Elena has a gushing and unrehearsed interview style, which is partly because of nerves and partly because her band is quite new. Daughter has rocketed onto the international music scene seemingly overnight, and Elena is still trying to catch up. She and bandmates Igor Haefeli and Remi Aguilella met just a few years ago at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in north London. Little did they imagine their tentative creative partnership would launch them on the world stage.
“Me and Igor didn’t start working together until after we’d finished the course, but I’d always admired him from afar. I was really interested in the way he went about creating music. He’s very inventive and interested in more of the production side of things and he’d come into class with full tracks as opposed to other people, like myself, who would come in with a guitar and just play a song,” Elena explains.
Igor (originally from Sweden) and Elena made the first Daughter EP without Remy. Called His Young Heart, it was released early in 2011.“It all started for fun, really, and we didn’t think it would go anywhere – we just wanted to make stuff. It was all a bit thrown together. I have really good memories of those first stumblings,” Elena laughs.
Remy joined the band after returning from a trip to France, his home country. By this stage, the first Daughter EP was garnering positive attention in the UK media and the group was gigging regularly around London. With Remy on board as a drummer, they set about recording their second EP, The Wild Youth. Released in late 2011, the release caught the attention of BBC1 presenter Huw Stephens, who invited the band to record a live performance for his show at the legendary Maida Vale studio.
“The second EP was the one that gained quite a lot of interest,” Elena says. “In terms of people showing up to our shows, that was a turning point. That’s how we could gauge how things were going – we were progressively playing bigger venues.”
Daughter was feted at the 2012 SxSW music conference and naturally the music labels came calling. After a long and gentle negotiation, the band signed to leading indie label 4AD, joining the roster alongside bands like Bon Iver, Deerhunter, Iron and Wine and Tune-Yards.
“What I really like about 4AD is that they have such a vast range of very different artist, which is interesting. It shows that they really appreciate creativity in people who are slightly different from each other. It’s also kind of daunting, in a way, because we’re surrounded by some insanely good bands. As a new signing, it’s a bit crazy. There’s no pressure from them, but there is a pressure internally to produce something that is good,” Elena says, admitting it took a long time for the relationship to bear fruit.
“It wasn’t rushed when we signed – they got to know us, and we got to know them, and they were very vocal about the fact that they wanted to take their time with us. We wouldn’t have to have an album out in a month or anything like that; you know those crazy things that you hear. We spent a lot of time writing and demo-ing the material. We demo everything so that we have an arrangement that is quite spontaneous,” Elena explains. “I think that’s a good way of working, just to get your first thoughts out. Then even if you want to amend things, later, at least you’ve still got the first impression of the song you wanted to write.”
And with that, almost a whole year passed before Daughter had a debut record. But it seems it was worth the wait. If You Leave is an album of lush, dreamy heartache, led by the hypnotic singles Smother and Still. When we talk, Elena – full of beans and anxiety – still doesn’t know what to expect.
“It’s quite nerve wracking,” she admits. “I’m really happy with it and I’m really proud of it; it does sum up the past year very well. The experience of making it was great, I think we did well. I don’t know if people will like it or hate it, but we made it for ourselves really. It’s strange for it to be out in the world now, but it’s also quite nice. If people like it, that’s a massive bonus.”
BY SIMONE UBALDI
