(rhythmic music)
- [Dan] I was in South America.
- [Imogen] Oh yeah.
- In Guyana.
It is just you in the jungle in your hammock,
and I was sitting there thinking, "What's that sound?
What's that sound?
What's that sound?"
and recording them, but having no purpose for them.
(rhythmic music continues)
- Just the way that you explain the stories
behind the sounds that you're sending me,
I really find it super inspiring.
Getting a load of samples that you've sent in,
and it just starts to emerge.
It's like the animals are speaking to me.
- So this track, everything in it,
is either a predator, parasitic, seemingly barbaric.
It's the, it's the least
seemingly altruistic things on the planet
that are red in tooth and claw.
- [Imogen] Okay, here we go. So I heard this.
(animal growling sounds)
- So cool.
- It was just super sexy growl,
basically. - [Dan] Yeah.
- And it just needed to, it just needed to be like,
the base backbone of this whole song.
Okay. What else we got, we got the pygmy owl.
(owl hooting)
- Yeah!
- And what you did with the hyenas,
(laughing)
I cannot believe it.
- Okay. Let's find the hyenas.
(rhythmic hyenas laughing)
So funky.
Yeah.
Okay, see it all together.
(rhythmic music)
Ah, so many sounds that I've enjoyed singing along to.
But I suppose the egrets in the beginning,
'cause it was just allowed me to relax and be a bit cheeky
and kind of not take myself seriously.
(rhythmic egret sounds)
And I sang along,
and then later, I just kind of felt like
I wanted to jam along with some clapping.
(rhythmic animal sounds)
- [Imogen] Basically, - [Dan] Mmm.
- that's kind of really all I actually recorded
outside of samples and some virtual instruments in,
you know, in the box, as it were.
It's really just vocals.
- Backing the actual tune,
sung to you - [Imogen] backing the
- [Dan] by some egrets. - [Imogen] actual tune
Exactly. Little did they know.
(rhythmic music)
So, the sound for this one, the one, it was a cuckoo,
which is kind of quite a common sound.
- Mhmm.
- Like common, recognizable.
And, I was a bit wary of it cause I was like,
"Oh no, everyone's going to know that it's cuckoo."
But I don't know if you do.
Anyway, so they started off with that.
(cuckoo cooing)
Yeah.
- They're nasty birds though.
- Are they?
Oh yeah, because they steal the nest of others, yes!
- Yeah, yeah, no, way worse than stealing the nests.
They are amazing.
They can copy the exact egg pattern of the animal parent
that, of the bird parent
that they're laying. - That is amazing.
- So when, as they're laying it, it's almost
like they've got internal spray cans that like
- Gosh. (spritzing effect)
- And then it lays instantly,
and they fly away,
and then that chick will hatch first.
The chicks first thing in life,
the first thing it's, it knows to do is to be like,
"Right, gotta kick out all of these other eggs."
- Wow. - And it will just
kick them all out, and then
it'll grow up, and then it'll fly away
and parasitize another bird.
- That is amazing. - Amazing.
These are flying bats, yeah.
Yeah, beautiful sounds.
- So, this was the rhythm.
(rhythmic thumping)
Yeah. This is a 3, 4, 1.
Yeah, so 2, 2, 3.
And 1, 2, 3.
So that kind of, it kind of felt like it needed a swing.
So, then we got the lyrebird.
What's the lyrebird doing?
It's so easy to get stuck in your formula, you know,
the "Imogen Heap" sound.
So, working with the animals has, has helped me break out
of that.
And so yeah,
I do think it's gonna, it's gonna
impact the way that I write future music.
So that's, that's pretty much that song.
Oh that, that one isn't it? Let's see.
(rhythmic music) This one, in a way,
this one's the most song-like of them all.
It's got like progression, it's got chords that kind of-
It feels like it could, it could have some lyrics
- over at this one. - Yeah.
- I dunno what they might be?
Probably naughty. (Dan laughs)
(rhythmic music continues)
(rhythmic music fades)