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Online networks has revived your song Headlock, but how did it feel 20 years ago when you had to create, advertise and market the Speak For Yourself album almost entirely solo?

In those days if you were fortunate you got into music or style publications. The primary exposure I got was in the electronic music journals, but then the track Hide and Seek was in The OC, Headlock got on the radio and I started getting recognition. I wish platforms like TikTok existed and all this complimentary marketing in that era … but if I’d received then the kind of focus I get now, I might have made alternative decisions, so I don’t regret a thing.

Did you actually take out a loan on your flat to finance Speak For Yourself?

Over a four-year period making an album in my band Frou Frou on Island Records, but it never recouped so I didn’t receive any payment. Creating more music with that label would have felt like revisiting a failed partnership. Once I left that contract, no bank would offer a loan. Then I realised that my two-bedroom flat in Waterloo I’d bought for that price was worth an increased value a year later. I took out a new loan to make the album and had no regrets. Amusingly, after all the social media buzz recently I’ve just received my initial payments from Frou Frou after 25 years.

More than 20 years ago, you recorded and toured with Jeff Beck. How did the collaboration come about?

I encountered Jeff when I was 19 at a creative retreat in a historic property in the Dordogne. I was the junior participant and introverted so I got fairly inebriated. I was sitting outside attempting music to myself and Jeff said: “Let me show you some shapes.” I said: “Wow, you’re good!” Later that night I ended up operating a golf caddy around the estate and crashing into Miles’s mum’s prized terracotta pots. A week later I got a message from my manager asking: “Did you meet Jeff Beck?” He told me he was this renowned artist – I was unaware – who wanted me to sing on his record. I sang his gorgeous Nadia as best I could and did some shows with him. He was a gentle soul and I admired him greatly. Many individuals from that generation are just so grateful to have been able to do what they loved all those years, and their humility is notable in comparison to the amount of fame they had.

‘Imagine having online platforms and all this no-cost advertising 20 years ago’ … Imogen Heap, London, 2006.

The Listening Chair is a personal musical piece, intended to grow periodically every multiple years. How hard was it to summarize a timeframe into 60 seconds?

I don’t know if I did it very effectively, but I sat in a actual seat and asked audiences: “What music deserves creation?” There were hundreds and hundreds different answers, but all connected to life stages. For anyone aged 0-7 it was single word answers like “piano” or “piano”, from childhood it was playful, teen years was about personal identity and adulthood “career dissatisfaction and that maybe I shouldn’t be with my partner.” I never got around to 35-42 because my family loss in my that period and I was unable to continue, but I’m about to release the last installment, a extended composition called that name, about my current self. The Listening Chair is all accurate. The line “Wonderbra thrown around the German classroom … I’ll never live it down” is about the time my acquaintance – took my silly undergarment out of my drawer and discarded it. Then everyone passed it around. I was mortified.

How did you get the inspiration for that joyful music? It always pleases my one-year-old whenever I put it on, so I appreciate it.

The baby milk company that organization wanted to create a piece of music that would make children joyful, so they put me in a research setting. I iterated various bits of music depending on their feedback. My two-year-old daughter Scout started some of the musical phrases. We’d taken her to the a museum so that’s where “the fun sounds” comes from. The sound at the start is her laughing at my friend’s cat. Children adore that track, but it soothes adults, too.

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

I regret it now for some of the things I did. The final incident came when I told the supervisor rudely and they dismissed me, but they still needed me to be the highlight for the final show, so I ended up residing temporarily and she was really kind to me. I just found boarding school extremely dull. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD and autism, which might explain why I’ve always wanted to innovate and do different projects.

What different looks have you sported?

In recent times, actually, all kinds of vibrant colors. When I was younger I had self-image concerns, so like I’d wear garments to make my legs not look so slender or wear over-the-top costumes with decorations. For the many years I’d tease my hair into a huge bush because I felt my head was too petite. It’s only in the past six years I’ve realised I actually appreciate my appearance – I just needed to stick some layers in it.

Many years since your last proper album. Will we ever get a follow-up?

Certainly, I did the soundtrack work [The Music of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – in Four Contemporary Suites], and a previously I made the music to an Audible podcast called the project with my zoologist/film-maker friend Dan O’Neill, who gave me a collection of audio like insects croaking underground, which we turned into a extended work. I just got bored of the song structure, but now I’m really enthusiastic about improvisation and making up lyrics in the moment. I’ve spent thousands of hours caged up in the studio and I’ve sacrificed personally. There will be a record shortly which will be the conclusion of that phase but I’m more passionate about instantaneous composition.

‘I dedicated extensive time to recording and I’ve sacrificed experiences’ … The artist performs in Los Angeles, the near future.

In 2014, Taylor Swift invited fans to her property to hear her new album 1989 while she offered treats. It seemed a very characteristically personal thing to do. Had you discussed listener connection when you collaborated on the closing track, that title?

No. I think, like me, she just enjoys public response. I’m constantly dragging people to the studio going: “Can I play this?” It’s rewarding to see if something you’ve just finished resonates with others people. I’ve had numerous listeners round to events at my house and I’m sure her fans are as welcoming.

Previously, a article about your goals to use artificial intelligence onstage. Fans expressed concerns. Is it still active?

A hundred percent. When people think of artificial intelligence they maybe think of this conscious brain making all the music while I’m sitting there being a puppet. I see it as a partnership. Say I’m in a outdoor space and there’s {dog sounds