Guy Sigsworth - Frou Frou

Frou Frou

One night in Mumbai, India, where he was producing a song for UK Asian artist Amar, Sigsworth composed a tune on his Yamaha QY20 pocket sequencer. As soon as he arrived back in London, he took it to Imogen Heap, and asked her to write a top line for it. It became "Flicks", their first song for what would become the Frou Frou album Details. Originally, there was no plan for Sigsworth and Heap to form a "proper" band. It was simply a matter of Sigsworth wanting to hear various song ideas properly realized. As Heap says: "Every month or so Guy would phone me up and say 'I've got a new song, would you come in and sing it?' and then before we knew it we'd already started the album."

As a linking concept for the emerging set of songs, Sigsworth suggested two ideas for the lyrics:

1. They should feel like one half of a conversation rather than singer-on-a-soapbox declarations. Sigsworth's inspiration for this was the 1932 Jean Cocteau play La voix humaine (the entire text of the play consists of one side of a telephone conversation between a woman and her former lover. Her lover's words are never heard but are inferred from her words).
2. The word "love" should be used as often as possible.

Sigsworth wrote the lyrics to the songs "Breathe In", "Only Got One" and "The Dumbing Down Of Love", and co-wrote the lyrics to "Let Go", "It's Good To Be In Love", and "Psychobabble" on Details. Heap wrote the remaining lyrics, apart from "Maddening Shroud", which has lyrics by Alexander Nilere.

After eleven songs had been completed, Heap and Sigsworth set about finding a name for their collaborative effort. Sigsworth, a fan of all things French, came up with "Frou Frou", which Heap loved. The name comes from Rimbaud's 1870 poem "Ma Bohème", and is a French onomatopoeic word originally meaning the swishing noise made by skirts on dancing women. The album title, "Details", was a reference to the way the songs were constructed in the studio, by layering momentary details of sounds and performances to create a web of sound.

The album was released in 2002 on Universal Records. It was critically acclaimed, but did not achieve mass sales. "Breathe In" was released as the first single internationally, and reached number two on the Italian radio airplay charts, but follow up singles, "Must Be Dreaming" and "It's Good To Be In Love" were never commercially released in the UK. A video was also made for "The Dumbing Down of Love", directed by Joel Peissig (who later directed Heap's solo video, "Hide and Seek"). After touring the record extensively across the United States, where the duo had established a cult fan base, Frou Frou disbanded in 2003.

Heap and Sigsworth temporarily reformed Frou Frou to record a cover version of "Holding Out for a Hero", originally recorded by Bonnie Tyler, for the Shrek 2 soundtrack. The duo were approached by the music director of the film, who had been a fan of their album. The resulting track is played during the end credits of the film. Frou Frou also experienced a resurgence in popularity in 2004, when Scrubs star, Zach Braff chose album track "Let Go" for his independent film, Garden State. Other Frou Frou tracks have been included on television series, such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Roswell High.

Despite disbanding only after one album (Heap and Sigsworth remain firm friends and meet regularly to catch up on things, but are currently focused on separate musical projects), Frou Frou's musical influence has remained widespread and both Heap and Sigsworth have seen an increase in interest in their projects post-collaboration.