi and the lovely Zoe Keating, hiring a bike and going to cycle by the river there along the trails (maybe dropping in on the odd winery!)


Group chat

So that was a long one ha! I bet you didn't expect that marathon essay. There will be more to come. Thanks so much to all the guys for bringing me in on this adventure. I'm so looking forward to getting started on the music. It's not going to be a short process, this is a couple of years in the making but here's to a great beginning!

Finally this is something Leander's put together of me at Lake Natron on the last day there. Speak soon xxx immi xxx

Labels: imogenheap

Hey there guys....so sorry it's been such a hugely long time since my last catch up...but...well...quite frankly I've been the busiest I've ever been in my entire life!!!I'm now "working" in Tanzania on my first film score. Some of you already know about it. It's the flamingo one. What's great about this project is that it's not going to be me sweating on delivering a score 1 week before the films due for release (like Narnia!) but I'm being brought in right from even before the start! The idea is I'm here to record sounds and be inspired (like I need to be,...but of course I didn't tell them that!) to get writing. Being a nature film there's not a whole long of dialogue (not unless you can speak flamingo or marabouan) so it's just great for me to spread my musical wings...as it were.




So now....I should really introduce you to everyone while I'm here. First up we have Leander Ward...he's the guy who got in touch with me in the beginning and he's directing it along with Matt Aebehard who lives in the Serengeti along with our script writer (his wife) Melanie Finn. There's also Smiley (who's Somali) and he's a great mechanic...which is VERY handy if your jeep breaks down in the middle of the open plains.This is me in the Serengeti. It's only the 2nd day and I've seen lions, gazelles, impalas, buffalo, tons of big birds (like myself!) like ostrich, vultures, marabous and wonderfully colourful birds (the lovebird being my favourite so far....but I haven't yet seen a flamingo...a couple more days until we get to those!), hippos, giraffes, baboons, hyenas, black backed jackals, one snake which is an egg beater and Matt is holding it captive in a tupperware box with a huge chicken egg which it won't ever swallow...but it can dream, some crazy insects and bunnies. I'm sure there's some things I've forgotten...zebras, elephants and wildebeests too. Wow. Loving this so much. I'm really starting to listen to the sounds around us. It's hard to remember the last time I was somewhere and couldn't hear a car in the background or an aeroplane in the sky. It's just all natural sound. I've got this mic setup. Binaural mics. I wear them attached to this headband thing. They look like headphones but they're mics and I've been recording everything from zebras and wildebeest lapping up water from a river to Hippos wading in mud and farting quite a lot. The broad wings of the marabou flying over us. The idea is to take these sounds back to London and begin to work on the score using the beats and melodies within the natural environment. Starting from a hyena call and then morphing it gradually into a piece of music. So the listener can't really tell where the two meet. They just evolve out of each other.


There's this rock that's called Ngong rock...and it makes these amazing resonant sounds when you hit it with other rocks. Really tuneful. This is me hitting and recording it. I was thinking about getting me one of these for stage but I don't think the stage crew would appreciate carrying a 5 ton lump of granite on and off the stage each night! It's said to be the oldest instrument in the world. It was almost like a steel drum. After playing it for a while you start to hear all the detail within it's sound. So many harmonics. I'm definitely going to be using those recordings as part of my rhythm tracks!Met this guy called Alan Root today (who's a big cheese in the world of nature films). He had this pet hyrax. It was soooo cute! They called it Pia. Apparently it the elephant's oldest relative and looks like a large guinea pig. He's going to take me up in a helicopter in a few days to the top of the Lengai volcano which is still very much alive. Cool! or not actually...

As you can imagine I'm having the time of my life.

Well we've got to go now.

Off to Ndutu for the night in our Jeep.Gotta run!

Speak soon xxxxx i xxxxx

Labels: imogenheap

Just been going round and round in teeny little circles trying to crowbar out some lyrics for this b-side. Sometimes they come easy (1% time!) and others they don't...one line has come out easy though... I may just have to repeat that over and over if I don't come up with the goods soon! Which would read a little something like

Verse
"Run with me through rows of speeding cars"
"Run with me through rows of speeding cars"

Chorus
"Run with me through rows of speeding cars"
"Run with me through rows of speeding cars"

Weird extra bit
"Run, run, run, and now backwards and to the left and stretch..with me oo ooo oo through rows of speeding cars, cars, da da dey ya"

I decided taking pictures and videos on my mobile phone of things that light up in my studio would be more fun instead. If anyone reading this came to the Scala gig a week ago this is one of the dragonflies that was hanging from various places around my kit and some distorted music (the beginnings of the chorus riff)
Dragonfly_lights.mp4
There's something a little irritating about this song...it's in pretty much the same key as "Goodnight and Go" which may be a little odd hearing them one after the other...I've tried playing/singing in another key but it doesn't quite cut the mustard I'm afraid. It probably won't even bother anyone but me anyway.
Today I did something highly embarrassing which I will never do again. It's called SOHO circuits and it involves me (and about 10 others) runingn around a room in a gym doing star jumps and bench presses. Not for me...definitely not for me. How is it I am the only one that looked like a total spamhead. I'm just too darned lanky for that stuff. Anyway...back to simpler things in life.

Cheese. I love cheese. Pretty much any cheese.
Can you tell I'm procrastinating!
Ugh...
Better get back to them.
Love, fluv
immi
x

Labels: imogenheap

Mbira hands taken by Mark Owens

Hello everyone.
Wow. I feel like I've been on this crazy holiday for a month made loads of new friends then came home to find everything has come together. What an amazing start to the new year. The tour was so much fun. I had my own bedroom on the bus!

I would like to make clear I didn't demand that in some sudden wave of divadom... I'm not that bad...yet. However it was a lovely treat and now i've tried it...well..you know. A huge double bed that was sooo comfy with really soft sheets. It even had a shower, the room, not the bed. I miss drifting off to sleep in the whirring of the bus between cities and watching the trucks with all thier lights pass by the window through the blinds.

and the find of the year award goes to.... Zoe.

A pic i found on flickr by a bloke named J. McPherson.

I won't go on and on and on about how amazing, gorgeous and talented she is because you'll all start to think i fancy her or something...but...wow. Such a pleasure to be around. I'm so looking forward to spending more time with her in April when we'll be touring as many of the parts we missed on this last US tour as we can. Which means perhaps some sunshine! I'm now officially the palest shade of foundation.

Here's another pic that Mark Owens took of me in San Francisco before the gig at the fab, glow sticks adorned Great American Music Hall. We were shooting for a pic to go in his piece on me in Urb Magazine

Goodness...that was just a hello really...there is so much that has been going on! Perhaps the biggest news is that this guy Nick Raphael, has over the past 6 months, been slowly convincing me to license my beloved album to him and his new Sony/BMG imprint White Rabbit. I am the first signing and boy does he want to get off to a good start! I met him initially a while back in my studio in London reluctantly. Some of you know my past experience with big labels hasn't been a a whole bag of laughs. He'd heard the album and had been bugging my manager for a meeting. As soon as I met the guy I found myself coming around. Much to my annoyance everything he said made complete sense. I've been hey ing and ho ing about this for a really long time and i just feel this record is too important for me to be pig headed on this matter. I have to pass on some of the responsibilty as all the non creative stuff's been taking up to much time. It's still my album. I own it. I have 100% artistic/creative control. Basically nothing changes apart from the fact that they give me the cash to do what i need to do and they take a chunk out for doing it. I believe it's totally the right thing to have done - (signed on friday!)... The thing is i could never have got a deal as good as this if i hadn't released the recorded, produced, designed and released this album already. It looks like things are finally coming around. This means...new video coming your way asap, more touring (this deal is for everywhere outside USA, canada and Mexico) in all kinds of places and most importantly more time to make more music!

As a kind of hats off to Nick and his label the artwork is going to have a little White rabbit in it somewhere. All will be revealed...this guy...Ryan Obermeyer who wrote to me about a year ago now i think....asking if i'd ever let a fan get his paws on some of my artwork...i took a look at his site and sent him an email with something along the lines of "You bet your ass i would!" So we met in NYC last November. Three months on...he sends me this!!!

I just LOVE IT! So now he's designing the single cover artwork for Goodnight and Go around one of the millions of photos he took of me in November. Plus he's a real sweetheart. Say hi to him. it's his birthday in a couple of days.
BUT...it's Justine's birthday todat! Happy Birthday lovely. For those of who came to the Scala, Justine was responsible for the synchronized swimmers above your heads. She's also been filming me on and off for the past 8 months or so and has the camera attached to her face. Lots of DVD footage me thinks there! Mox was the guy to the side on the stage doing the projections too. I only wish i could have seen them! We've been working on stuff since july...i wrote a blog a while back about us beginning to work with each other... Thursday, July 14, 2005 to be exact. What a great night the Scala was. I loved it because there was everything from visuals, to amazing guests Duracell and Zoe plus Jon Hopkins on the virtual decks in between. A real feast! thank you to everyone who came. It was a really special night for me!! I have to admit to being a tad nervous as London always scares me a little. Because it's home and also home to "the business" too.
Richie took this photo from the balcony.

Well i'm all worn out now! Off to have a nice cuppa and maybe one or two chocolates from a box that has mysteriously opened.

Love and kisses to you all.
I'm sure there's a ton of stuff i've left out as it has been a while since my last confession. It'll all come out eventually!
;)
Fluv
immi
xx

Labels: imogenheap

Hi ya you guys.
Here's a little movie while i get around to writing a mega iblog!
This is Zoe (camerman and world's most talented lady...next to me of course haha...), Emily (laughing somewhere, hiding) and James (our sleeping sound man).
love, fluv
Miss heap xxxx
Tour_silliness.mov

Labels: imogenheap

from me to you

Hey you lot.
Just a little thank you xx
I see you're all tucking into the competition! I wonder who's going to win and where i'm going to have to go to give you your prize?? I'm excited!
The last animation goes up tomorrow. Seems like next time we'll have to make it harder! You guys are just too quick! Don't forget 11pm GMT 1st Jan 2006 to send in your answers!

MWAH! have a good one xxx
love and all the good stuff
immi xxx

Labels: imogenheap

Firstly...before i get stuck into this
Hellooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm almost at pains to start as i know how much i've got to write..there's simply no way around it, i've just got to get typing. You know when you haven't called a friend that you probably should have phoned by now to catch up but you haven't...so then you leave it for another couple of weeks and by now...LOADS of stuff's been going on and it's 4 x the reason to call...then again and again and OH for god's sake just PICK UP THE DAMNED PHONE AND DIAL! So...i just dialed. Plus i have a nastly cold that no matter how hard i kick won't get off me. I'm stuck at home (which is actually quite nice sometimes...to be forced to do nothing).

Below somewhere in this torrent of letters is info on US tour, stuff about the song I wrote for the Narnia film, a new competition coming to an email near you...soon...holiday pics and what i ate for dinner 63 days ago.

Soooo..last time we saw each other I was by a pool watching the sun set over an RV park at Lake Havasu, USA. Shortly after we skipped into town to check out the old London Bridge and stubled upon a man and his son, motorbiking together inside "the globe of death". Then we ate steak. Next day we continued on to the Grand Canyon. We ended up arriving at midnight becuase we thought it'd be more fun to take the scenic route. Route 66 to be precise. This one's taken by you know who with his fancy new mobile phone camera.


So we parked up by a lookout post and walked out into the darkness. The wind got more intense the closer you got to the drop. It felt HUGE but we couldn't see it at first as our eyes were still adjusting. And when they did i thought to myself..."Is that it? I've seen bigger holes than that ...what's the big deal? AS IF! oh my. Incredible. Even more in the dark because apart from the wind there was not a sound. A little scared we eeked our way out to the edge and stood. In awe. For as long as we could before the temperature got to us. We were also really hungry so we went back to set up for the night. I think i cooked my special spicy rice too and the man got the barbie going. Oh yeah...it was good. This is what it looked like the next morning for sunrise. Good thing it's quite large because there was a HUGE japanese tourgroup out first thing in the morning to catch the same spectacle.


Goodness....i can't go on to describe everyday from then until now...so now i'm going to speeeed through to....
NARNIA! Just before we left for our little 10 day RV holiday i was summoned to a room within a building somewhere in hollywood. In it about 6 people waiting to meet me including the director Andrew Adamson, the film score composer Harry Gregson-Williams. I hadn't planned on them being there otherwise i quite possibly woudn't have drunken quite so much liquer the night before! It was the Hotel Cafe Tour's big night though. What could I do? Plus i finally met Zach Braff so of course I just had to celebrate. I leapt on him the moment he walked in through the dressing room door with a big "i haven't seen you in ages" hug... while i was backcombing my hair...It was only while i was hugging him that it kinda of dawned on me i'd never actaully met the poor guy before! He was lovely. i dedicated "let go" to him that night. Anyway....SIDETRACKED...i met these guys and to put a long, hangover-head meeting short they played us (my manager and I) some segments from the film and described what they needed from me. Which was quite a lot! (originally they wanted 2 songs but then decided the movie only had room in it for one at the end). I asked when they wanted this done by and they told me I may have to cancel my holiday! They needed it NOW. I wasn't going to cancel out little trip together as it was Richie's birthday on the last night of the tour too so we went out and had four days together before i started to panic and came back to LA to write and record the song for the film. Anyway..so Disney put us up in this very sexy hotel with at the Marina Del Ray in LA.


It was perfect as it was just a short journey to Harry's studios where i was to get creative for the next few days. Harry was upstairs composing the Battle scene with Timpani thundering on the ceiling above me and i was downstairs in my own little "blue room" with all my gadgets, Mbira and fairy lights. I LOVED it there soooo much! The studios are by Venice beach. There was this great deli down the road which is where i got my daily intake of BLT with avacado on Ciabatta. mm mmmm... On the third day of being there I was invited to go over the hills to the Scoring stage to watch Harry conduct the orchesta with this HUGE screen infront of him. We were actually on the same floor as the orchestra when they recorded it. When it you watch the Battle scene in the lion the witch and the wardrobe" and you hear the music. I was there! In that very room when it went down! I was so incredible. I loved every second of it. I got all emotional. I MUST make sure i get the opportunity to do that again! One of the many reasons for me saying YES to the guys at that meeting about getting involved was that the worldwide release date was my birthday! Which reminds me...you guys are so sweet...BIG Thank you everyone for the lovely birthday messages!!!

Ok so...I did what i could in LA but then i had to go to NYC as I had gigs and promo already set up. So off I went with all my gadgets and set up my new home at the Sony Studios to continue work. The problem now was I had promo all day then a gig or a showcase almost every night for 5 days. The only chance to work on this song was 1am (after packing down the gear from the shows and put it back together at the studio) until 10am when i my day would start again packed with meetings. So i got a whopping 7 hours sleep the whole time! Catching an hour or two a night on the studio chair. It was really hard as I write my lyrics while singing them. Kind of singing nonsense into the mic until words start to form. Though my voice was shot from the day and no sleep so i couldn't write the lyrics, so i coudn't finish the song so i was getting REALLY stressed out and that just made it worse. All i actually needed was about 4 or 5 sentences to finish off the vocals. Unfortunately they were the was ones at the beginning which are often the hardest. The problem i was having is that usually the songs I write are about ME!!! ME ME ME ME ME notice me and this GREAT SONG! but in this instance it's totally different. You're writing for film. To picture. It has to not jump out at you and distract you from the film. I had to continue a feeling the audience has after seeing the film and not YANK them into another dimension. Which is what i love doing in my own stuff. Anyway...so those opening lines were crucial. In the delirious state I was now in on my 5th day of working through the night and about 3 hours before i had to submit the song to be cut to picture and to get mastered intime to go onto the soundtrack for manufacture. i found myself saying to myself. "Can't close my eyes"....i was falling asleep at the QWERTY wheel but it was my ticket to the remaining lyric! Hurrah! just in the nick of time. If you don't fancy buying the whole score (though it's really great) but just want to buy the song you can do it here

So that was that. Job done! PHEW! The saturday and Sunday I had left were spent with Ryan Obermeyer. We