Elena Tonra has always played it her way. ‘’I never went to university,’’ Tonra says. ‘’I never even considered it. I knew from the start that music was my thing.
It was almost like I didn’t want to do anything else, or even entertain anything else. I finished school, and went to music college, and then I ended up doing music, all the time.”
The songwriter and leader of English band Daughter is the first to admit surprise at having become a frontwoman. “Both of my parents are very shy people, to the point where they might even be described as antisocial,’’ Tonra says. ‘’I definitely got the shy gene. I mean, I’m always blabbering, but that probably helps with writing. Maybe.”
Daughter began as Tonra’s solo project when she was studying at London’s Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in 2010. The same year Tonra self-released an EP of demos, before forming a band later in 2010 with fellow students Igor Haefeli and Remi Aguilella. With significant buzz surrounding the band, the folk-influenced trio self-released the His Young Heart EP in 2011, which was followed in October of that year by The Wild Youth EP on Communion Records (Michael Kiwanuka, Ben Howard).
Of course, the important thing is whether Tonra’s parents like her stuff. “They do listen my music,’’ Tonra says. ‘’I think they like it, well, they seem very interested in it. Mum is actually a big Twitter fiend, and she’s not on Twitter herself, but she goes on ours and keeps an eye on what’s going on. Sometimes she updates me about stuff that I didn’t even know was going on.”
The tweeting and international attention for the band has come from this year’s debut album, If You Leave. It’s their first release since signing to prestigious British imprint 4AD (The National, Grimes, Deerhunter), and has been acclaimed by auspicious voices like the BBC, Drowned In Sound and The Fly.
The benefit of all that international attention is that the band has been on road touring all year. Multiple North American tours mean Tonra now craves home like never before. “We’ve just had a week back in London which is kind of nice,’’ she says. ‘’It’s a little bit shit weather-wise in London at the moment, and I like it a bit grey and not very pleasant. It means you don’t want to go outside, so you end curling up in the house and writing stuff that’s good.’’
‘’It’s hard to feel free because we’re in the middle of such a crazy year of touring,” Tonra continues. ‘’We’ve been all over the place for the last couple of months, which has been really great and really exciting. At the same time it leaves me feeling that as soon as I’m in one place too long I’m kind of itching to get away again. But then when I move on I want to be at home again. The one thing that consistently excites me is coming home and catching up with friends. There are so many people I haven’t seen since probably Christmas, or even before then. It’s really quite nice to come back home and really interact with people.”
The band performs in Australia for the first time this July, and they’re well aware of the welcome that awaits them. “We’ve had quite a lot of requests to come to Australia in the past,’’ Tonra says, ‘’but it’s never been able to happen. It’s very exciting for us to be coming down now, even if it is winter there. I think the fact that our sideshows for Splendour have been doing really well is something that really encourages the three of us.’’
Daughter will be playing alongside Irish group Little Green Cars, who are firm friends of the English trio. “I love them, all of them,’’ Tonra says. ‘’We all met in New York, because we’re on Glasshouse Records together in America. They’re just the coolest guys, and of course their music is amazing. It’s such a thrill to be able to hang out with them in New York, Dublin and now Australia. They took us out in Dublin when we were there, and I think we may have behave ourselves a bit more in Australia.’’
The Irish connection is significant for Tonra, although she isn’t sure if it has any explicit influence on her craft. ‘’I’m half Irish, because my father is from County Mayo in the west of Ireland. My grandmother and grandfather moved to London with my dad when he was younger, and I’ve always had a really good relationship with both of them. Every weekend we’d go over to their house and my grandfather used to sing old traditional Irish songs at home. There is a part of me that was immersed in that, growing up around the really traditional elements of Irish culture.
‘’I don’t think I would ever necessarily write like that, but I think there is something in me of that, even if it’s just with the way that I rhyme things. I do feel that must have had some impact on either the way I write or the way I sing. In terms of the Irish influence, I don’t think I’ve spent enough time there, because I think there’s the possibility it could be a huge inspiration for me.”
BY BENJAMIN COOPER
Daughter play The Metro on Wednesday July 24 before a spot at Splendour in The Grass July 26.
