Imogen Heap Plans to Change Her Recording Process

Imogen Heap's new album, 'Ellipse,' debuted in the Top Five of the Billboard charts and has received largely glowing reviews. In light of that, what Heap learned during the making of the album might seem surprising. "If there's one thing that's come out it's I'm never gonna do another album like that again," she tells Spinner laughing. Like we said, not the response you expect to commercial and critical accolades.

"I'm never gonna go into a studio and work for a whole year non-stop. Just every day on my own in the studio working, it's just too damn hard," she says, adding that there were some serious self-doubts that crept in while flying solo. "I actually didn't enjoy quite a lot of it because it's just so tiring cause everyday you're faced with all these little voices in your head that are just like, 'You can't do it, you couldn't do it last night and you're not gonna do it tonight.'"

If that sounds harsh, Heap says it got even worse than that before she started working. "Once I actually get in the studio and I start working, I'm fine, but it's just getting there and these hours of torment with myself and self doubt, thinking I'm useless and who am I conning myself into thinking I can do it again. I don't want to feel like that when I make a record and I don't feel like that when I'm making a record with somebody else because you've got somebody to egg you on and encourage you."

After two-plus years working on 'Ellipse' and four years between albums, Heap is changing her approach. "I'm gonna do one song, release it, do a few other things, one song, release it, and over the course of four years I'll have 12 tracks and they will then be released as a physical copy with an extra track or something like that. There's no need for this kind of waiting around anymore," she says.

In addition to satisfying her fans, Heap's new philosophy of instant gratification will also benefit her. "I'm always putting things off cause I'm like, 'Oh, I can't do that until I finish my album and I can't go out with my family until I finish my album and I can't go out and go on holiday until I finish my album,'" she says. "I should be able to manage and live, go out and socialize and do the odd gig as well as make an album. I wanna be able to live a bit better in my mind and emotionally, but still make music."

So, no waiting four years for new Heap music and she gets a more fulfilling life. Sounds like a win-win to us.