News Daughter: ‘We Never Really Had A Plan’

“I used to have this book when I was younger,” Elena Tonra explains over blaring coffee shop jingles, “but I couldn’t play an instrument or anything so it was just like a book of poems that I used to sing from. I mean to no one else, just to myself and well I was not young enough for this not to be embarrassing.” A charming, unassuming songstress with a wry sense of humour this seems like the only possible way Elena’s musical persona could have begun: tentatively and honestly.

Having started out performing as a solo artist the Daughter moniker was born from the relationship between her and guitarist Igor Haefeli, who began dating after meeting at Music College. “I asked him to play guitar for like one gig and it just kind of went from there. I really felt like I had found someone that knew where I wanted to go musically before I did. We have really similar ideas and he helped with the recording side of things because I am just so technically rubbish!”

Their first EP ‘His Young Heart’ surfaced last April with gentle acoustic tracks like ‘Landfill’ and the line “I want you so much/ But I hate your guts” capturing Elena’s nimble voice and raw lyrical style. A bleak, simple acoustic four track Elena tells me it was recoded “in Igor’s bedroom. It was a really basic process and even a bit shambolic at times, you know we would gaffer tape things together and figure it out as we went along. We didn’t think anyone would ever listen to us.”

Thankfully a lot of people did start listening, not least the people over a Communion Records who put out their second EP: “We’re not actually signed to Communion as such but they have just been so helpful” Elena remarks gleefully, “I met Kev [Kevin Jones of Communion Records] about three years ago now and he has always been really supportive. Always encouraging me to come down to Communion Club Nights when I was doing my solo stuff. He was always keen to involve me in things, which is nice because I didn’t really have the confidence to push myself to gig a lot, so he kind of helped. I love everything they do, it is like a great big family.”

Released last November, Daughter’s sophomore effort ‘The Wild Youth’ EP saw a marked progression from their overtly folk inspired debut. It finds Elena and Igor effortlessly blending acoustic elements with haunting electronic sounds, wrapping delicate and brooding instrumental layers around perfectly enunciated, saccharine vocals that contain as much venom as ever. “We knew we were going into a studio to record the second EP so we knew we could be more ambitious in a way that we couldn’t before. I don’t think the folk has completely gone but we wanted to keep things interesting.”

“Our first EP was definitely less musically diverse but then we didn’t have a studio to abuse and I had already written most of the songs without Igor. Musically, this EP has a lot of him and his involvement in it, the way he arrange stuff is amazing. Lyrically again it is all me but I don’t think this will always strictly be the case. I am not completely comfortable with co-writing because I worry that if I share my ideas the other person might think I’m an absolute psycho! I think Igor and I work really well together. I’m a bit of an old woman when it comes to new music as well so while I spend hours listening to Bon Iver and Sigur Rós it is Igor who has introduced me to artists like SBTRKT and Little Dragon.”

With a wealth of emotionally charged content, bleak atmospherics, poetic lyrics, a sweet naivety and a bitterly honest approach Daughter seem to have found an utterly intoxicating aesthetic that is surprisingly accomplished for something still in its infancy. “We definitely didn’t expect to have the kind of year that we have had. Honestly it has been amazing. We never really had a plan. We don’t really have a plan now to be fair but we’ll see what happens.” Loosely, though, they do have plans to release a full-length album at the end of this year and with an increasingly evolved, mature and intricate output this can only be a good thing.

Taken from the March 2012 issue of DIY, available now. For more details click here.