Category: Samuel Lindblad

From the internet with love

2/3/2017

Artists with loyal audiences on YouTube are considered valuable assets by corporations, but not all are faring well in this environment// Ph: TMM

Breaking into the market has become especially tough for young artists in the age of social media, but credible alternatives are forming. We bring you an inside perspective on online collectives

Samuel Lindblad

The past decade has marked monumental shifts within the creative sector. The UK Department for Culture, Media, and Sport suffered cuts to the tune of £1bn in November 2015, and the global music industry has seen economic downturns and the introduction of music streaming platforms that caused revenue to decrease steadily from $25.1bn in 2002 to $15bn in 2015.

Regardless, the industry has touted its fierce adaptability through major-label acquisitions and through the resilience of live music ticket sales to the hardship, with Billboard Boxscore citing that its most popular 25 concerts in 2015 grossed at almost $360million, up from its top 100 concerts in 2001 collectively raising $350million. The capacity of the industry to adapt to environmental changes has become tangential to a world that has an exponentially increasing space for social media - with its effect on how we digest culture becoming more and more ingrained in the human experience.

We are constantly surrounded by a bubble of information that we want to see. Think of focused news articles, art accounts on Instagram, public figures on twitter, and our capacity to indulge in art and information. All of these increase every day. So why is it that artists are finding it harder to break into this world?

Social media and marketing potential
The marginalisation of new art outside of social media is becoming more and more apparent. Nobody craves the Soundcloud links of strangers in the street, and the average person tends not to spend their free time scouring their city for the next Jack Sachs. The integration of the internet and social media in our hunt for culture is now more of a necessity than an aid.

That is not to say that this is a bad thing. I, along with many others, would whole-heartedly agree that the internet has introduced me to art, music, and cultures that otherwise would have never have had an impact on my life. It allows for connection between artists and lets the online global community for culture-lovers thrive, and yet we are seeing the difference between online and ‘real’ success diminish. For sectors such as fashion design, graphic design, fashion promotion, and music, there is increased necessity for an online presence.

The integration of the internet and social media in our hunt for culture is now more of a necessity than an aid.

From a corporate point of view, if an individual is able to express an ability to gain an audience and hold their attention through what they produce then they are a valuable asset in terms of marketing and public relations. While there may be no metric to measure the talent of an artist, a designer with 20k Instagram followers and a loyal audience for his artwork has a lot more corporate potential than one with 20, regardless of how good their work is. It might be said that the artist with 20k has a natural ability that far outweighs that of the artist with 20, and that the audience they have acquired over their time producing work has a direct correlation with their talent and should therefore be the metric used to analyse their success. Sadly, a closer look at the workings of social media dispels that believe fairly quickly.

Inequality in a world of networks
The importance of an online following has been important for years, but it is only recently that it has started to become a detriment to new, emerging artists. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have not been sleeping on the idea of the corporate potential of an artist with a following. When you create a Facebook page for your business (be it yourself as a musician, artist or otherwise), you can attract fans. This can happen organically - through people sharing your page, which attracts your friends to like it, which attracts their friends, and so on. This is applicable to most major social networks - a retweet on Twitter, a regram on Instagram.

A belief in this domino effect as a way to spark ‘internet success’ is common, yet it is much less effective than many think. In reality, the domino effect of social media only works well if those who are sharing the page already have a giant following of their own. For people with less than 5000 followers on any of the major social networks, their average (organic) follower interaction averages between 0-10 per cent of their total audience pool. In 2016, BrandWatch reported that the average amount of Twitter followers is 208; The average amount of Instagram followers is 150; and most people have between 200 and 400 Facebook friends.

Social media giants charge artists for advertising in the same way they charge businesses. Even if an artist manages to capitalise on the domino effect and gain an audience, Facebook will not allow posts to reach all of the audience that have liked the page without a fee. For a campaign to reach 30,000 people, artists are looking at a fee of around £50. While it wouldn’t break the bank for everybody, it has to be remembered that out of those 30,000 people who will see their post on their timeline, less than 10 per cent will engage with it. Even less will go on to like the page, and even less than that will share the post on your behalf. This ‘paid’ reach is extremely restrictive in the cultivation of emerging talent and can be felt throughout all of the big social media sites.

A healthy alternative
There is increasing demand for platforms that allow for artists to grow organically - a space that does not charge to grant you access to an online community of like-minded individuals. These spaces have existed since the internet became home to a lot of the culture we absorb, but are needed now more than ever to combat corporate suppression of emerging talent.

One young, yet increasingly prominent online collective in Manchester is giving young creatives in the area a space to expand organically. Louis Haynes and Jake Macleod’s “Cluny and The Scourge” houses several branches of creative talent from in and around the city. The site features music, poetry, illustration, film, and photography from some of the best emerging talent in the region, and is actively seeking new contributions. With over 10,000 hits in its first six months, the space demonstrates incredible potential for growth.

Louis Haynes and Jake Macleod founded online collective Cluny // Ph: Martha Treves

An independent guitarist // Ph: Bala Maniymaran/ Flickr

The ability for an online collective to retain its artists and pool their individual fan-base allows for an exponentially increasing audience, free from the unreliability of growing an audience through a social media domino effect. By using social media to promote the external website, the cost of advertisement per artist is dramatically reduced, with the costs of advertising left in the hands of the founders. Haynes and Macleod’s plan for the collective is extensive, with their long-term goal to be for each major city to have its own branch of the Cluny network, and for the collective to also transition in to a physical space, able to host events that showcase the talent of its artists.

Working together
The connection between Cluny and other projects in the city can be seen through the volume of collaborative pieces and bilateral promotion. “[Collaboration] allows us all to grow and share our artistic expression as well as having a shared goal to work towards," said Matt Leaves, co-founder of The Gravy Photographic Magazine, when interviewed by THE MANCHESTER MAGAZINE.

Leeves discussed his plans for expanding into physical studio space in the future, with a dedicated contributor pool for collaborators and like-minded individuals to meet in an informal setting. He tied his plans to that of Cluny’s, with belief that the projects can mutually benefit from spaces that would draw in a real-world audience.

The problem that is produced by this kind of collaborative venture is the idea of artist identity blending in to that of the collective. It could be said that while the artist is gaining promotion from the growth of the collective, the platform is the real winner in the long-run, since each artist is only a small component of the overall mechanism of growth.

The ability for an online collective to retain its artists and pool their individual fan-base allows for an exponentially increasing audience, free from the unreliability of growing an audience through a social media domino effect.

Those in the industry often disagree with this claim. “I can see why you might think that in grouping artists together under the name of one release might steal individuality, but one only has to look at collectives in other areas of music to see that this not the case," says Joe Taylor, founder of online music and arts label Warm Laundry, speaking to THE MANCHESTER MAGAZINE.

"Take jazz for example, while you have a bandleader who tends to be the face and name of the show, the musicians and soloists are also known in their own right - people went to see Duke Ellington, but also knew the names of Harry Carney, Sonny Greer etc. The same can be seen in hip-hop collectives: A Tribe Called Quest is known as its own entity, while those that make it up all share their own individuality. I think that the artists each bring something unique to the table, and for that they are differentiated.”

This was reiterated by musician Sid Quirk, who acknowledges the beginnings of now-global music phenomenon beginning in small collectives, whether online or offline: “You look at cultural histories and they all start with these kind of platforms, from Man Ray and the Dadaists in New York to the youth of South London in the early 2000s; people like Skream and Benga pioneering Dubstep.”

Cluny’s collaboration and bilateral marketing relationship with student-led independent radio station Limbo has continued to allow both entities to grow massively since their conception. Limbo’s aim is to showcase underground talent within the Manchester electronic music scene. Communications between Limbo and Cluny have allowed for opportunities for emerging artists in all sectors, with electronic artists showcasing their talents on both platforms, and allowing for a direct link to the array of Cluny’s photographers and set designers that can be used for Limbo promotional campaigns and upcoming city-wide events.

The cultivation of the creative domain for emerging artists comes not as a new phenomenon, but as a direct link to the marginalisation of emerging talents and the subsequent lack of resources allocated to such talent in their early days. The current climate in Manchester and London continues to celebrate artistry regardless of corporate appeal, and so the evolution of the artist continues to unfold. Perhaps the scene for emerging individual artistry isn’t as accommodating as in previous years, but the response from creatives within the city is overwhelmingly in favour of the artist, even if it is a more collaborative venture to begin with. TMM

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University's investments: funding conflict?

12/8/2016

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The University's investments in shares of companies such as Caterpillar have come under examination // Ph: Dave Wilson/ Flickr

Feature There is a new controversy surrounding The University of Manchester's investments, and this time it is not about fossil fuels. We bring you the details

Samuel Lindblad

“World Class Research, Outstanding Learning and Student Experience, and Social Responsibility” are The University of Manchester strategic plan’s three main aims, set to be completed by 2020. The benevolence of the principles echoes the incredible research work that the University conducts, its commitment to investing in local projects that benefit Manchester’s least advantaged, and is further shown by their will to ensure an ethical working environment for all students – free from both discrimination and marginalisation.

This is further reflected in the Students’ Union’s Safe Space Policy that has, in recent years, come under fire for its blocking of certain speakers from talks and events that may result in any demographic of students being offended by hate speech or discriminatory slur. Regardless of stance on the policy and its implications for free speech, the environment that has been created at the University and the Students’ Union is undoubtedly one interested in the prevention of harm, be it mental or physical. However, this environment is apparently limited to state boarders – with the University being an investor in companies that produce weaponry or machinery used to murder and impoverish Palestinian men, women and children.

Hypocrisy can be seen within the University’s mission statement, made clear when looking at the University’s position as a shareholder in seven companies that each provide material aid to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, with the University’s total investment in the companies resting at over twelve million pounds – a figure larger than the cost of 1300 years’ worth of studying an undergraduate degree at the University.

The conflict between Israel and Palestine is highly controversial in nature. While competing perspectives on where public sympathy should lie exist, it is undisputed that the long-term hostility between the two has amounted to an ever-increasing death toll. It is recognised that the United Nations has declared that the occupation of Palestinian territories holds no legal validity, the International Court of Justice has condemned the Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank, and Amnesty International has accused the 2014 Israeli attacks on Gaza of deliberately targeting civilians.

Regardless of where sympathies lie, it is not unintuitive to suggest that the University should have no place in the financial stimulation of any sort of warfare.

The counter argument shifts blame to Palestinian nationalism and the attacks, by Palestinian terrorist groups, on civilian domains within Israel over the past fifty years. Regardless of where sympathies lie, it is not unintuitive to suggest that the University should have no place in the financial stimulation of any sort of warfare.

The link between the University’s investments and the resulting murder and impoverishment is not weak. The University holds £820,133.60 worth of shares in Caterpillar, the company that is responsible for the production of armoured bulldozers which are then specifically adapted to flatten Palestinian homes – one of which killed American activist Rachel Corrie back in 2003 during an attempt to prevent the bulldozer from destroying a Palestinian property. Further to this, the University holds £2,402,549.82 worth of shares in Allianz, the largest investment subsidiary of Elbit Systems, a large provider of drones and other military equipment to the Israeli Defense Forces. Research conducted by Al-Mezan, an NGO based in the Gaza Strip, concluded that drones have killed at least 1,000 people between 2000 and 2010.

Looking deeper than the investment portfolio of The University of Manchester, it can be seen that the University has ties to the Biomedical department at Technion University in Israel – an institute commonly associated with the research and development of weaponry, including the unmanned armed bulldozers used to destroy Palestinian property. According to Huda Ammori, a student involved in campaigns for Palestinian rights, the University has to this day failed to respond to a freedom of information request detailing the extent of its relationship with Technion.

When asked to comment on the affiliations, James Thompson, Vice President of Social Responsibility at The University of Manchester, directed THE MANCHESTER MAGAZINE to the university’s "ethical investment policy". To quote the policy: “The University, together with its Investment Managers, will use its influence in an effort to reduce and, ideally, eliminate, irresponsible corporate behaviour leading to: Environmental degradation; Armament sales to military regimes; Human rights violations; (…)” Yet, the efforts made by the University thus far to divest and disaffiliate can be seen as negligible.

The financial contribution, however menial in the grand scheme of things, sends a clear message: the final result of a financial interaction is of no concern to the investor.

There is currently an attempt to pass a motion through the Students’ Union senate that aims to force the University to comply with its own ethical investment policies. Fronted by the BDS campaign, the group is aiming for the University’s total disaffiliation from the acts that have resulted in such death and impoverishment. Tactics such as these have been endorsed by the National Union of Students (NUS), National Union of Teachers (NUT) the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Unite the Union, and the University and Colleges Union (UCU), more than 30 UK student unions, as well as many other political and grassroots actors across the world.

The differentiation between anti-Semitism and anti-warfare here is crucial. It is important to understand that the university has an extensive investment portfolio, made up of a large number of investments that can be seen to be strictly in line with their ethical investment policy. The relationship between the investment and the product of the company can be partly dissolved through the understanding that the worth of the financial deposits made by the university are in no way large enough to sustain the budgets of any of the companies mentioned. That said, the relationship between the investment and the resulting death-toll is still extremely relevant. The financial contribution, however menial in the grand scheme of things, sends a clear message: the final result of a financial interaction is of no concern to the investor. It illustrates an institution that would highlight their ethical policy to prospective consumers of their product, yet turn a blind eye to the real impact of their investment.

Is the inability to invest in a totally ethical way a consequence of the marketisation of education in the UK? Is it simply an act of negligence and moral dissociation by The University of Manchester? Regardless, with these investments being funded from student’s pockets, the strategic plan set for completion in 2020 may be a much more inaccessible target than previously thought - with the affiliation tainting research, depleting the student experience, and moving further away from being a social responsibility with every Palestinian home destroyed.

In response to THE MANCHESTER MAGAZINE’s request for comment, a spokesperson for The University of Manchester said: “The University adheres to a publicly available socially responsible investment policy which is available on our website. This policy is managed by one of the world’s leading asset management firms.” TMM

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"We need to take a step back from this sense of charismatic controversy"

6/6/2016

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Naa Acquah spoke to The Manchester Magazine at the Student Voice office in the Steve Biko Building // Ph: Samuel Lindblad

Interview General Secretary Naa Acquah is the first black woman to lead The University of Manchester Students’ Union. As she prepares for a second term in office, we speak to her about leadership, personal ambitions and the seemingly inevitable free speech controversies

Samuel Lindblad

When Naa Acquah became General Secretary of the University of Manchester Students’ Union about a year ago, the institution was recovering from a slightly shaky period. There was concern within a particular group of students that the SU was limiting free speech on campus through censorship actions. The university’s newspaper, The Mancunion, had even run a front page story about the issue a few months before, and this reflected a growing conversation within the United Kingdom over “safe spaces” and “no platforming”.

Since taking over, Acquah and her team have maintained their loyalty to the culture of a safe space, but at the same time taken solid steps to improve the image of the union and the lives of students. The new democratic structure of the union has brought greater transparency and accountability – and means that if students are unhappy about something, they can democratically change it. By pursuing initiatives such as the “Gen Sec Surgeries”, Acquah has come into closer contact with the students she represents, giving her a more encompassing perspective over their needs and concerns. And just the mere fact that she accepted this interview is already a strong message of leadership. After all, it was in these pages that a few months back one of our writers compared the Students’ Union to “the fiercest authoritarian governments in the world”.

Acquah is a strong woman and proud leader who knows that an opinion is an opinion. She is committed to ending the controversies, even more so now that she has been reelected for a second term. In her ideal world, controversy can be replaced with solid debate, productive work and consequential change. We like the idea, and can only hope that this interview is one of many steps in that direction.

Our readers want to find out more about you but also about your views and perspectives on society. The topic of free speech, for example, is one which has been increasingly discussed at universities in the UK. What is your general opinion on the free speech debate as it is right now at our University?
I am a debater. I think free speech is a necessary condition to a functioning society and I don’t think there are many people that would disagree. I think it’s how we understand and interpret it that is the nuance of it. We say free speech when we don’t actually have paramount free speech in society. Someone couldn’t stand and shout horrendous racial slurs without them being arrested and it being classed as a hate crime.

So what could be the way forward?
We have to define what free speech is and what hate speech is. Society has been through dark times and we need to hear all people’s diverse opinions, but there has to be a line drawn between hate speech and free speech. Hate is dangerous and unacceptable. Hate speech demonises and antagonises other people. There are a lot of people losing their lives all over the world. We have to be mindful of everything currently happening. I get fearful of society. We are on a trajectory of demonising other people and it does affect people’s lives. No one ever comes in as an SU officer and says “I don’t want anyone to have free speech!”, but there has to be some kind of differentiation between the two.

At the beginning of last year, the Students’ Union decided to forbid the Free Speech Society from showing a particular edition of the Charlie Hebdo magazine at the re-fresher’s fair. If you were the general secretary at the time, would you have made the same decision?
I remember this happening and I think I would have said that banning is a harsh route to go down. I would have sat down with the students that wanted to present the magazine and asked them if they’re sure they want to display it. It was clear to everybody that it could be perceived negatively. There is a lot of different students here and for one this might not be offensive, but for some it could be deeply hurtful. I do think it was the right decision to make a stand towards it. It’s not the environment you want to create for students. The environment that is being cultivated at the SU pivots around a safe space policy that seeks to protect individuals from any discriminatory harm.

Society has been through dark times and we need to hear all people’s diverse opinions, but there has to be a line drawn between hate speech and free speech.

Do you think that the safe space policy is a reflection of a wider political correctness problem?
I don’t think it is necessary political correctness. Nothing is ever politically correct. I think it does reflect a wider sense of attitude shifting and changes. Things that would have been acceptable ten or twenty years ago just aren’t anymore. That’s the natural progression! The things that were deemed acceptable to say to gay and lesbian people a decade ago were outrageous. We would call that out now in an instant. If that’s political correctness then I’m good with that.

In October, the Students’ Union once again decided to forbid an initiative of the Free Speech Society. This time, two speakers, Julie Bindel and Milo Yiannopoulos, were denied access to a debate on “feminism and liberation” because of comments they made in the past about feminism and transgender students. You were already general secretary at the time. Do you think the decision to ban these speakers was a step too far?
That was a really interesting time. Before the event, I had no idea who Julie Bindel or Milo Yiannopoulos were. When you read the safe space policy, it states that within the four walls of this union we want to create an environment in which everyone can feel open and safe. It’s to make sure people do not discriminate against specific characteristics such as race, gender, sexuality or trans status. When we have speakers who come in with this kinds of views, it becomes really difficult. It’s not particularly about agreeing or disagreeing with them - it’s about certain comments that were made about certain people having access to certain things.

What about those who disagree with the decision to ban the speakers?
Some people may disagree with the decision and I can see why they would. We’ve got quite a good process in place now with the policy that sees all instances like this being filtered through the senate, through the democracy of the union, to make sure that we are making the right decision. I’m hoping that next year this won’t be as big of an issue as it is now. I want to be able to stop talking about the safe space policy! I want the best speakers, who have really good arguments. Recently people have been invited here just for being controversial and not because they have any relevant argument to make. Having Katie Hopkins come here and speak about pretty much anything just feels wrong. Doesn’t she have an opinion just because she was on the apprentice and has since said mean things? She’s being paid to be controversial. We can do better than this. People with robust, strong arguments can come and speak, but we need to take a step back from this sense of charismatic controversy.

Do you think the Students' Union is accountable for the democratic decisions that are made?
When I ran, I was very much running on a platform that said the democracy needed to get better. There was hardly any accountability at the time, and I think we’ve gone through a really great period of change that has allowed us to redefine all of that. The senate currently has around 96 people on it, 20 of which are randomly selected students. The meetings that dictate the direction of decisions that are made are all well documented and available to view. We have a scrutiny committee of elected students that oversees all reports and makes sure that people do what they are elected to do. I really enjoy all of the accountability! Being held accountable is a good thing because it makes sure you are doing your job correctly. If I’m not doing what I should do, then I shouldn’t be here. I’m confident in my abilities, and transparency is part of the democratic status of the union. Perfect democratic structures do not exist, but we are definitely doing our best to get as close to perfection as we can.

Naa always with a smile // Ph: Samuel Lindblad

The SU building, as it was in 2004 // Ph: René C. Nielsen/ Flickr

The National Union of Students (NUS) has recently come under scrutiny for the election of Malia Bouattia, with many student unions across the country calling for disaffiliation from the group. What do you think of this?
We need a united student voice that says ‘no’. We need someone who will take action for us. I met Malia when I was campaigning to be elected last year. The black students’ campaign do this great thing where they go out and help any black student who is running for a position within student politics. Malia was one of the most hardworking activists I have ever met, she makes you have hope in things. I think the anti-Semitic comments that were made have given Jewish students every right to be concerned. I have said very clearly that she needs to give these students action to show she is a fearless anti-racism, anti-fascism campaigner and that Jewish students are as much as part of that as anybody else.

Will The University of Manchester ever see a referendum on NUS membership?
I don’t think it should. I’m not sitting here and saying the NUS perfect. I see some things that need changing and that I’ve been working on changing. A lot of people say that we want the main focus of the Students’ Union to represent the students to the institution and to the wider community. At The University of Manchester this would not be an impossible task to fulfil without the NUS. But for smaller unions across the country, a strong campaigning body who is able to go to the government and rigorously talk about students is needed to put them on the agenda.

Another issue that was widely discussed recently was the way the Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) dealt with groups of homeless people seeking shelter beneath a bridge known as The Ark, for which it received a significant amount of criticism. If The University of Manchester had encountered a similar issue, would we have dealt with it in a better way?
There is something happening like that at our university. It isn’t as widespread or known about, but it exists. Close to London Road, just behind North Campus, there is a camp that resides on university land. We’ve worked with the university to be very clear that we do not want to happen here what happened to MMU. We had to inform the residents that the land is still owned by the university but rather than just remove the camp, we have been working with the local council and The Big Change to construct a homelessness charter that different organisations are signing up to. We’re working proactively with homelessness. Kicking these people off of the property does not help them.

Perfect democratic structures do not exist, but we are definitely doing our best to get as close to perfection as we can.

I also wanted to ask you about how you ended up in the position you are today – one of the most powerful positions within the student community. How were you as a student and why did you end up deciding to run for general secretary?
Well, in my first year I didn’t get very involved with the university but it was after my study abroad semester in Singapore that I saw things I was properly interested in. I saw all these incredible societies that everyone was a part of. Over there it was considered to be really strange if you weren’t involved in a sport or society. They had such an amazing school spirit that I wanted to carry back with me. When I came back I got a job at the union as a student staff member behind the bar. After that I pretty much fully saturated myself with things I wanted to do. Whilst I did my masters I became president of the Model United Nations society. By this point I’d seen a lot of Students’ Union executive teams come and go. I’d seen the Union go through a lot of changes, through a darker time of unsteadiness within itself that we’ve definitely left behind now. This place has really shaped who I am and the way I want to go about my life, and I’d love other people to have an opportunity like me. It should be the place you should be able to express ideas and passions that maybe you never even knew you wanted to express.

You are the first black female general secretary of our Students’ Union. Have you ever come across any challenges that stem from this?
I would never say there had been any overt challenges. One of the most interesting things has been when I’ve had continuous meetings with somebody and then one day they tell me they haven’t been able to speak to me all year because they had no idea how to pronounce my name. You don’t not speak to someone just because you can’t pronounce their name!

You are right! But I am sure there have been successes too…
Yes, a lot more black students have been getting involved and having their voice heard and getting more involved in campaigns in ways that they may not be able to in different parts of the country. Overall, there has been a lot more representation and a lot more participation. It just feels sad that this union has existed for 150 years and this is the first black female general secretary. So great, let’s celebrate it, but let’s keep this diversity as the standard. Our student body is diverse, so the union should be too.

How do you think being from a minority may affect your decisions that impact the majority?
I never ran the platform that says “I’m black, vote for me”. And I don’t think it negatively affects my ability to make decisions at all, I think it enables me to see the nuances in the arguments. Being in a minority lets me see how decisions affect minorities as well as majorities, something that somebody who exists outside of the minority may not be able to do.

This job would hint towards a political career. Is that something that you aspire to go into?
Not necessarily. I definitely would not go into party politics in this country. For a very long time this union churned out Labour MPs. I feel it’s very different now. I want to work in international relations. The classic “become an MP” has never set well with me. Maybe I’m wrong, ask me in ten years!

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The eternal youth of Daughter

4/28/2016

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Lead singer Elena Tonra fronts the three-person band // Ph: Justin Higuchi/ Flickr

Interview They will be touring Europe, the United States and Canada before playing at Glastonbury in mid-June. As British indie band Daughter steadily climb to global acclaim, its members assure us that the band's music will not be polluted by the pressures of the industry

Samuel Lindblad

“You never really know how to make an album,” Elena Tonra speaks as she shrugs softly, her voice as timid and precise as that of her recordings. She sits, all in black, wedged between her bandmates Igor and Remi on a sofa backstage in Manchester’s Albert Hall a couple of hours before they’re scheduled to play.

While it may be true that nobody ever handed Daughter an ‘album making for dummies’ instruction manual, it is clear to see that they are definitely well versed in the construction of incredible sets of music. With two albums that reached the top 20 in the UK charts and four separate extended plays, they’re certainly not new to the art of album-making.

We sat and spoke with Daughter about how their transition from solo musicians to an award winning trio over the past six years has occurred, how they keep their music real and how even musicians of their calibre aren’t past the self-doubt of artistry.

It is always intriguing to hear how an artist gets in to music. In your case, was it something you did when you were young or something that you discovered as you got older?
It was definitely writing that started it all for me. I was writing from a really young age and hiding lyrics and poems and things in draws secretly. I learned to play guitar because my brother played guitar and piano, but I was never actually very musical in that way. I could never read music or write music but I kind of just picked up a guitar when my bother wasn’t around and self-taught the basics. I had a friend at school who taught me how to finger pick, so I guess I learned accidentally. Elena

How about the name of the band? Was that something linked to your childhood?
I was doing things under my own name for a while which was… awful. When I met Igor at college we moved on to do more with two guitars. I didn’t want that to be under my own name because it wasn’t my own thing. I really wanted it to just be a one word titled project and Daughter seemed to be a natural choice. I think i am quite a child at times and I can be quite sensitive. Also, with my lyrics talking a lot about my childhood, it just seemed like a good fit. I think it was a bit weird at first, but it just fits now. It feels like I am the narrator. Elena

I get that with the lyrics, they feel like narrative poetry. Do you start with lyrics first and then compose the music around it?
I think it really depends. The first album and EPs were more based on lyrics with a guitar part to accompany it and then we built on top of that, but with the new album we tried to be as open to how songs would come about as possible. Some started with music and I started ranting over the top, other songs were lyrics and writing first and then building on top of that. Elena

What would you say is the defining feature of your music?
I don’t exactly have the adjectives to describe our sound, but what I can say is we focus as much on the songwriting as we focus on the atmosphere and the texture. It is an equal balance between the two. Igor

I was writing from a really young age and hiding lyrics and poems in draws secretly. It was definitely writing that started it all for me

You mentioned the first album, If You Leave. There’s definitely a different tone on the first album than on Not To Disappear. Can you explain the transition you made as a band from the first album to the second?
How it evolved sonically has a lot to do with the fact that we played live a lot. We sort of grew in to the songs of the first album which we hadn’t really played live before, so going around the world and playing the songs allowed for the natural evolution that happens with music over time. We started collecting more guitar pedals and became more in tune with music and creating certain sounds which we then applied to the new record. The live potential of the music was always in the back of our mind when making the new album. Igor

How did the change in tone translate to the live shows?
I think even some of the old album songs have seemed to match how the new album material is played. Songs like “winter” have definitely progressed and gotten louder on stage since the first record was made. Elena

So do you find yourself playing heavier now for all of the material or do you tend to slip back in to the mellow vibe of the first album?
We’re definitely still learning how to play those new songs. The new record is a lot more layered, so we’ve tried to bring that to the stage as well and create a fluid sound for all of the tracks. We’ve had a fourth musician with us since the previous tour too but we’ve definitely raised the bar for her [Lucy] in terms of what she has to do now. There are a lot more sounds to trigger. Igor

From left to right: Elena Tonra, Remi Aguilella and Igor Haefeli // Ph: Justin Higuchi/ Flickr

A great concert // Ph: Justin Higuchi/ Flickr

Did you suffer from second album syndrome?
I don’t know, I think it was really good to go into it feeling like we had the experience of making the first. We knew what we didn’t want to do and we definitely went in to it with a clearer idea of how to make an album. That in itself is weird because you can never really know how to make an album. I think we tried as much as possible not to think about the first album, that was the main thing. If you start overthinking about how it relates to the first one it leads you to second guess everything. We wanted to just make what we wanted. Elena

And that clearly brought good results...
Yes, I think people tend to take a long time to make the first album, and then because of success they put too much pressure on themselves and come up with the second album pretty quickly. We definitely thought that until it was ready we weren’t going to go in the studio, we were just going to keep on demoing and play around with the arrangements more. We had two EPs before the first album which totalled at eight songs so you kind of could say that was like a first album. For me I definitely don’t think I had that kind of second album syndrome in mind. Igor

Yeah I remember it being about 18 months ago when I read somewhere that you guys had started work on Not To Disappear.
We are very lucky because we have two beautiful independent labels who are very like “just make something great guys, just do what you want”. It’s as if there was no pressure to rush. Elena

The music video for the new single Doing The Right Thing was absolutly heartbreaking. And it was shot in only three days… How did you guys make it happen?
We worked with the team who did the Still video for the first album, which wasn’t hard seeing as they were so good. And yeah, I think you’re right, it is so beautiful and heartbreaking. I saw the script written for what they were going to shoot and was just thinking wow… this is going to be really sad! But it is so beautiful and it describes the song and that feeling really well. Sometimes it is good to go down that very real route as opposed to a more abstract one. Elena
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