10 Music Week 21.11.14 FEATURE n BY CORAL WILLIAMSON
ON THE RADAR C.A.R. Y
ou may remember Chloé Raunet’s name from her previous stint as singer in
London coldwave band Battant. Remaining signed to French
label Kill The DJ, which released the band’s two albums, Raunet has now returned with a debut solo LP of “weird electronic pop”, called My Friend, under the moniker C.A.R. (which stands for Choosing Acronyms Randomly, rather than Raunet’s name). “It’s quite daunting,” she tells
Music Week. “Coming out from the circumstances surrounding the end of Battant, it seemed like a logical move for me to start writing on my own. “But going through the process
of doing things on my own, and having an album come out, is quite scary. I do enjoy working with other people as well, so it’s been a sharp learning curve.” The singer adds: “With Battant,
although I did a little bit of composition, I concentrated mostly on the lyrics. So that’s been a new
experience for me - a good one. “I wrote all of the songs [for My
Friend] myself, and then I got to a point where I thought it needed more. I met with this arranger, Rupert Cross. He came in once everything was written and we worked together on padding out the songs.
“It was an incredible
experience; I learned so much from him. When it came to mixing, I didn’t have a producer but Ivan Smagghe, who produced the two Battant albums, was in the studio with me in Paris and oversaw it.” Raunet is positive about her decision to stick with what she
ESSENTIAL INFO
knows, from familiar producers to her creative home in Kill The DJ. “They stood by me,” she says.
“I wouldn’t say they’re flawless, but they’re really supportive, and let me do what I want. I’m lucky to have a label that’s able to support me financially and on a promotional level.
“Although they’re small, they
work really hard. Some of the stuff I’ve been doing recently is pretty mad when you look at the size of the label and me as an artist. There are a lot of really good artists out there who aren’t able to get any backing - it’s tough to make a living, making music.” She adds: “We were always
more successful in France with the band; it’s a lot more difficult for a foreign indie to make any headway in the UK. So it’s normal for me to have more going on in France at this stage than here, although I live in London.” Although Raunet says that
she’s feeling “a little bit nauseous that it’s out there in the public
SYNC OF THE WEEK JOHN LEWIS, REAL LOVE
• Brand John Lewis • Spot Monty The Penguin • Title Real Love • Artist Tom Odell • Master Rights Sony - Columbia • Writers Lennon • Publisher Lenono Music • Music Supervisor Leland Music – Abi Leland, Ed Baillie • Ad Agency adam&eveDDB • Creatives Ben Priest, Emer Stamp, Ben Tollett, Daniel Fisher, Richard Brim • Film Co Blink • Director Dougal Wilson • Post Production Work Post • First Air Date 8/11/14
When it comes to music in TV commercials John Lewis has become the brand to beat at the best of times, let alone at Christmas. It was in 2009 that Britain’s favourite department store first graced the seasonal ad breaks with a Top 30 cover of Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child Of Mine by Swedish artists Taken By Trees – and then followed it up with a specially commissioned version of Elton John’s Your Song, which
ADBREAKANTHEMS TWELVE MONTH TRENDING SYNC SPOTS (%) OCTOBER 2013 - SEPTEMBER 2014
Record Companies ■ Universal 23.20% ■ Sony Music 16.89% ■ Warner 13.96% ■ BMG 2.48% ■ Beggars 2.03% ■ Others 41.44%
peaked at No.2 and revived the faltering fortunes of Ellie Goulding. Since then, with two consecutive chart toppers by Gabrielle Aplin and Lily Allen in the bag, inclusion in a John Lewis ad has developed into one of the most valuable propositions in UK pop. Key to that success story is
Music Week Sync Award winning supervisor Abi Leland. For the last six years she has played a crucial role in ensuring that John Lewis’ advertising agency adam&eveDDB
and their various record label partners sing from the same hymn sheet over the holiday period’s most eagerly anticipated spot. And as this year’s John Lewis
Monty The Penguin campaign single – Real Love by Tom Odell – surfaces at No.7 after its first full week on sale, Leland insists that, despite the intense media pressure, chart positions are the last of her concerns. “We just try to bring everything
back to the basics and work with the story and the film,” she says. “If we were to start trying
to second-guess everyone’s expectations and were influenced by that, then I feel we would run into trouble. “The main focus is that there
is synergy with the music and the film and that the cover version does justice to the song.” Work began on Monty The
Penguin back in May when Leland was shown the approved shooting script. A brief was subsequently agreed after detailed discussions with adam&eveDDB creatives and multi-award-winning director Dougal Wilson whose portfolio
Production and Library Music Companies ■ Audio Networks 7.03% ■ Adelphoi 6.25% ■ EMI Production Music 6.25% ■ Wake The Town 6.25% ■ SoundtreeMusic 5.47% ■ Others 68.75%
* All figures are calculated from 572 spots tracked by
www.adbreakanthems.com between October 2013 and September 2014
includes promos for Basement Jaxx, Goldfrapp and Coldplay. Thereafter the search was on for
a song which, says Leland, “would work well with the narrative.” “Naturally we explored other
options but Real Love was liked very early on,” she continues. “As with all campaigns there
are a number of stakeholders involved so it can take a bit of time to get a final decision. But Tom Odell’s version was so undeniably good it was pretty easy getting everybody on board.”
Every month
www.adbreakanthems.com provides a unique breakdown of data on over 50 current TV ads featuring copyrighted music tracks. To find out more visit http://video.
adbreakanthems.com or contact Chas de Whalley at
c.dewhalley@
adbreakanthems.com
RELEASES Out now LP My Friend
LABEL
Kill The DJ LIVE
November
27 Monseigneur, Paris December
6 Rencontre Trans Musicales, Rennes 11 Bakken, Copenhagen 17 Trabendo, Paris January
17 TAP, Poitiers
18 La Paranthese, Nyon February
7 The Old Blue Last, London
domain now”, it’s clear that she’s happy with the results of her first full-length outing as a solo artist, including scoring a premiere stream of My Friend on the French Noisey website. It was also an easy decision
for single Idle Eyes to precede the release. Raunet says: “I think it’s pretty accessible - I’m proud of the lyrics. It was also the obvious choice for getting good club remixes in and introducing me to a world that might not necessarily hear the album.”
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