Signed to Paris’ blisteringly hot Kill The DJ label - who’s The Vinyl Collection compilation Steve Mackey was rinsing at the Giles A/W 09 show - they have taken the city of light already. Now, with their Ivan Smagghe and Tim Paris produced debut about to drop over here, it’s our turn. Black t-shirts and plimsolls at the ready, everyone...
Dean Mayo Davies: You’ve built up quite a cult in France already; you have that dark, energetic side but also I think the fact you’re real thinkers is particularly captivating. Do you think this is what people have found romance in?
Chloe: That would definitely be encouraging, although I’m not sure intellect is the first thing the majority of people are drawn to when it comes to music.
Joel: I think there is nostalgia in the music we make and nostalgia is really romantic.
Tim: Maybe, I always like it when you read an interview with a band and you come away with a couple of records that you wanna check out, a book to read and maybe a film you have never heard of to find. None of us really imagine ourselves as 'thinkers' though, worriers maybe... We get accused of taking ourselves too seriously, which is not the case, but many bands these days are so ironic I guess we may come across as a reaction to them.
DMD: Chloe, can we talk about your words? You paint such vivid pictures with your lyrics. Did you spend years keeping a diary as a teenager? And do you have a favourite metaphor or line from any of your tracks?
Chloe: I did keep a diary in my early teens and from the age of about 16, started writing loads of poetry. There are a few lines I quite like, but I reckon one of my favourites is “Gone are the hours that we soak like biscuits”…
DMD: The songwriting process is such an intimate, idiosyncratic thing that’s different for everyone. Can you tell us how it works for Battant? Do you lock yourselves away for months at a time or prefer to knock tracks out punk-rock style?
Joel: We are quite slow at finishing songs but pretty good at knocking ideas out. The album is about 4 years worth of songs. As far as writing goes we generally pass ideas around from laptop to laptop. Recently we’ve got a bit bored of this so we are going to try some improvised stuff.
Chloe: Yeah sometimes it starts with a doodle someone’s composed or some lyrics and melody… When it came to doing the album, Tim Paris and Ivan Smagghe contributed a lot as well. We had the songs recorded the way we were doing them live and when we started working with them, they rearranged loads of the music. Songs like ‘The Butcher’ and ‘Bruise’, changed completely.
Tim: The writing process can be very fast, but sometimes it can take ages. On this record most of it was written by me sending Chloe a instrumental demo and then her writing some lyrics. That or Chloe writes the lyrics first and then we write the music to go with it. Joel wasn't in the band when a lot of this album was written, but in the future I expect we'll bounce things between the three of us.
DMD: What has been the band’s biggest influence? Is there anything away from music that has driven you? I think there’s a bit of Bauhaus in there, maybe - the school, not the band...
Joel: I think there are different things rather than one collective influence. Late 70’s performance work is for me really important – taking ideas to there most basic, minimal sensibilities I suppose.
Chloe: Yeah funnily enough, even before Joel joined I was drawing inspiration from performance art. The sleeve of our self-released 7” was inspired by a Vito Acconci performance from the early 70’s where he attempts to eat every part of his body. More recently we looked to Marina Abramovic for the direction of the ‘Radio Rod’ video. God how wanky does that sound?!
Tim: I guess I can see the Bauhaus thing in our look and artwork. Personally Martin Heidegger, David Cronenberg and the Russian Nihilists, but that's just me!
DMD: How would you describe your music? There’s been some great adjectives in the press already: ‘primitive techno’, ‘dark, skeletal music’.
Chloe: I’d say it’s raw, kind of awkward, analogue pop music.
Joel: I think primitive is a really interesting idea. We make basic, nostalgic music but we use relatively hi-tech gear to imitate lo-tech sounds. I like that sort of confusion, and it’s an interesting paradox.
Tim: It’s normally better to have others describe your music for you, I guess it’s minimalist, but not 'minimal', we try to emphasise 'the song' and not have to much extraneous production. Lots of the music I am really into was made simply with what the musician had to hand at the time, either due to lack of money or knowledge. These days it is so easy to make crisp, rich music on a laptop, I think it is good to use only a couple of instruments to put constraints on yourself and have to work like people did in the past. It’s not really about being retro, it makes you find out new ways of doing things.
DMD: What I love about Kill The DJ is that the label seems like a real family, where you cross-collaborate and create your own culture. Aside from your own gigs, fans are equally likely to catch you on a night off hanging out and dancing to a Chloé set at a club. What’s the best thing about Kill The DJ and do you have any anecdotes from your adventures?
Chloe: God there are so many good things about Kill The DJ. Yes they are family now and I particularly admire the way they so fiercely stick-to and defend the things they believe in. The adventures are definitely beginning to stack up but I’m not sure how many are for public consumption.
Tim: Kill The DJ are a really cool bunch, and its such a small operation I find myself quite touched by the stuff they do for us. They only release music they genuinely are into, not just whatever is fashionable at the time.
Joel: There’s a real friends and family attitude at Kill The DJ that’s very humbling. I think Gay Pride in Paris was an adventure. Chloe and myself ended up getting hauled onto the Pulp float with the girls from our label trying to avoid drinks that were spiked with some girl’s piss. It was really funny.
DMD: Andrew Weatherall and Ivan Smagghe are real mentors to the band. Do you remember when you first met? What were your first impressions of each other?
Chloe: The first time I properly met Andrew was in Brighton when Two Lone Swordsmen were doing Tiny Reminders live. I was pretty intimidated by him but I don’t reckon he was much phased by me. And Ivan? I didn’t meet him ‘til Wrong Meeting. I thought he was an amazing DJ, super hot but unapproachable. Despite having discussions with him about the record deal, I don’t think he properly connected with me ‘til we played a KTDJ party at Cabaret Sauvage in Paris.
Tim: Andrew has supported as almost from the beginning, to some extent I don't know if we would still be together if it wasn't for him. I was a fan before we met, which was around the Haywire parties he regularly played at. We share a studio and he is always inspiring. It was Andrew who introduced us to Ivan, they were doing a regular club night together in London called 'Wrong Meeting' which we played at, Ivan then introduced us to Kill The DJ.
DMD: You’re gigging a lot this summer and playing a lot in the UK too, starting at Shoreditch’s Stag & Dagger festival on 21st May. What would be on your ideal rider? And what would be your ideal line-up to play as part of? You’ve supported some amazing acts like Nitzer Ebb...
Joel: Yello, David Sylvian, The Human League without the girls, Drexciya and Pylon.
Chloe: Ideal rider: A bottle of Rip Van Winkle bourbon, an espresso machine, some not-yet-invented class-a drug, a large bowl of ‘Fruti di Bosco’ Haribo (a rare Italian version of my favourite sweets) and some kittens. Ideal line-up: ESG, The XX, The Kills, Brigitte Fontaine and The Breeders (that’d make for a pretty big night though – maybe we’d have to make it a mini festival, in which case I’d add a few more).
Tim: Ideal rider?! Dunno, beef tartar and crisp new plimsoles...? Ideal line-up is a hard one, La Dusseldorf, Dj Deeon and Link Wray.
DMD: Finally, can we expect any DJ sets from you soon? Joel’s done some great mixes, like the ‘Music For A Nervous Flyer’ promo. Would you ever indulge that side and put on your own club do you think?
Joel: Every now and then it’s nice to DJ. I like making mixes. I don’t know if we have the energy to put nights on. It’s too much hard work.
Tim: Joel and I both DJ and we are all very much into dance music, though I'm not a big fan of promoting club nights. It would be cool choosing others to play, maybe that is one for the future.
Chloe: I’ll play records but don’t expect them to be mixed. And I gotta sit with Joel when it comes to a club. Too much work.
DMD.
Battant’s debut album ‘No Head’ is released in the UK on June 1st. The band play Shoreditch’s Stag & Dagger festival on May 21st and Be @ Proud on May 23rd.