Björk had already written half the songs for "Debut" in some form, but had nothing recorded. She had written many of them years before moving to London, including "Human Behaviour", which she wrote as a teenager. She had put aside the songs as "I was in punk bands and songs weren't punk." With no producer, she composed songs with 808 State member Graham Massey in a friend's home in Manchester, where she also wrote songs included on later albums, including "Army of Me" and "The Modern Things".