Joel and Eleanor met in Cardiff in 2019. They spent the Covid years living together, writing music and falling in love. Finding the Cardiff music scene dried up after 3 years of suffocating lockdown, in 2022 they moved to Kent (aka London) and formed a rock band called 'Sweet Anna', which gained a small cult following but still struggled with bandmates constantly changing or having conflicting schedules. In July 2025, Sweet Anna disbanded. Now Joel and Eleanor are the pop/rock duo aptly named: Joel X Eleanor. The duo's first single, 'How Long', was released on 17 September 2025.