Elena Tonra

Elena Tonra is the founder and front-woman of the indie band Daughter. She serves as the writer for Daughter's songs.

Before Daughter
Of Irish–Italian parentage, Elena Tonra was raised in Northwood, London, with her older brother, Kieran. Through her Mayo-born grandfather she experienced traditional Irish music from an early age. Her interest in music began when she received a copy of the album Grace by Jeff Buckley. After being bullied at school she used writing to "deal emotionally with life". Changing schools at the age of 12 had a great impact and since then Tonra writes "about things I feel difficult talking about in adulthood”.

Tonra began her career in music, performing acoustic shows under her own name around London, she found that this "didn't suit me at all. As a musician, I’m self-taught and felt I was restricted by my abilities".

Daughter
Of Irish–Italian parentage, Elena Tonra was raised in Northwood, London, with her older brother, Kieran. Through her Mayo-born grandfather she experienced traditional Irish music from an early age. Her interest in music began when she received a copy of the album Grace by Jeff Buckley. After being bullied at school she used writing to "deal emotionally with life". Changing schools at the age of 12 had a great impact and since then Tonra writes "about things I feel difficult talking about in adulthood”. Tonra began her career in music, performing acoustic shows under her own name around London, she found

that this "didn't suit me at all. As a musician, I’m self-taught and felt I was restricted by my abilities".

Writing
Elena has spoken about her writing often, claiming once that: "[......]... No one should ever really expect me to write anything upbeat."

In an interview, she commented that: "Even as a child, there was a deep-rooted sadness in there, it’s just an ongoing part of my brain." She later said that she was comfortable being a sad person, saying:"'Obviously the lyrics are hugely personal so when someone said they didn't like my writing, they were essentially saying they didn't like me and they didn't like my brain. I was anxious about the whole thing. This time, I don’t care as much. There is something quite nice about that, even if just for my own sanity, like I don’t need to feel embarrassed about my brain. This is what it does. This is what it thinks. I am openly fine with being a sad person.'"