Haim are telling me about the best party they’ve ever had. ‘I stayed up until the sun came up,’ says Alana, the band’s youngest member. ‘When we go out, we don’t know how to leave,’ adds her eldest sister, Este. Danielle smiles knowingly.
The party in question took place after their gig at London’s O2 arena last July, which was also the last European night of their worldwide ‘One More Haim Tour’. The show got rave reviews, including one that said, ‘Slinky, breathless and defiant, the Californian trio of sister musicians prove they might just be the best rock band in the world.’ Their close friend Taylor Swift made a surprise appearance, all four in matching custom-made Louis Vuitton leather trousers, to perform their hit track ‘Gasoline’ with them. When the concert finished, Este, 37, Danielle, 34, and Alana, 31, celebrated, just as any good rock band should. ‘It felt like our wedding day,’ smiles Alana. ‘It was pretty f***ing cool. We hit the streets with our friends. I was like, “I don’t really care where we go. I just want tequila.”’
Performing is what Haim love best. ‘It’s the thing we find most joy in,’ says Este. And when I meet them, on the rooftop of the Thompson Hollywood hotel in Los Angeles on a sunny spring morning, they are getting ready for a busy summer of shows. Not only are they headlining London’s All Points East festival on 28 August, they will also be supporting Taylor Swift on some of the US leg of her ‘Eras’ tour. In between gigs, they’re writing their fourth album.
We’re sitting at a corner table, perched on a banquette scattered with yellow-and-white candy-stripe cushions. Behind us lies a Slim Aarons-style pool, with planters of lavender surrounding the table. There’s plenty of rock-star- appropriate leather going on: Este is in jeans, a white tee, black heeled boots and a leather jacket, with her blonde hair pushed to one side. Danielle is wearing a black leather bomber, sweater and trousers, while Alana sports a cosy- looking Louis Vuitton brown bomber over her jeans. They’ve got real presence: as soon as they walked in, it was clear that rock stars had entered the building. One waiter even squealed, ‘Oh my god! You’re my favourite band!’
You never know what to expect when doing a big interview, but the fact that they offered to come to my hotel for the 10am meeting (which never happens) made me instantly like them. And, in person, they’re funny, finishing each other’s sentences and riffing off one another endlessly. Alana is the unofficial spokesperson, while Este brings the edge and Danielle sits back quietly, a bit more considered in what she says.
It has been a busy few years for the sisters. They released their critically acclaimed third album, Women in Music Pt III, in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. It went straight to number one in the UK, and it made history in 2021 when they became the first all- female rock band to be nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys. In 2022, they joined Louis Vuitton’s glittery roster of house ambassadors. Then there was the small matter of playing Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage last year.
‘We put our third album out and wanted to tour, but it was physically impossible,’ says Alana, on the impact of the pandemic. ‘It was devastating. Like a sneeze that you just had to hold in.’ Needless to say, they’re excited to get back on stage – especially with Swift, who they previously supported on her ‘1989’ tour. ‘Seeing how hard she works is insane,’ says Danielle. ‘She never complains. She’s the most incredible performer, and so inspiring as a friend.’ ‘She loves what she does,’ adds Este. ‘We’d play a show and she would just want to hang out after.’
It is hardly surprising that the sisters live and breathe music: it has always been central to their lives. The trio grew up in LA’s San Fernando Valley, and had a family band, called Rockinhaim, with their parents Moti and Donna. ‘It was a covers band,’ explains Alana. ‘My mom played guitar and my dad had a drum set in the living room. We played at country fairs, church fairs, charity events... In our minds, we weren’t great – we were amazing.’ Este objects: ‘We were kids! And it was our way of spending time as a family. Some families go camping – we play music. We’d play The Beatles, The Stones, Santana...’
As they got older, and Este passed her driving test, the sisters would head to Hollywood to watch live music at bars such as the Troubadour, where the likes of Bob Dylan had once performed. At the time, Este was working as a waitress in The Cheesecake Factory, Danielle at a shoe shop and Alana was still in high school. ‘Our lives changed when Este got her licence,’ says Alana. ‘She got us fake IDs and we started going to concerts, and that’s how we bonded as sisters.’
In 2007, they started a new band as a trio. ‘We were writing songs,’ says Danielle. ‘Really bad songs. And Haim just kind of began.’ While the sisters all play guitar, Este is on bass, Danielle on drums and Alana on piano. They uploaded their music to Myspace and started booking gigs through the plat- form. ‘We would pay for our friends to come to our shows so there were people in the audience,’ says Alana.
It wasn’t easy to launch themselves as an all-female rock band, despite gigging around LA for five years. ‘No one wanted to sign us,’ notes Alana. ‘The amount of people who were like, “You’re never going to make it. Give up!”’ Danielle adds, ‘People would say to us, “You’ll never get a record deal. A girl rock band, unfortunately, is not something you see.” People used to say that shit all the time. But we had such a crazy focus, plus we’re sisters – we’re like a wolf pack.’ Alana says, ‘We’ve done so many things in our career, despite what people in the industry have said. Being told you’ll never sell out a venue, then you do. You’ll never headline a festival, and then we do. It fuels the fire.’
They didn’t give up, and were eventually signed to Polydor Records in 2012. Shortly after, they released their EP, Forever. Their resilience is what makes them such important figures in a male-dominated industry. At no point have they allowed anyone to get in the way of their vision: keeping rock music alive, through the female lens.
It’s still a struggle today. They tell me about the time they fired their agent after learning a male act he also represented was being paid 10 times more than them to perform at the same festival. ‘I think I can comfortably say that will never happen again,’ Alana says.
When I ask what needs to change for women in the industry, Danielle says simply, ‘I don’t even know where to start.’ It’s clear the subject weighs heavily upon them, and has motivated them to go deeper and become more honest in their writing. The themes of Women in Music Pt III encompass everything from mental health to Alana losing a friend in a car accident.
Danielle explains, ‘On our first two albums [Days Are Gone (2013) and Something to Tell You (2017)], there aren’t a lot of guitar solos. And we dance in our music videos because we love to dance, but some people would write it off and say, “Oh, they don’t actually play their own instruments.” We like to move! Some male bands can get away with dancing and not putting guitar solos on their albums and are still considered a rock band. With our third album, we were a little more conscious of that.’
All three say they have had regular therapy. ‘I’m going to my therapist after this,’ says Alana. ‘It’s incredibly important.’ Danielle, who has spoken about suffering from depression, says, ‘It took a lot of strength to be vulnerable. It was amazing to see [the reaction to the album]. ‘I Know Alone’ was written prob- ably at the darkest depths of my depression, and it was weird because we released it during the pandemic when everyone was alone, and the messages we got from our fans were saying, “This has helped me so much.” There is nothing better than having that connection with someone you don’t know.’
Meanwhile, Este touches on living with a chronic illness on the track ‘Hallelujah’. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 14, and she wears a monitor on her right arm to track her blood-sugar levels. It sends a message to her sisters’ phones when the levels dip or peak. ‘When I was growing up, doctors told me it would be a really bad idea to be a touring musician,’ says Este, talking about the physical toll and unpredictability of life on the road. ‘That was the most devastating thing for me. I understand why now, because it is really hard. There are so many things that affect diabetes that nobody ever really talks about. But I wanted to be able to show fellow diabetics that you don’t have to let anything hold you back from making your dreams come true. There are days when I’m incredibly “deprEste”, because my blood sugar will be high all day and I won’t know why.’ As well as talking through her frustrations with her sisters, she has an unlikely confidante in Nick Jonas, who also has type 1 diabetes. ‘He’s my diabuddy,’ she smiles.
Vital to the continuing success of the group has been each sister’s encouragement of the others going off to do their own thing. In the early days of the band, Danielle toured as a guitarist with The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas. In 2020, Alana turned her hand to acting in the lead role of Alana Kane in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2021 hit film, Licorice Pizza. It went on to be Oscar and Bafta nominated. ‘We are so proud of her,’ says Danielle.
When Alana started filming in August 2020, it involved staying in a strict Covid bubble, so she couldn’t see her sisters. Danielle, Este and their parents briefly appear in the film, playing her family at Shabbat, a traditional Jewish Friday-night dinner. ‘When we finally got to film together with my parents, it was the first time I’d seen them all in months,’ says Alana. ‘And it was the first time in my life that I didn’t have my siblings with me every step of the way.’
They made up for it when the film was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, and the sisters walked the red carpet together. They famously posted a TikTok video on their way to the awards, predicting a heavy night and singing, ‘I’m going to be hungover, I’m going to drink a bunch of different drinks, and I’m going to be hungover.’ ‘We did drink a bunch of different drinks and we were hungover,’ confirms Alana.
Then, last year, White Lotus fans went wild when Este started popping up in season two behind-the-scenes cast pictures on social media. Nobody could work out what she was doing there. As it turned out, Este had been going through a break-up in the spring of 2022 and so her friend, the show’s executive producer David Bernad, invited her to stay at the hotel in Sicily where the show was being filmed. At first she was there on a jolly and her friend, the singer Kesha, joined her too. ‘It was paradise. I was DJing every night in the bar area with the cast, and having these dance parties and karaoke. I was a bad influence – I wasn’t working all day like they had been. My unofficial title was “vibe conductor”,’ says Este. I’ve only known her for an hour, but I can imagine the fun she must have brought on set.
‘But then, even though live music was such a big part of the show, they didn’t have anyone around to help with it, so Dave asked me to stay.’ She ended up being credited as music consultant for the show. ‘It was the most fun. The only thing missing was these two,’ she says, indicating her sisters.
In the summer of 2022 they reunited for their world tour, all in their matching Louis Vuitton tour costumes, custom made by the house’s creative director, Nicolas Ghesquière. ‘For the first time ever we had the most iconic thing to wear on stage. We wore those leather pants every day,’ says Alana. ‘They smell so bad!’ Danielle laughs, ‘Just one pair, every night. It’s musty in there.’
Talking fashion is where Danielle really comes alive. She reminisces about the first time she went to London in 2009, and took five buses to get to Topshop on Oxford Street because Kate Moss’ latest edit had dropped. ‘I got so lost, I didn’t know what I was doing,’ she laughs. So working with Ghesquière has been a highlight. ‘It’s the dream,’ she says. ‘We grew up idolising his designs.’
Despite their all-nighter after the O2 show, the sisters assure me that back in LA they live a quiet life in the Valley, hanging out with childhood friends. ‘We don’t really go out,’ says Alana. ‘I want to put on this façade that we’re rock’n’rollers, but when we come home, we sleep. We’re not night owls. Friends come to us. We stay at home, cook and watch Love Island,’ explains Este. ‘We’re trying to perfect the martini right now,’ adds Alana. ‘’Tini night!’ shouts Este. And it’s very much ‘we’. ‘We come as a package,’ says Este. ‘If you’re friends with one of us, you’re friends with all of us.’ As for nights with Swift, they say they’re ‘the most fun’. ‘We make dinner, we dance and we play pool,’ says Este. ‘When we met, it was “game over”– we just connected on so many levels,’ agrees Alana. ‘We have the same musical tastes. It just kind of clicks. As friendships do.’
With that, it’s time for Alana’s appointment. ‘My therapist is waiting for me,’ she says. I see them again before I return to London, on ELLE’s cover shoot the following day, at a house in the Malibu hills. LA has had an unprecedented amount of rain over the winter, but today it’s a cinematic blue-sky day. The countryside is a luscious green, and carpeted with yellow wildflowers. As with everything they do, Haim bring fun to the day – especially when our photographer asks them to hula hoop, which Este does with aplomb, and the ring spins around her waist.
This is the magic of Haim. Yes, they release great records, but people also love them for being so unapologetically themselves, never taking things too seriously, and always finding joy in their music. They have succeeded where many male-fronted rock bands have failed, and perhaps that’s down to their unwavering self belief. Rock’n’roll might go in and out of fashion, but with the likes of Haim supporting the cause, it’s definitely here to stay.
Haim headline All Points East festival on 28 August
