Imogen Heap

Waving, not raving: Imogen Heap conducts music mid-air with motion-sensing gloves

Imogen Heap doesn’t just wave her hands in the air—she repurposes them as digital instruments. With her Mi.Mu gloves, she choreographs sound through gesture, bending pitch, tempo, and effects mid-air like sound waves had manners.

The gloves, a peculiar hybrid of fashion tech and sonic sorcery, reframe what a performer is and does. Heap drags music production off the laptop and onto the stage, where motion becomes method, and control is literally at her fingertips.

Imogen Heap remortgaged her flat, TikTok finally sends a royalty check

Diagnosed with ADHD and autism, Imogen Heap fields questions on solo marketing her album Speak For Yourself long before TikTok reshaped music promotion. She recalls scraping media attention, except a brush with NME and the serendipitous placement of Hide and Seek on The OC, which quietly nudged her into public view.

Unable to borrow money, she remortgaged her modest Waterloo flat to fund the record after exiting a fruitless label deal. Two decades on, TikTok's resurrection of Frou Frou lands her a royalty check—for the first time in 25 years.