“We fall all the time. It’s a family trait, someone in our gene pool had weak ankles and we’ve just all got them,” says Alana Haim, one-third of the girl band Haim she and her sisters Danielle and Este started in 2007. “We have zero balance… there’s literally YouTube videos of us falling at almost every show,” Danielle chimes in, joking that their clumsiness is the real meaning behind their hit song ‘Falling.’
I’m conducting a (somewhat chaotic) four-way Zoom with all three sisters, who are all dialling in from their respective homes in LA. They have recently starred in a campaign for US fashion label Coach to launch their new Signature monogram handbag range, a collection creative director Stuart Vevers describes as “an enduring house symbol reimagined in a language of individuality, ease and optimism that speaks to the attitude of today.” Talk quickly turns to a moment in the shoot, which was captured in New York by Juergen Teller, when Alana fell and broke a chair.
“It was so funny because I was laughing so hard,” says Alana. “Stuff like that really makes me laugh and Juergen was like: ‘stay right there.’ And I think that just speaks to how cool he is, that he would see that and think ‘no, this is the perfect photo.’”
The sisters, who grew up in California with Jewish parents, began playing instruments from an early age and from their teen years starred in a cover band called Rockinhaim, fronted by their parents, Moti and Donna. In 2007, they formed Haim with younger sister Alana (30), and have since gone on to do sell-out tours and win several BRIT and NME Awards for their soulful rock-pop tracks.
They have also recently starred in Paul Thomas Anderson’s coming of age drama Licorice Pizza alongside their parents, with Alana playing the lead role and the other Haims playing her on-screen family. I’ve been banned by their publicist pre-interview from asking any questions pertaining to their silver screen moment, so instead turn conversation to their upcoming European tour, which will be their first post-pandemic. They’ll be gigging all over the US and Europe, plus London’s 02 (once the roof gets fixed) and regional cities like Nottingham, Glasgow and Leeds.
But it’s the UK dates they are palpably most excited about. “It feels like all of our favourite moments happen in the UK,” enthuses Alana. “We basically started in the UK...“ The UK accepted us before the US did, obviously we love the US, we’re from here, but when we came to the UK we got signed there first and we stayed there for months playing as many shows as we could. And the UK audience really embraced us as a band and got us almost immediately, which felt so great. We really do owe everything to you guys.”
Older sister Este, 35, the only one with her camera on wandering around her house in a plaid shirt, is equally effusive: “We just have the most fun when we play in the UK,” she says. “UK audiences are so up for live music, and they just go off. Every show we’ve had. I get emotional even talking about it.” How have they found it compares playing the regions to playing London, I ask. “Oh my god we played in Glasgow once and it was one of the rowdiest shows we’ve ever played – it was bonkers!” exclaims Danielle, 33. “And playing in Nottingham, Reading and Leeds was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before in my life.”
They’re not able to confirm at which UK festivals they’ll be performing this summer, but given they flew over to Glastonbury to play last year’s live stream event, one suspects there could be a stage at Worthy Farm with their name on it. “It’s such a beautiful place and it was so crazy to see the festival grounds without people,” remembers Alana. “But we are excited to come back and play with a crowd – hopefully one day soon.” The tour will also mark the first time they have played their new album live, as it was released-mid lockdown. “We can’t wait. All we’ve been wanting to do is play these songs live to our fans – it’s number one on our list,” says Alana, explaining that they’re always excited to see which songs resonate with the crowd, as sometimes it’s surprising.
“I’ll make a prediction, I think it’s going to be Gasoline. I think that’s the one that will go off,” says Este.
For red carpet events, the sisters have worked with the same stylist, Rebecca Grice, since they started; but for performances they typically pick their own outfits, which they all agree start out high-glamour on a tour and a few weeks in begin to tend towards comfort. “It’s hard to find the right thing on tour because we have instruments and we move around so much, so you can’t really wear heels or anything restrictive,” says Alana. “You can’t have anything that gets stuck in the instrument – because at the end of the day the most important thing is playing well and putting on a good show.”
“Kudos to the people who wear heels to perform. Kudos,” Danielle says. “I wish I could, but I can’t.”
Alana agrees, emphatically: “I want to. But again, weak ankles, I would fall.”
