Inspired #75 - IMOGEN
Newcastle’s IMOGEN has just released her new single ‘I Wish I Were You’, she took a moment to talk to us about the track and the inspirations behind it.
Who are your top three musical inspirations?
It’s so hard to choose as I’m constantly inspired by new artists but if I were to go back to my roots probably…
George Harrison - As a tiny child The Beatles soundtracked every day. George’s songs were always my favourite, I think down to his use of melody, subtleties in his lyrics and softness in his tone. All aspects that encouraged me to write in the first place.
Joni Mitchell - I think Blue was the first album I listened to in full. I got to the Last Time I saw Richard and fell apart. It’s hard to believe these songs were composed, it more like they just fell to earth.
Nina Simone - Little Girl Blue introduced me to drama. The theatre that can come about from just piano and vocal. The rawness of her vocal delivery and the extension of herself in to the piano… her ability to captivate, to stop time even, especially in her live performances, is truly moving.
Is there a certain film that inspires you?
I love ‘Withnail and I’, the script is so poetic, satirical, hilarious and deeply sad. Mood. I first watched it when I was around 15 and the way Robinson explores the nuances of a friendship in the mundane of everyday life inspired some of my own writing and focus on human connection and fallibility. Sadness, but in the most poetic way?
What city do you find the most inspiring?
Every time I go home to Newcastle I churn out a lot of music. I think I absorb wherever I’ve been or whatever I’ve been through in my time away and home gives me the space and comfort to explore these ideas fully. I walk the streets I know, potter around the house I grew up in and measure my experiences against them. It gives me a valuable perspective.
Who is the most inspiring person to you?
My parents are incredible souls, as is my younger sister. I feel extremely lucky to have been born into their company.
What are the key inspirations behind the track?
The concept of ‘I Wish I Were You’ came from some personal experiences with infirmity. I wanted to capture, both sonically and lyrically, the sensation of being unable to be free in your own body coupled with the overwhelming desire to be, or to be someone else entirely. The lyrics change from ‘I wish I were you’ to ‘I wish I were with you’ as a comment on the duality of jealousy and attraction when seeing someone else move so freely and effortlessly when you’re unable to. The desire to be in the shower with them but also be in the shower as them. But, of course, another’s perceived freedom can be deceiving and not everyone is truly happy within themselves. I guess this is a lament of this viciously human cycle.
In terms of the imagery, it made sense to me to pay homage to the starlets of 1950s Hollywood. The pinnacles of perfection, who the masses aspired to be, but with deeply dark and upsetting personal lives that the cameras didn’t capture, or people chose not to see. Of course, this is with hindsight, but there’s a chill to those paparazzi photos of Marylin Monroe, eyes wide, head back, teeth bared. So free in your cage.