Daughter is an English indie folk trio. Fronted by North London native Elena Tonra, the band was formed in 2010 after the addition of American-born Swiss guitarist Igor Haefeli and drummer Remi Aguilella from France. In 2012, shortly after headlining a 700-capacity show in London, Daughter announced their signing to UK label 4AD. Speaking of this, Elena commented “we couldn’t be happier to be working with 4AD, a label that has released so many inspirational records and whose ethos we hold in very high regard. It really is a privilege.” Their first single proper, “Smother”, was released in October of that year. It was play listed by both BBC Radio 1 and 6Music, while being awarded Single of the Week by long-time supporter Huw Stephens. In December 2012 the band appeared on the David Letterman Show prior to the release of the record, which Tonra described as “perhaps (…) a cart-before-the-horse situation”
The band released their debut album, If You Leave, in March 2013. Charting at Number 16 in the UK, it was also received favourably in the press; “An album as beautifully conceived as If You Leave is one you follow from start to finish, riveted by the story it weaves and the emotion it bleeds. And in these digital days that feels like a remarkable achievement” Drowned in Sound said in their 9/10 review, while The Fly in a 4/5 album review said that it’s “word-in-the-ear intimate and mountain-range massive”. Daughter also won Independent Album of the Year for If You Leave at the 2013 AIM Independent Music Awards in London. The band began a lengthy tour in support of the album and recruited Luke Saunders as an additional live-member to ensure the material could be reproduced. As Haefeli explained: “He plays everything we can’t play, which is keyboards, bass and some more guitar. We were really happy with the result. It took quite a while and a lot of rehearsing, but we are really happy with how the songs sound live”. The band also use a number of vocal and guitar effects to achieve this sound live.
In September 2014 the band indicated that they had started working on a follow-up at their own studio in London. Haefeli explained: “We’ve played so many shows that the first album became rockier on stage and we’re playing with that dynamic”. In April 2015 Daughter announced they would be supporting Ben Howard on a short string of tour dates in the United States. In September 2015 the band announced that they would release the 10-track album Not to Disappear in 2016, while the first single “Doing the Right Thing” was made available as a music video. Not to Disappear was released by 4AD on 15 January 2016, preceded by the music video for second single “Numbers” in November 2015. On 28 July 2016 a music video for “No Care” was released.
In September 2017, Daughter released their third album, titled Music From Before the Storm. The 13-track LP, mostly instrumental, was written as the soundtrack for the 2017 video game Life Is Strange: Before the Storm. In November 2018, Elena Tonra announced Ex:Re, her upcoming solo debut album. It was released in November 2018 under the artist name Ex:Re via 4AD, and its first single “Romance”. With the release of Ex:Re, Daughter went on hiatus. In a Guitar Magazine interview, Elena said: “We decided to have a little break, because we realised that we’d been together and working together for about eight years, so we decided it would be nice – in a friendly way! – to spend some time apart.” In 2021, Ex:Re released Ex:Re with 12 Ensemble, a collaboration with composer Josephine Stephenson and the string orchestra 12 Ensemble.
In January 2023, Daughter released Be On Your Way, the first single from their first studio album in seven years, along with an announcement of the album’s release date. This was followed by second single Party in February, and third single Swim Back later that month. Stereo Mind Game was released in April 2023, via Glassnote. The album was received favourably by critics. NME noted in their 4/5 review that the band “wad[ed] into new wider ranges of emotion without leaving behind the rich orchestration and poetic lyricism they’re known for”, whilst DIY Magazine praised “the trio as a whole painting in sonic watercolour” in their 4/5 review.
