Imogen Heap

Imogen Heap

Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

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Inside Imogen Heap's Interactive 'Creative Passport' Project & Mycelia World Tour

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The GRAMMY-winning artist and tech innovator brings together live concerts, interactive workshops and tech talks to nine cities across North America
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Dec 10, 2018 - 5:16 pm

Fans of multi-instrumentalist songwriter/producer and multi-media artist Imogen Heap have learned to expect the unexpected from their hero. Never one to disappoint creatively, Heap's latest endeavor is also one of her most ambitious.

The GRAMMY winner has announced a nine-city North American leg of her Mycelia World Tour, complete with the launch of a new project, 'Creative Passport,' which integrates concerts, workshops and discussions to push the typical limits of what a live tour can mean.

The continuation of her Mycelia World Tour follows successful stints across Europe during 2018 and will make stops in major U.S. cities between April and June 2019, including Miami, New York, Chicago, Toronto, Seattle and San Francisco. The tour is named after Heap's research and development hub aimed at cultivating a fairer payment system for artists by establishing a music maker database.

Billed in a statement from Heap as "promoting a fair and flourishing future for the Music Industry," her 'Creative Passport' project is geared toward, "realising a vision of the future which sees music makers connected through a verified and decentralised ecosystem, promoting artist-led, fair and sustainable operating practices."

The slate of events for each tour stop includes some or all of several elements, including solo concerts from Heap as well as reunited duo appearances with Guy Sigsworth as electronic duo Frou Frou for the first time since 2003.

'Creative Passport' also offers workshops with local music makers, technologists and industry influencers, workshops for families where children will get to build and code their own MIni.MU gloves (Heap's proprietary electronic instrument of the future) and talks given by Heap on "technologies which are positively shaping the future of the music ecosystem, building better business and audience relations with music makers."

“For years now we’ve been complaining about the state of the music industry and how it has been held back by old ways of thinking, negatively impacting music makers–a major pain point being that we are the first to put in any of the work, and the last to see any financial reward or even payment," explains Heap. "Through Mycelia and its ‘Creative Passport,’ as music makers we now have no excuse but to put our best foot forward and become open for business, decentralising the ecosystem so that it will ultimately benefit everyone. I am excited to be going on the road to bring this to life, in addition to showcasing other new technologies which will add to transforming the music industry into a fair, flourishing and vibrant place”.

Heap released her debut album, iMegaphone, back in 1998 and has spent the past two decades surprising her fans with her classically trained yet wildly innovative interpolations of pop music. While her work has always pushed the boundaries between music and visual media, her sounds reached her widest audience yet as a producer on Taylor Swift's GRAMMY-winning album 1989, which earned Heap her second career GRAMMY Award.

Tickets for Heap's North American dates of her Mycelia World Tour go on-sale to the general public on Friday, Dec. 14 at 10:00 a.m. For full details, visit her website.

Imogen Heap's Life Of A Song Project Shows Who Gets Paid

Imogen Heap

Imogen Heap

Photo: Walter McBride/Getty Images

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Imogen Heap's Life Of A Song Project Shows Who Gets Paid

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No more "Hide And Seek" for song payouts, as Heap's new open-source project visually shows where the money has flowed over the years from her iconic 2005 song
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Oct 23, 2018 - 4:11 pm

Ever an innovator, GRAMMY-winning musician Imogen Heap has recently been focused on creating futuristic tools to support music makers with her organization Mycelia, which bills itself as "connecting dots for music makers."  They launched their latest project, "Life Of A Song," on Oct. 23, which connects the dots of the royalty data from her song "Hide And Seek."

The data for "Hide And Seek" is comprehensive over the more than 13 years since the song's release in 2005, with more than $1 million in revenues. Mycelia's Life Of A Song project breaks down the revenue flow that viewers can explore in an interactive, detailed way. The changing geometry of the visual data representation shifts, letting a user turn off different sources of revenue — such as public performances, broadcast or digital — to see how that morphs the colorful, graph.

The Life Of A Song platform fits within Heap's — and Mycelia's — larger work using blockchain, decentralized computer systems and other cutting-edge technology-based projects. She explained to Forbes that Mycelia and her passion is "about convincing the music makers to claim the space which is theirs." For Heap, that includes making this platform open source, so fairness can ultimately become a feature of future computer-based, music payment-tracking systems.

Besides being on a tour that blends speaking engagements with music performances, Heap also supplied the musical accompaniment to the play Harry Potter And The Cursed Child — a sensation in the UK and U.S. Her reworked soundtrack will be issued by Sony Music Masterworks on Nov. 2 as The Music Of Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, Parts One And Two In Four Contemporary Suites.

The Oral History Of Taylor Swift's 1989

GRAMMYs

Alan Palomo

Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

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Neon Indian Returns With Invasion Musical Total Tour Of North America

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Alan Palomo plots his chillwave project's extensive run of dates this fall
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 16, 2019 - 4:47 pm

Mexico-born, Texas-raised music machine Alan Palomo has annunced an extensive fall North American tour for the return of his chillwave project Neon Indian. 

The Invasion Musical Total Tour kicks off October 9 at The Glass House in Pomona, Calif., after a quartet of “¡Eso Es!” shows Aug. 29-31 and Sept. 1 with Empres Of, La Goony Chonga and more. The tour runs 29 dates across the U.S., Mexico and Canada before coming to a close Nov. 29 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Palomo's most recent Neon Indian album is 2015's VEGA INTL. Night School, but he's been busy of late, directing a short film last year called 86'd and creating it's theme song, "Heaven's Basement."

A full list of dates and ticket info is available at Neon Indian's website, with tickets for all shows before Oct. 8 already on sale.

Cuco Releases "Feelings" Ahead Of Debut Album 'Para Mi,' Announces L.A. Celebration

Music Educator Award

Photo: WireImage.com

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Incredible Educators: 10 Finalists Announced For 2019 Music Educator Award

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Meet the nation's best music teachers in the running for The Recording Academy and GRAMMY Museum's ultimate educator honor
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Dec 12, 2018 - 12:30 pm

For students of all levels, the benefits of music education are clear. But it's the teachers providing the instruction who make the most lasting impression.

Today the Recording Academy and GRAMMY Museum announced 10 finalists for the 2019 Music Educator Award, which recognizes current educators, kindergarten through college, who have made a significant and lasting contribution in the field of music education.

Coming from 10 cities across six, these 10 names represent the nation's elite music educators, and were selected from over 2,800 initial nominations from all 50 states.

  • Jeremy Bradstreet, Dublin Coffman High School, Dublin, Ohio
  • Victor de los Santos, Santa Ana High School, Santa Ana, Calif.
  • Elizabeth Hering, Churchill High School, Canton, Mich.
  • Henry Miller, Sierra Vista Middle School, Lake Forest, Calif.
  • Amy Rangel, Glendale High School, Burbank, Calif.
  • Jeffery Redding, West Orange High School, Orlando, Fla.
  • Scott Sheehan, Hollidaysburg Area Senior High School, Hollidaysburg, Pa.
  • Mickey Smith Jr., Maplewood Middle School, Sulphur, La.
  • Craig Snyder, Penncrest High School, Garnet Valley, Pa.
  • John Weatherspoon, Lake Worth Community High School, West Palm Beach, Fla.

The award is open to current U.S. music teachers, and anyone can nominate a teacher—students, parents, friends, colleagues, community members, school deans, and administrators. Teachers are also able to nominate themselves, and nominated teachers are notified and invited to fill out an application.

From these finalists, one recipient will be selected as the sixth annual honoree and be flown to Los Angles to attend the 61st GRAMMY Awards and various GRAMMY Week events. The nine additional finalists will receive a $1,000 honorarium, and the schools of all 10 finalists will receive matching grants. Fifteen semifinalists will receive a $500 honorarium with matching grants as well. The matching grants are made possibly by the generous support of the GRAMMY Museum's Education Champion Ford Motor Company Fund.

Does all this make an incredible music educator come to mind? Nominations for the 2020 Music Educator Award are now open at grammymusicteacher.com

Education Champions: 2019 Music Educator Award Semifinalists Announced

Turntable playing a vinyl record
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What's The Difference? GRAMMY For Album vs. Record Of The Year Explained

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If you don't know, now you know—here's the lowdown on two of music's most well-known yet often-confused terms, especially as they pertain to the GRAMMY Awards
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Dec 9, 2018 - 9:01 am

How many albums are in your record collection? You see, confusion between the terms "album" and "record" are nothing new, as vinyl albums and vinyl records are often called “records”—but this terminology has roots in the history of both.

In the early days of vinyl, a 45-rpm (meaning "revolutions per minute") disc would hold one recording on each side, with an "A-side” —usually the hit single—and a "B-side," meaning a second single, outtake or sleeper hit.

Later, when long-playing records came around at 33 1/3-rpm, more music could be stored on each side because the rotation speed was slower, and "tracks" were born. A series of recorded songs, or tracks, could now fit on a single vinyl and make it an album.

Makes sense? Good! Now let's see how this applies to two GRAMMY Award categories in the General Field: Album Of The Year and Record Of The Year…

Album Of The Year, Explained

Fast-forward to today, when music is enjoyed in a multitude of formats: So, what makes an album eligible for the Album Of The Year category of the GRAMMY Awards? According the Recording Academy official Awards Department guidelines, recordings must contain at least five different tracks and a total playing time of 15 minutes or a total playing time of at least 30 minutes with no minimum track requirement.

Watch: Bruno Mars Wins Album Of The Year

Voters in this category are expected to consider the quality and artistry of the collection of tracks as a whole, and this GRAMMY is awarded to any artist, featured artist, songwriter of new material, producer, recording engineer, mixer, and mastering engineer with at least 33 percent playing time of the album. For example, last year at the 60th GRAMMY Awards, Bruno Mars' 24K Magic won Album Of The Year.

Record Of The Year, Explained

On the other hand, the Record Of The Year category awards a single track and recognizes the artist’s performance as well as the overall contributions of the producer(s), recording engineer(s), and/or mixer(s), and mastering engineer(s). Bonus points if you read up on how this category is distinguished from Song Of The Year (hint: Song Of The Year is a Songwriter(s) Award…).

Whitney Houston Wins Record Of The Year

For example, at the 59th GRAMMY Awards, Adele's mega-hit "Hello" won Record Of The Year. Her album 25 also won Album Of The Year, but "Hello," being an individual track on that album, was eligible and victorious for Record Of The Year.

In both cases, with Album Of The Year and Record Of The Year, recordings must be released in the proper eligibility period and available to the public as stand-alone purchases or audio-only streams, although exceptions are made for opera and music video/film.

For further information on the contrast between these formats, the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame is filled with both, clearly labeled. For more helpful information on the GRAMMY Awards process, including key dates, a process overview and FAQs, head over to GRAMMY101.com.

See The Full List Of Nominees For The 61st GRAMMY Awards