Daughter is made up of Elena Tonra, Igor Haefeli and Remi Aguilella. After releasing a 4-track demo EP, Elena then joined forces with Igor to produce “His Young Heart” EP in April 2011, and went on to release “The Wild Youth” EP in November last year via Communion Records with the addition of Remi.

As well as releasing their two EPs last year, Daughter spent time supporting Ben Howard on his European tour and are all set to join him on his UK tour in February.

Picked as one of our New for 2012 artists, we caught up Elena to find out more about the music…

For those who are new to Daughter, how would you describe your sound?

I never really know how to describe it - it’s sort of folk music because thats how it started and thats where the roots of it are but then Igor brings a lot of experimental, ambient guitar stuff and its got elements of different things in it. It’s kind of atmospheric but also quite folky and then on top of that you’ve got Remi’s big drums. 

How did Daughter come about?

Me, Igor and Remi went to the same college - me and Igor were on a songwriting course and Remi was on a drum course. I think I asked Igor if he could accompany me on guitar for a couple of gigs this time last year, and tried to pitch it as just one gig, but then ended up going from there. I’d been trying to find a band and then the whole name change happened because I wanted to do something different so it was really nice to find Igor, and we already knew Remi and he’s an amazing drummer so we kind of stole him. So, it all came about slightly accidentally but then I kind of knew I liked their style and their way of playing - now, it’s got a lot of Igor’s influence and so it really does feel like I’ve gone away from what I was doing before and into something really exciting.

What made you want to go from being a solo artist to working with other people?

I didn’t really enjoy it that much before, I think when you’re by yourself it can be really lonely and, also, I think musically I wanted something more than me just standing there with my guitar. I think it was a mixture of being really nervous and then finding people who were really good musicians. 

What are your main influences?

We’ve all got quite different influences within the band. I listen to a lot of singer-songwriters, I kind of pick up on lyrics and vocal melodies and grew up listening to Bob Dylan and Neil Young because my parents were really into it, and then I went off and listened to rubbish music as you do when you’re about 12 and then I suddenly found Jeff Buckley and people like that who bought me back to that kind of amazing lyricism. Igor’s really good at keeping up to date with cool new bands, so he introduces me to all these amazing and weird and wonderful musicians. I think I was always into that atmospheric kind of sound even before I met Igor, like Sigur Ros, so I think that kind of developed when we met.

What made you decide to release two separate EPs last year?

The first EP “His Young Heart” we didn’t really do for any reason because no one knew who we were, it was just something me and Igor decided to do and recorded in his bedroom. I think I’d spent ages not recording anything and really wanted to but never got round to doing it so it was really nice that Igor had the space for us to do that, especially as we didn’t have that much money to spend on it. The second EP we recorded more professionally with Ian Grimble from Communion Music at his studio. He’s got an amazing studio in the back of this church in Crouch End and it’s just so lovely. So, we got to experience both sides, from doing everything by yourself and using masking tape to hold everything together on the first EP and then going into Ian’s beautiful studio and seeing that side too - we learnt a lot from both experiences. The second EP we had an idea that we wanted to do something a bit more experimental and take more risks because we had that opportunity working with Ian, so it was nice that we could be a bit more ambitious.

Can we expect a full album anytime soon?

We’re hoping that we’ll have something in the form of an album at the end of the year - but we’ve got lots planned in terms of live stuff so its just about finding time to record. I’d love to write a fully new album but then there are songs that we’ve got even from the first EP demos that we’ve got big ideas for and I don’t really want to leave them behind.

What have you got planned for this year?

Up until mid January we can enjoy lounging around eating Christmas food, after that we’re going to Neursonic Festival in Holland - we went to Holland recently on tour with Ben Howard and it’s such an amazing place. We’re doing a show in Glasgow called Celtic Connections, in February we’re touring again with Ben Howard in the UK. Then in March we’re doing SXSW and in April we’ve got a headline show at Islington Assembly Hall. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and playing live is what we really enjoy so it’s great to have loads planned.

What was your favourite track of 2011?

I’d have to say Bon Iver’s “Holocene” because it’s amazing and the video just makes me cry. I do really love the new album, as much as there’s a lot going on you can really feel how it’s naturally progressed from the first album - I really love it. 

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