And then it just starts to formulate itself.
How does a gecko sound?
Can you sing like a gecko for us?
(Singing)
Like, just this kind of funky little vibe that the gecko was giving off.
And it just took me down this totally new route that I've never been down
Imogen Heap it is so great to be sitting with you and we must thank you from the
And we must thank you from the bottom of our little green, hearts for the incredible
music that you've composed already for this podcast to be sitting here and
listening to it and responding to it.
A lot of fun
I've never written music in this way ever.
So it's surprising to me too.
My partner in crime is Dan O'Neill.
So he's a zoologist And a filmmaker He runs around the world capuring
these things And wildlife recordist He's amazing He just disappears into
all these beautiful corners of the world and is extremely knowledgeable.
And how we're working is that he has this incredible library of sounds
that he's recorded all over the world.
And he's really good at categorizing them and kind of deciding what
kind of feeling they might entice.
Like a gecko might sound quite, um, technological, technological gecko.
So he sends me.
these sounds And then I listen to them I kind of feel the tempo.
There might be a, like an overarching kind of tone or a mode, and then
it just starts to formulate itself.
And then I'll start to sing a bit like a gecko.
How does a gecko sound
Can you sing like a gecko for us?
Like just this kind of funky little vibe that the gecko was giving off
and it just took me down this totally new route that I've never been down,
but I've been really enjoying it.
And then another one was this beautiful melody of a whale, humpback whale.
Oh wow.
So it starts off with this.
(singing), and then really low...
Right
And it's this beautiful melody.
So that was then just, you know, kind of chased it with some strings and
some vocals, and then it kind of felt like it needed this like swinging
lilting rhythm and it just, yeah.
I mean, it's so different to the way I normally write.
Because I don't know about you, but I, I feel as an actor that I need to engage with
and respond to the world in which I live.
And I mean, you were doing that directly with, with Dan in relation to the
sounds, but I don't know where you sit with, with the notion of quote
unquote climate change, you know, it seems like it's a very political space.
And how do you respond to that?
I guess in all kinds of different ways throughout my career, I've
been drawn to people who really know what they're talking about.
I'm not into being a poster girl, you know, just say these
things and put them on Twitter.
And therefore you will absolved of all of your responsibilities.
I like to work with a group of people or really get to know a subject and then
make some music out of it in the hope that that might translate, uh, to somebody
else who might be on a path that way.
But where do you sit with language?
You know, when certain language can feel really?
Yeah.
You know, those words get really charged and can get often misinterpreted in
ways that one doesn't intend them.
Yeah.
I mean, in songs I'm not so descriptive, not so like, this
is how I want you to feel.
This is my story, but I do thread in things that if you're attuned to it,
then you know that I'm with you.
Um.
So there are little, little flecks in there, but I don't
like to, you know, shout, cause I think that's very off-putting.
Um.
But I want people to know that I'm, you know, standing with them and I'm
doing my bit in a way I can, um, without switching people off, um, because you
can you can be too harsh when you,
When you feel you speaking to directly to issues?
Yeah.
But I think it comes down to friends, doesn't it like who, you know,
what comes in as part of your life.
So it's not like a separate, entirely separate thing that you feel is
disengaging you from your current life.
Right.
So there's a, an artist that I know called Sam Lee, um, who's very engaged and you
know 90% of his time is about impact to the environment and how would we combat it?
And what do we do as artists?
So he's with an organization called Music Declares Emergency.
OK. Um.
So through him really, you know, I give, give, my hand when I, when I'm needed,
if there's any musicians, listening um, you can go to that website and there's
lots of great information about where to go about how to help your tours be green
Great because we're looking for resources for people.
And one of the questions was actually, you know, how, how can artists
engage more in the climate cause?
Yeah, well, there's, there's been a very long term organization
called Judy's Bicycle, who've been around for over a decade.
Um, and they, they are very, you know, all across all creative sectors.
Um.
How to help you be more green on tour and there's carbon calculators and, you
know, um, all kinds of suggestions and things like that, but it still isn't easy.
You still have to go out and kind of really do your research.
And for a lot of, you know, smaller smaller bands, it's a lot of time for them.
Yep Um.
It's not so easy to be green and even just something as simple as,
you know, no single use plastics, you know, bring your own bottle.
It makes a massive impact in a huge stadium.
Do you think the music industry is, is actually able to respond?
Just looking at the Music Declares Emergency website.
I can see there is a lot of change just recently in the last year, um, a lot
of new initiatives that have come up.
So, you know, things that weren't available when I was touring just four years ago.
So it feels really positive.
Um, and the more people do it, obviously the more people are aware, the more
you can create the rolling ball effect
So you're very technologically savvy.
I mean, your famous for your gloves as a tool for producing fantastic music.
And you're really clearly open to new ideas and innovation.
How do you, how do you, we were talking about this a lot in this program about
how, you know, the adversity and necessity now is driving whole new technology
sets to be developed and scaled quickly.
How do you see the innovation process in music and how do you engage so quickly?
Um,
NFTs that's like, you know,
That's serious.
That's hardcore.
Yeah.
Well, I don't know.
I mean, I, I got excited about blockchain technology nearly seven years ago.
Um, I just saw the solutions there in the underlying structure of the tech not
the kind of, sorry, the crypto side...
With the ledger.
Yeah, the trust ledger, um, as a means to be able to, um, create this layer that
we need in the music industry of, uh, works and, uh, who has created the works.
Um.
And then we can build on an industry that's uh, it's more in our favor instead of
losing 50% of our income, which disappears into other people's pockets, maybe my own.
Um, but it's also kind of messed up.
Um, so I got very excited about this technology and I thought if I got
involved, um, and started developing with it as an artist, I could, I could
kind of create that forward space.
Uh, um, but on that journey have discovered that in parallel to that as this, um, Uh,
the, uh, the environmental movement is actually very aligned with blockchain.
Um, and so I'm excited about that.
I've always been excited about how do we, how can we like fluidly
spontaneously redirect monies quickly?
So say if I was like, I suddenly wanted to.
I don't know, put some money into some, ocean regeneration or something, you know?
Um, so there might be somebody I've just met and I want to shout about
it in my own kind of quiet way.
So I could have a way to send a message to a song or all of my songs and say,
um, I would like all of these works for this period of time for a month
to be entirely funding this project.
Um, and then that information would be, visible on a radio station
or Spotify
or Spotify or whatever.
And then everyone would be aware of this initiative, I'd be giving money to it.
They would be giving money to it by listening to it.
Right.
Um, and people could curate playlists in all kinds of different ways.
Um, so it's that kind of future that I I'm working towards.
That I'm excited about.
Fantastic
Yeah, it's very, it's very interesting.
because it's not necessarily, um, that the work itself is about climate change.
It's the way you consume it or distribute it or, um, you know,
access it that actually can say we don't have to do this in the old way.
That's necessarily polluting, or we can enjoy ourselves while you
know, doing something positive.
So the kind of the, the shift happens in a way, what you're describing is
sort of in parallel with the work.
And the music, which is wonderful.
Yeah, what Dan has really masterminded, um, is this from this
huge library and has amazing kind of brain to be able to conjure that
into these really lovely, like Sonic packages that he gives me of sound
that I can then go, oh, brilliant.
Here's my little creative, my little set of tools that I've got.
And if I go and it takes me into a space, so his reasoning for why they packaged
up in that way and his, his kind of experience out there in nature,
you know, the far corners of the earth, he can bring those stories to the podcast
and I can bring the stories of why that inspired certain, uh, this certain
piece of music, which is the under layer to your interviews, which is great.
Is this kind of like another life, another kind of parallel story
going on underneath, which kind of hopefully gives it even more weight
Absolutely
Sub consciously
Well we're so excited to have you.
Thank you again Imogen.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Lovely to meet you.