Guy Sigsworth

Early life

Allan Arthur Guy Sigsworth was born in May 1960 and grew up in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, where he developed a youthful passion for early music, especially the 14th-century composer Guillaume de Machaut. His earliest musical heroes were the multi-instrumentalist David Munrow and the maverick field recordist and composer David Fanshawe. He was a pupil at Leeds Grammar School in the 1970s. He studied the harpsichord, first at summer schools at the Casa de Mateus in Portugal, and later for a year at the Utrechts Conservatorium in the Netherlands. He toured Europe playing harpsichord for the European Union Baroque Orchestra.

Sigsworth has worked with various engineers and programmers of distinction. During the late 1990s, he worked with Damian Taylor, who has since engineered, programmed, and performed live with Björk; in the early 2000s, he worked with Sean McGhee, who has since produced Temposhark; and most recently, he has worked extensively with Andy Page, who has previously worked with Sasha, BT, and Harry Gregson-Williams.

Career

Seal

After returning to the UK, Sigsworth moved to London and made a sudden change of direction. He became fascinated with the burgeoning acid house sound, and immediately bought a Roland sampler and an Atari computer. He met musician Seal, co-writing four songs on his debut album: "Crazy", "The Beginning", "Wild", and "Violet", plus the B-side, "Sparkle". The album's producer, Trevor Horn, was the first pop record producer Sigsworth had ever met.

Bomb the Bass / Hector Zazou

Tim Simenon was also involved in work on Seal's song "Crazy", and Sigsworth soon became part of the regular production team of Simenon's band, Bomb the Bass, co-writing the UK No. 7 hit single "Winter in July". He also worked with Simenon on Hector Zazou's 1992 album Sahara Blue, performing alongside celebrated French actor Gérard Depardieu on the track "I'll Strangle You". Sigsworth subsequently contributed to Zazou's 1994 album Chansons des mers froides, accompanying Björk.

Talvin Singh

While working on sessions for Japanese drummer/producer Gota Yashiki, Sigsworth met virtuoso tabla player Talvin Singh. He subsequently played synthesizer and harpsichord for Singh's live shows, and later played and contributed remixes on Singh's debut album, OK.

"Survival Game"

In 1993, Sigsworth produced the benefit song "Survival Game" for the relief organization Menschen für Menschen in Ethiopia, founded by actor Karlheinz Böhm. The song was written by Mike Turtle and Dean Frederick. The track was later remixed by Paul Dakeyne and hit the charts in South America and Europe.

Björk

While working with Talvin Singh, Sigsworth met Björk, becoming keyboard player, and later music director, of her live band for two albums, adding harpsichord, clavichord, regal, and positive organ accompaniments to her music. His harpsichord can be heard on the song "Cover Me" from the album Post; the clavichord on the song "All Is Full of Love"; and organ on "Unravel" from Homogenic. "Unravel" was Sigsworth's first co-written song with Björk. Sigsworth also played celesta on Björk's cover of Joni Mitchell's "The Boho Dance". The instrument later became a feature on both Selmasongs (where he also contributed a string arrangement) and Vespertine, on which he co-wrote "Hidden Place", "An Echo, A Stain", "Sun in My Mouth", and "Harm of Will".

Imogen Heap

Sigsworth first met Imogen Heap in 1996 after a friend played him a demo of her song "Come Here Boy". He immediately fell in love with her distinctive voice. He was also amazed to hear that she shared his idiosyncratic love of melodies featuring wide, angular intervals—especially major 7ths and minor 9ths—which are not so common in pop. They wrote two songs together, "Getting Scared" and "Airplane", which Sigsworth produced for her debut album, I Megaphone. In return, Heap sang backing vocals on Sigsworth's band project with Alexander Nilere, Acacia.

G:MT

In 1999, Sigsworth scored the movie G:MT - Greenwich Mean Time, which included musical contributions from Imogen Heap, Talvin Singh, and free jazz virtuoso Lester Bowie.

Madonna

Sigsworth co-produced the 1998 Mandalay album Empathy, which attracted the attention of Madonna. This in turn led to him co-writing the song "What It Feels Like for a Girl" with Madonna and David Torn, for her 2000 album Music. Sigsworth also wrote the song "Nothing Fails" with Jem for Madonna's 2003 album American Life.

Frou Frou

Main article: Frou Frou

One night in Mumbai, India, where he was producing a song for British 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 band. It was simply a matter of Sigsworth wanting to hear various song ideas properly realized. As Heap said: "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 was texted 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.

Discography

Solo

• STET (2019)

Acacia

• Cradle (1997)

Frou Frou

• Details (2002)
• Off Cuts (EP, 2022)

As primary producer

• Mandalay – Empathy (1998)
• Baz – Psychedelic Love (2003)
• Kate Havnevik – Melankton (2006)
• Richard Walters – Pilot Lights EP (2007)
• Temposhark – The Invisible Line (2007)
• Alanis Morissette – Flavors of Entanglement (2008)
• Kate Havnevik – Me (2009)
• Diana Vickers – Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree (2010)
• Kate Havnevik – You (2011)
• Alanis Morissette – Havoc and Bright Lights (2012)
• Hildegard Von Bingen, Stevie Wishart & Sinfonye – Hildegard (2012)
• Alison Moyet – The Minutes (2013)
• Kate Havnevik – Residue (2014)
• Kate Havnevik – &i (2015)
• Alison Moyet – Other (2017)
• Jadu Heart – Melt Away (2019)
• Kate Havnevik – Lightship (2022)

Remixes

• Bomb the Bass – "The Air You Breathe (Real Mellow Mix)" (1991)
• Lio – "L'Autre Joue (L'Autre Mix)" (1991)
• Lio – "L'Autre Joue (Heaven Mix)" (1991)
• Dali – "Daylight (One For My Baby Mix)" (1995)
• Badmarsh & Shri – "Air I Breathe (Guy Sigsworth Remix)" (1998)
• Talvin Singh – "Vikram the Vampire (Heavy Rotation Refixx)" (1999)
• Talvin Singh – "OK (Heavy Rotation Refixx)" (1999)
• Björk – "All is Full of Love (Guy Sigsworth Remix)" (1999)
• David Sylvian – "Godman (Guy Sigsworth Remix)" (1999)
• Aphrodite – "See Thru It (Frou Frou Edit)" (2002)
• Bebel Gilberto – "O Caminho (Guy Sigsworth Mix)" (2005)
• Mirah – "La Familia (Guy Sigsworth Remix)" (2006)
• Diana Vickers – "Jumping Into Rivers (Frou Frou Central Mix)" (2010)
• Alison Moyet – "Changeling (Guy Sigsworth Remix)" (2013)
• Alison Moyet – "Right as Rain (Guy Sigsworth Remix)" (2013)
• Amy Lee – "Love Exists (Guy Sigsworth Mix)" (2017)
• Gia Margaret – "Solid Heart (Guy Sigsworth Remix)" (2021)

Work with other artists