Guy Sigsworth

Allan Arthur Guy Sigsworth (born May 1960) is an English record producer and songwriter.

During his career, he has worked with many artists, including Seal, Björk, Goldie, Madonna, Britney Spears, Kate Havnevik, Imogen Heap, Bebel Gilberto, Mozez, David Sylvian, Alanis Morissette, Eric Whitacre, Alison Moyet, and AURORA.

He has also collaborated with many celebrated instrumental musicians, including Talvin Singh, Jon Hassell, and Lester Bowie.

He is a member of the duo Frou Frou, with Imogen Heap.

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.

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.

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".

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.

While working with Talvin Singh, Sigsworth met Björk, becoming keyboard player, and later music director, of her live band for two albums.

Sigsworth brought his early music sensibility to Björk's live performances and recordings, 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 the "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 celesta 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".

Sigsworth subsequently contributed to Zazou's 1994 album Chansons des mers froides, accompanying Björk.

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.

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.

Sigsworth co-produced the 1998 Mandalay album Empathy, which attracted the attention of Madonna.

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.

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.

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.