Tell us what you're really thinking – we find out what make these cult figures tick

Since her release of The Wild Youth EP in 2011, Elena Tonra, or Daughter, has been one of the hottest new signer-songwriters to know. With her atmospheric and ethereal music, which has been likened to The XX, and a confessional lyrical style that's straight out of Joni Mitchell's song-book, she sets herself apart from the swathes of guitar-wielding young-pretenders vying for your attention on 6Music and the likes. Following a knock-out performance of this year's debut album, If You Leave, at Barcelona's Primavera Sound festival in May, where she lured one of the biggest crowds of the weekend down to the small sea-side Vice stage, we found out what inspires her and what it's like to play to a crowd filled with expectation...

The audience were incredible at Primavera. It was slightly daunting as well, as it was our first ever gig in Spain, but what an awesome way to do it! It was such an amazing experience to be able to see out to sea while we were playing.

I love Kurt Vile, and I love the new record, Wakin on a Pretty Daze, especially. It was really nice to be able to watch him before we played at Field Day. When we were touring America his music was the soundtrack to a lot of the journeys. I’m also loving The Rye, Truth and Treason, at the moment. It’s been out for a little while but it’s really chilled out and beautiful.

I was very inspired after discovering a band called The Notwist at Maifield Derby festival in Germany. Their live set was incredible, I was really blown away. I think that’s the one thing I really love about festivals - you come across stuff that you’ve never heard before.

Grace by Jeff Buckley is an album that had a huge impact on me growing up. It was like nothing I'd ever heard before so I was like 'what have I been missing out on?!' when I first played it. I started to write from quite an early age but I didn’t pick up a guitar until that point, so maybe Iit’s all because of Jeff Buckley!

I think Spotify and being able to listen to music online is amazing. I don’t think I’d even be able to be doing this if it wasn’t for the internet and people being able to stream and share things, it’s helped us and a lot of bands massively. There’s very much a word-of-mouth culture online.

We listened to older music or even just nothing at all when we were writing If You Leave in a tiny village in Dorset, so we were mainly influenced by the fact that we were involved in our own thoughts. Not that we were scared to be influenced by other records but just that we really wanted to delve into our own heads and focus, so it’s quite an introverted record, but hopefully there’s still things that resonate with a lot of people. 

The songs on the album are very personal. It’s so unbelievable that people come to the gigs and sing the words back to me, it makes me feel like, 'there are other people that have thought this! I’m not just going mad!'

I met designer, Erin Barr, when she came to one of our gigs in New York and I thought her clothes were beautiful. Her designs are tomboyish but elegant. I otherwise pick up vintage things with a 60s vibe round and about everywhere. 

Being face to face with old friends is good for the soul, but my weekends are taken up with festivals at the moment.