Elena Tonra

You already know Elena as a vocalist and one third of Daughter from one of my previous posts about this band, this time I’d like to center all the attention on her only, since she released a full solo album in November 2018, and it’s damn good.

As you may know, Elena writes most (if not all) lyrics for Daughter. She has impeccable songwriting skills, she basically tells stories through them, but in such a way that it leaves you emotional. Not only because she writes them from experience but she truly has a knack for putting words together. You know this feeling when you want to say something, but the words won’t come out? Because I do and well, some of the lyrics she wrote, their force, their message and the overall execution hit me right on the spot, like she has seen through me. Moreover, she is true to herself and to her music. When asked about her writing, she always tells that it’s her brain, and heart speaking. She wouldn’t release something that she doesn’t feel.

Since she began to write her own stuff, she didn’t change much in the musical aspect – most of her solo songs have a pretty basic, low-ley sound, just a couple of chords on the guitar as a melody and main theme. She puts the lyrics first, she highlights them. They do the whole job basically, so if you’re also such a lyric nerd as me, there’s a high probability that you’ll like Elena. Although prepare yourself, because these are not easy lyrics to swallow.

As it was stated on her spotify, her first solo album Ex :Re, means regarding ex, and also X-Ray, as a way to look inside. I assure you it’s not a generic, unoriginal and boring break up album, but rather a sort of diary or a collection of letters to herself, her ex, reflecting on the past. It’s a cathartic, introspective and intimate album, listening to it almost feels like intruding and I think it’s difficult to objectively judge its content, since it’s practically brimming with different feelings, like sadness, loneliness, anger etc. By releasing this album, Elena truly exposes herself to us, it takes a lot of courage and trust in the listeners and I really appreciate it. I hope she continues to write meaningful music in the future.

Interesting fact : After the breakup, Elena needed to cope somehow with her feelings and what other way than going to the studio, write and sing? She didn’t want other memebers of Daughter to get involved in the writing process thus she decided to release a solo album. Besides, on of the members, Igor Haefeli, is her ex so I imagine it’d be too awkward to work with him on such intimate material. It took her about a year to put everything together, here below Romance and an official music video :