From the press release: She’s from the land of Dracula, he’s from the land of the Beatles. Together they play melodic, energetic and upbeat pop music – with a bite. Catchy with a side of distorted guitar... Eleanor moved to the UK in the summer of 2019. She was on a mission to dedicate all her time to music. All her time except for her day job, where she met Joel. They have been writing songs together ever since — and have been married since 2022. To find out more, I dropped them a line…

I’m hearing an interesting mix of sounds in “How Long.” A bit of 80s, especially the synths, some cool overdriven guitars that sound a little 70s, and also a bit of Brit Pop and prog. Who are some of your influences? 

Joel: I wrote the melody and arrangement and also mixed and mastered this song. My biggest influences are probably Britpop and American 90s alt rock, but my favorite bands are Television, The Gun Club and The Wipers. Eleanor also wanted our song to sound more like Rammstein, which is why I added in the synthesizer.

Eleanor: For this song in particular, when Joel raised the possibility of a synth sound, I just ran with it because synths are in some of my favorite industrial tracks by Rammstein and Marilyn Manson. If I have to define my influences, singing-wise it would be those two, plus more mainstream bands, like U2 and Foo Fighters. I also love Creedence Clearwater Revival. And Tina Turner! And to a certain extent, Hungarian folk singing, where women’s voices can be particularly booming, even shrill. I like strong voices, and a dramatic delivery – that’s what I strive to do on stage and it works well with my contralto range. In terms of lyrics, I’d probably have to say Attila József (my favourite poet), because of the vivid imagery and the cutting emotional content – if you’re going somewhere dark or painful, you might as well go all the way. I also love short stories by Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe, and fairy tales, and these are influences which might come out in some of the more character-driven songs I write, like How Long!

You write occasionally write in Hungarian. How do audiences respond to those songs?

Joel: Eleanor has shown me a lot of Hungarian folk music, which is really excellent for dancing. The scales they use in Hungarian music are a big inspiration for the melodies I write. I also wrote Eleanor a song based on a style of Hungarian dance called ‘Csárdás’, where the song starts really slow and gets faster and faster until it goes absolutely crazy. Eleanor wrote the lyrics for that song and we performed it at all of our Sweet Anna gigs. Audiences reacted really well to it! The song is called Bagolytánc (“Owl Dance”) and we nearly always managed to convince our audience to do a silly little “owl dance” with us (there’s YouTube videos to prove it). After one of our shows, the sound engineer came up to us, all excited, speaking Hungarian. Hungarian spies are everywhere. 

Eleanor: I remember a very persistent drunk audience member, who kept wanting to kiss me after our show, and told me his only critique was that I sang ‘too low’ for him to understand me, but I don’t think he realised I was actually just singing in a different language. I didn’t have the heart to tell him!

Before you were a duo, you were in a band called Sweet Anna. How did you go from a four-piece to a duo?

Joel: Sweet Anna was founded originally because me and Eleanor were completely new to making music and had no idea how we would record our music and perform live. Our bandmates were usually more experienced than us and got us where we needed to be musically. In total we had 4 drummers and 3 bass guitarists come and go over the course of 3 years. In the end, we found it too much of a burden to manage a band with everyone having conflicting schedules and different levels of commitment. Me and Eleanor are married and we live together, so it’s much more productive this way.

Eleanor: I went through all the stages of grief as it became clear to me that I would have to decide between being able to stay on track with my music and being able to have a full band. It wasn’t a sudden decision, it was more a growing sense of dread that culminated in disbanding after yet another cancelled show. It was one of the toughest decisions of my life. We were great on stage together, which in a way made it even worse. 

Was there any talk of keeping the name Sweet Anna, or was changing your name a foregone conclusion?

Joel: When we decided to switch to being a duo, we knew that we needed a completely fresh start. Our duo’s genre is not exactly the same and our way of marketing ourselves on social media is completely different. There is a bit of crossover in our fanbases, but for the most part, the change to being a duo would have been too jarring for Sweet Anna’s followers.

What’s your plan for moving beyond the London scene?

Joel: We are focusing on marketing ourselves on the internet, and we’ll return to doing live shows when we’re ready. It will be nice to see where our fanbase develops and then go to where they are. I just don’t think that the idea of a “local scene” is relevant for emerging artists anymore. Me and Eleanor have been photographing and documenting the local London scene over the last 2 years and that has really cemented it for me. Even rather popular bands here normally play to an empty room, and venues everywhere are closing down.

Eleanor: That sounds a bit bleak, and it’s mainly applicable to original bands. Like us! I think after Covid audiences have become a bit complacent, and they’d rather see a covers band that is guaranteed to deliver tried and tested hits. And with the cost of living going up, it’s a perfect storm of risk-averse listeners only attending shows of bands they’re familiar with. So yeah, putting ourselves out there online is the main way we’re trying to go beyond the confines of London, but I wouldn’t mind picking up some local fans either, I just expect the in-person crowd to be smaller than the viewers online.

Eleanor moved to the UK in 2019. What was behind that move?

Eleanor: This is quite difficult to explain without going into too much historical/political context, but in a nutshell, being a minority in Romania is still not a nice experience more than 30 years after the fall of communism (and roughly 100 years since the Treaty of Trianon). As a Hungarian I experienced discrimination from a young age, and I always knew I wanted to leave. After graduating university and ending a toxic relationship, I had nothing holding me back. I just wanted to be in a country where I could feel safe and find people to make music with. So I applied for jobs in the UK and Hungary, with the idea that I’d fund my music career with whatever I’d get paid. I got a loan from my cousin to pay for my first few months of rent and got a one-way plane ticket to the UK!

The two of you have been married since 2022. Does making music with a spouse present any challenges?

Joel: Eleanor never gets stage fright, but she was terrified to sing in front of me for some reason. It took about a year to get over that hurdle, then there was another year of bitter conflict and creative difference until we figured out our roles and responsibilities. Now Eleanor is in charge of the lyrics, and I am in charge of the music and arrangement. Eleanor has to sign off on all of my musical decisions, so that ensures that our musical direction stays consistent.

Eleanor: When you have to sing in front of just one person, all your insecurities come to the surface. When you’re on stage, you already know that the finished song is great, otherwise you wouldn’t put it on stage – so there’s nothing to fear. But while you’re still in the process of creating something, and you have to let another person get close to what you’re writing, or a tune you aren’t sure on yet, you become very vulnerable. Nowadays I can show Joel an unfinished song but I still get jittery. What if he doesn’t like it? What if all my worst fears are coming true and no one will like it? Aaargh! It’s that feeling.

You’ve already written four albums worth of songs. How many of those have been recorded so far?

Joel: We’re down to just 1 song at the moment. We recorded one album with Sweet Anna, but we weren’t happy with it.

Do you record in a home studio, or do you use a professional studio?

Joel: We tried a professional studio with Sweet Anna, but in hindsight it was a waste of money and we were unnecessarily limited by budget constraints. Eleanor had to record 12 songs worth of vocals in 2 days, with just 3 takes each. And she had sinusitis. The result was really bad, and a lot of our feedback was that Eleanor sounded bad – which sucks because her voice is what makes us stand out. So for this song, we recorded in rehearsal studios and our own living room using our laptop and a Scarlett. We meticulously recorded Eleanor with a different take for each line. Now our feedback is that Eleanor sounds good.

Eleanor: Joel also tried to use 80s recording techniques because he didn’t want 3 bad takes and autotune, which is basically what happened in a professional studio – so instead you’ll hear lots of layers, and a richer sound overall. We had a better idea of what we wanted from the production because we already found out what we definitely didn’t want. It was Joel’s first attempt at doing everything from the production to mixing and mastering, and I think he did a great job.

What’s on the horizon for you?

Joel: We have so many songs in the pipeline. We produced How Long in 1 month! I couldn’t believe how fast we did that. And now the song is playing on 2 radio stations. We literally can’t stop our brains from writing songs so we’re likely going to continue at this pace, pumping out singles every few months. And our production quality will only keep improving.

Eleanor: I want us to achieve lasting success. It may take a while to rebuild and expand our fanbase, but I am confident in our music.