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Social media has repopularised your song Headlock, but how did it feel in the early 2000s when you had to create, advertise and market the Speak For Yourself album almost entirely solo?

Back then if you were fortunate you got into popular press outlets. The only real coverage I got was in the electronic music journals, but then the track Hide and Seek was in a television series, Headlock got on the broadcasts and I started getting acknowledgment. If only we could have had TikTok and all this no-cost advertising 20 years ago … but if I’d received then the kind of focus I get now, I might have made changed paths, so I would keep everything the same.

Is it true you refinanced your flat to finance Speak For Yourself?

Over a four-year period making an album in [the electronic duo] Frou Frou on a record company, but it didn’t break even so I didn’t receive any payment. Creating more music with that label would have felt like revisiting a failed partnership. When I terminated that agreement, no bank would provide financing. Then I realised that my home in that area I’d bought for a specific amount was worth an increased value a year later. I remortgaged it to make the album and moved forward confidently. Interestingly, after all the attention on TikTok recently I’ve just received my first royalties from Frou Frou after decades.

Over two decades back, you recorded and toured with a legendary guitarist. How did the partnership begin?

I met Jeff when I was 19 at a creative retreat in a historic property in the a region. I was considerably less experienced and shy so I got fairly inebriated. I was sitting outside strumming poorly to myself and Jeff said: “Allow me to teach you.” I said: “Wow, you’re good!” Afterwards I ended up steering a golf caddy around the estate and hitting Miles’s mum’s prized terracotta pots. Seven days after I got a message from my manager asking: “You spoke with Jeff Beck?” He told me he was this really famous, legendary guitarist – It surprised me – who wanted me to sing on his record. I sang his song Nadia as best I could and did some shows with him. He was a kind person and I admired him greatly. A lot of people from that generation are just so grateful to have been able to do what they loved all those years, and their egos are very small in comparison to the amount of recognition they received.

‘I wish social media existed and all this free promotion back then’ … Heap, her location, the mid-2000s.

Her autobiographical work is a personal musical piece, intended to update [with an added minute] every a seven-year cycle. How hard was it to distill a seven-year period into a brief segment?

I’m unsure about my success, but I sat in a physical listening chair and asked audiences: “What music deserves creation?” There were countless different answers, but all connected to life stages. For anyone aged very young it was basic terms like “cat” or “piano”, from 7-14 it was fun, teen years was about wanting to be themselves and 28-35 “career dissatisfaction and that maybe I personal reevaluation.” I never got around to 35-42 because my personal tragedy in my 42nd year and I just couldn’t do it, but I’m about to release the final piece, a lengthy track called that name, about who I am now. The Listening Chair is all factual. The line “Embarrassing school incident … I’ll never live it down” is about the time my schoolmate – took my embarrassing item out of my drawer and threw it through the German classroom window. Then everyone passed it around. I was humiliated.

How did you get the inspiration for that joyful music? It reliably cheers my young child whenever I put it on, so gratitude.

A formula brand that organization wanted to create a song that would make babies happier, so they put me in a research setting. I experimented with sounds depending on their reactions. My two-year-old daughter Scout started some of the tunes. We’d taken her to the an exhibition so that’s where “bing bing on the bicycle, beep beep in the car” comes from. The sound at the outset is her amused by an animal. Kids love The Happy Song, but it relaxes caregivers, too.

Were you really a rebel at school and if so what were you resisting?

I regret it now for some of the things I did. The final incident came when I told the supervisor rudely and they removed me, but they still needed me to be the star performer for the end-of-term concert, so I ended up living in the headmistress’s house and she was very supportive. I just found residential education tedious. I was recently diagnosed with specific conditions, which might explain why I’ve always wanted to create change and do new things.

What shades have you tried?

In recent times, actually, all kinds of green and stuff. When I was younger I had personal insecurities, so like I’d wear leg warmers to make my legs not look so slender or wear over-the-top costumes with embellishments. For the many years I’d style my hair into a voluminous style because I felt my head was too petite. It’s only in the recent period I’ve realised I actually like my hair – I just needed to stick some layers in it.

It’s been 11 years since your last full-length release. Will we ever get a another album?

Actually, I did the themed project [The Music of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – in Four Contemporary Suites], and a recently I made the music to an Audible podcast called Climate of Change with my associate Dan O’Neill, who gave me a bunch of sounds like insects croaking underground, which we turned into a extended work. I just got bored of the song structure, but now I’m really excited about freestyling and improvising vocally. I’ve spent thousands of hours isolated creatively and I’ve foregone experiences. There will be a record shortly which will be the final piece of that old world but I’m more enthused by live creation.

‘My studio work consumed me and I’ve foregone opportunities’ … Heap plays in Los Angeles, spring 2025.

In 2014, that artist invited fans to her property to hear her new album the release while she offered treats. It seemed a very Imogen Heap thing to do. Had you discussed fan interaction when you partnered musically, the track?

No. I think, like me, she just values audience feedback. I’m constantly inviting listeners going: “Can I play this?” It’s meaningful to see if something you’ve just finished resonates with others people. I’ve had lots of fans round to gatherings and I’m sure her fans are as nice as mine.

Previously, a piece about your ambition to use AI to enhance your live performances. Fans expressed concerns. Is it still progressing?

Definitely. When people think of artificial intelligence they maybe think of this autonomous system making all the music while I’m sitting there being a puppet. I see it as a cooperative effort. Say I’m in a outdoor space and there’s {dog sounds