My Friend took one year to make - 12 months to turn the neural connections firing in Chloé Raunet’s brain into the collection of sounds which stimulate the chemicals in our own brains.

Bands traditionally would re-record their demo in the studio, but because it is electronically based, Chloé was able to create most of the music at home. Since the early days of Battant she has gradually turned herself into a multi-instrumentalist, as well as a singer and lyricist. 

“I’ve got a bass guitar, a piano, and I do a lot of the instrumentation recording there and then, as I’m making the music. So I’ll be recording at the same time as I’m writing. The demo becomes your final track and it’s all one mesh of a process. 

“Occasionally there’ll be guitar lines which would be better played by someone who actually knows how to play! So at that point I’ll go to one of my friends and be like “Oh would you mind re-doing this line for me?” 

And does pressure from the label to get things finished ever interfere with the writing process?

“If anything I put pressure on them! “I’ve got this, I’ve got that, what are we gonna do?” It’s like I’m constantly on their case!”

Making music on your own can be quite insulating, so feedback from music friends and advisers, such as executive producer Ivan Smagghe, is very important. Are they honest?

“I hope they’re really honest.” 

So they don’t mind telling you your song is terrible?

“Totally, and I might have a little huff and then I’ll leave it and then three weeks later I’ll come back to it and be like - yeah they were right. 

“Or you’ll write something at first and it’ll be shit. But I think there’s always something, you know, there’s no wasted work. So 90% might be shit, chances are 10% you can use and turn into something else. So there’s a constant regeneration, reworking and for me that’s part of the process.”

For My Friend she also sought the input of an arranger, Rupert Cross, “an incredibly talented pitch-perfect musician”. The process began with her sending over tracks with information about what each is about.

Rupert says: “Either she would say: “I’m having a particular problem with this”, maybe structurally, or it needed some sort of counterpoint or she'll say: “I think it needs something else - have some fun with it.”

“It might be as simple as me saying: “All I would recommend here is making this section twice as long”. In another instance it might be writing something that runs throughout the whole piece which adds a new colour and a new direction.”

With his classical background did Rupert find it easy to switch on to that kind of music? Or do the same principles of making music apply across the genres?

“With Chloé she was very artistically confident and it was quite a unique and individual thing that it was very much responding to what she was saying and what she was doing, as opposed to listening to various styles and sounds trying to find something suitable.”

With the arrangements finished, live drums for tracks Sophomore and Angelina were recorded at the Redbull studios in Paris, where they also re-recorded the vocals.

The album was mostly mixed in Paris by engineer Fred Deces with certain tracks, such as HIJK, being mixed by Julien Briffaz of band Bot’Ox. This is when the fine-tuning takes place, the studied application of EQs and compressors takes an experienced ear. Instruments can mask each other and work at this stage can make the difference between a track sounding dull and hollow or full and clear.

“Ideally you’d want them all mixed by the same person but it didn’t work out like that”, says Chloé. “I think that’s a whole other process that is so important. I rely on a lot of people. It’s not just me. It’s me on my own that gets to do the interviews and have my mug on everything, but there’s a lot of people behind it. Ivan Smagghe executive producer and A&R role guiding me and giving me advice on tracks, Rupert the arranger, the professional musicians and then of course Thor Kolbrunarson, who I play live with!”

Decisions at this stage can change the sound so Chloé made sure she was present to oversee the whole mixing process: “There were times it got to be a bit of a boys’ club and I had to really muscle in like “No listen to me!” Because I’m not a producer, I know what I want but I’m not familiar with all the gear or anything. So it can be hard to make your voice heard in that situation...but I did. I managed to get my way. And I’m better equipped for next time.” 

She was also keen to ensure that her music was not sterilised: “It’s the mistakes, the imperfections - that’s what gives it character. I won’t correct my voice if I sing a bad note, I leave all of that in on purpose.”

Did she mark the end of the mixing with any kind of personal celebration?

“No. For me, especially with this album, I put a lot of pressure on myself, so once it was mixed I was like, “ok what’s next? Now I need to be getting the live up to scratch. I need to be getting gigs. I need to get an agent, need to make sure the album comes out”…There’s always something else that needs to be done to keep the momentum up.

"And I think if you’re not doing it yourself nowadays, no one’s gonna do it for you. So you have to be like “crrrr”. And that’s something else that probably winds people up about me - there’s always something more to do. If there’s nothing to do I’ll make something to do. My friends say I’m hyperactive in that sense.”