Haim (band)
Haim is an American rock band, based in Los Angeles, composed of three sisters, Este, Danielle, and Alana Haim. In addition to their primary instruments, each is proficient in several others.
The sisters grew up in a musical family, and began playing instruments from an early age in the cover band Rockinhaim, fronted by their parents, Moti and Donna. The two elder sisters, Este and Danielle, performed briefly with the pop group Valli Girls in 2005, releasing a few songs on soundtrack and compilation albums under that name. In 2007, they formed Haim with younger sister Alana, but did not seriously consider it a professional career for some years. After Danielle became a successful touring guitarist, first with Jenny Lewis and later with Julian Casablancas, Haim reformed as a full-time operation in 2012.
The group's first release, Forever, combined with positive reception at the South by Southwest festival, led to a deal with Polydor Records, and a management deal with Jay-Z's Roc Nation group in mid-2012. The band began recording material for their first album, Days Are Gone, in sessions between touring dates, including appearances at the Glastonbury Festival. The album charted in the top ten in several countries, including the number-one spot in the UK, and the group had won several "best of" awards by the end of 2013. The group was nominated for Best New Artist at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards. Their second album, Something to Tell You, was released in July 2017. Their third album, titled Women in Music Pt. III, was released in June 2020. The group received nominations at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Rock Performance. The group's fourth studio album, I Quit, was released on June 20, 2025 to favorable reviews.
Early life
The three sisters, Este Arielle, Danielle Sari and Alana Mychal were all born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, California, U.S., to Jewish parents. Their father Mordechai "Moti" Haim and their mother Donna were both musical; though he had been a professional soccer player in Israel, Moti also played drums, while Donna won a contest on The Gong Show in the 1970s singing a Bonnie Raitt song. Their father's maternal Jewish family is originally from Bulgaria.While Danielle showed an aptitude for the guitar at a young age, Moti made the decision that Este would be more suited to the bass, buying her a second-hand Fender for $50. The siblings were encouraged to listen to their parents' 1970s classic rock and Americana records and, during their childhood, the family formed a band called Rockinhaim to play cover versions at local charity fairs, with Moti on drums and Donna on guitar. In 2000, the group performed their first rock concert at Los Angeles' Canter's Deli. They played typical wedding band material, including the Beatles' "Get Back", Billy Joel's "You May Be Right" and Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl", but did only free community and benefit gigs at churches, schools and hospitals.
Career
Early career
In 2004, Danielle and Este were invited to join the Valli Girls, an all-female pop rock group signed to Columbia Records. They recorded a few one-off songs, and later appeared on the soundtrack to the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The group made an appearance at the 2005 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, and their song "Valli Nation" was included in the companion soundtrack. Danielle and Este left the group shortly afterwards. As they grew older, the sisters became more interested in incorporating pop and contemporary R&B into their music, and in 2007 they decided to form their own band. For their first gig, the trio played at a Jewish deli in Hollywood and were paid in matzah ball soup. Early gigs were sparsely populated; Danielle recalled, "We were bottom of the bill at 50-capacity venues and no one would show up". For the next five years, Haim played local venues but did not consider music as a professional career, because all three sisters were busy with other projects. Este was studying at UCLA and graduated in 2010 with a degree in ethnomusicology, specializing in Bulgarian and Brazilian music. Alana attended Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and graduated in 2010.After graduating from high school, Danielle was spotted by musician Jenny Lewis at a jam session in Laurel Canyon, which led to Danielle joining Lewis's touring band. The Strokes' lead vocalist Julian Casablancas came to see one of Lewis's shows on tour, and he in turn asked Danielle to play guitar and percussion on his solo tour. Danielle rehearsed with Casablancas' band every day for two months, which she later described as "an eye-opening experience." Following working with Casablancas from late 2009 to mid 2010, she auditioned for a place in Scarlet Fever, the all-female backing band for CeeLo Green. Danielle performed only once with the group, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. While Danielle enjoyed touring, she decided she would prefer to perform her own music alongside her sisters, turning down a lucrative tour deal with Green. Casablancas advised Danielle to write stronger material and focus on recording, as it would improve their online presence.
2012–2014: ''Forever'' and ''Days Are Gone''
After playing shows supporting Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, the Henry Clay People and Kesha, Haim released the EP Forever, which included three songs, in February 2012 as a time-limited free download on their website. Dash Hutton officially joined as drummer at the EP's release party at the Los Angeles Bootleg Theatre. He is the son of Three Dog Night's Danny Hutton and knew Este socially after she had seen his old band, Wires on Fire. The EP received attention from the music industry following a successful series of shows at the South by Southwest festival in March. Danielle recalled the first show was "maybe a disaster", but the remainder of the shows attracted more attention. The band subsequently signed a deal with Polydor Records in the UK in June.In July, independent record label National Anthem re-released the Forever EP on 10" vinyl, containing the original three songs along with a fourth track, a remix of "Forever" by Dan Lissvik. Following dates supporting Mumford & Sons on their Gentlemen of the Road tour in the US in August, Haim toured the UK for the first time in November 2012 and then supported Florence and the Machine on their UK and Ireland tour in December.
British music magazine NME made the title track of the Forever EP its No. 4 track of 2012. On January 4, 2013, the BBC announced that Haim had topped their annual Sound of 2013 music industry poll to find the most promising new musical acts for the coming year. The group also signed a management contract with the conglomerate Roc Nation, returned to South by SouthWest in March 2013 and earned their own "At Your Request" video feature on Idolator. In early 2013, they were featured on American recording artist Kid Cudi's third studio album Indicud, on the song titled "Red Eye". Danielle Haim appeared on the first track, "You're No Good", from Major Lazer's second album, Free the Universe, alongside Santigold, Vybz Kartel and Yasmin.
The group spent a year recording their first album, Days Are Gone, in sessions between live shows. The group experimented with drum machines and the music program GarageBand, adding hip hop and R&B influences to their existing sound. Polydor recommended producers Ariel Rechtshaid and James Ford to help with the album, and they suggested further use of synthesizers, bringing the album closer to a straightforward pop style. Several of the drum tracks were recorded with gated reverb, made famous by Phil Collins. In June 2013, the group performed at Glastonbury Festival, and in addition to their own set, the band appeared with Primal Scream performing backing vocals on "It's Alright, It's OK", "Rocks" and "Come Together." The band later returned for a repeat performance at Glastonbury in 2014. During their set in 2013, Este, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2000, nearly had a diabetic seizure after taking insulin and forgetting to eat after. After going backstage, she returned, albeit sitting for the rest of their set.
The single "The Wire" was released on July 29 and the album followed on September 30. The album reached number one in the UK and has since sold 200,000 copies there. To promote the album, the group performed "The Wire" on the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show, with Este dedicating the song to the then-British Prime Minister David Cameron, also a guest on the show. The move was criticised as being ill-judged by musician Johnny Marr of the Smiths, who stated that "It's really simple: they made themselves look like idiots. It's ridiculous. No-one put a gun to their head. The Conservatives tried to do the same thing with the Smiths, to re-appropriate us in a false way, to be cool by association.” Haim did not respond.
Haim subsequently toured Europe throughout the remainder of 2013, recruiting touring keyboardist Tommy King, as well as performing as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on November 23 with host Josh Hutcherson. The group performed "The Wire" and "Don't Save Me", and Este considered this performance particularly poignant as a high school drama teacher had once told her, "You're never going to be on Saturday Night Live." The main US tour followed in April 2014 and continued into May. In 2014, the sisters recorded backing vocals with the supergroup the New Basement Tapes for their album Lost on the River, performing on the tracks "Kansas City" and "The Whistle Is Blowing".
2014–2018: Touring and ''Something to Tell You''
In 2014, Haim was awarded the NME "Best International Band" award. In August, the band released the video for "My Song 5" in a remixed version, featuring American rapper, ASAP Ferg. This is the sixth single taken from Days Are Gone. Haim and Jon Heder made an appearance for the music video of Chromeo's "Old 45's". In October, the group recorded a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Rhiannon" with Stevie Nicks. They continued to record their second album, having written a bulk of new material while on tour over the year. The band is also featured on the original soundtrack of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and The Divergent Series: Insurgent. In November, the group contributed their vocals to the track "Pray to God" on Calvin Harris' fourth studio album Motion.The group has become friends with singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, and together they have visited Catalina and Maui, Hawaii. In the summer of 2015, Haim opened for Taylor Swift at select dates on The 1989 World Tour. The group was nominated for Best New Artist at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards. Danielle was injured in an accident just before the awards, but shortly afterwards tweeted that she was recovering.
In March 2016, Haim released a teaser announcing new music and a new tour for that summer. In an interview with NME on January 18, 2017, Haim announced their second album would be released that summer. In April, a teaser video shot by Paul Thomas Anderson was released of a new song, "Right Now" from their second album, Something to Tell You, released on July 7. Its lead single, "Want You Back", was released on May 3. The band followed up the release with various promotional appearances, including a return appearance on Saturday Night Live, where they performed "Want You Back" and "Little of Your Love". Hutton left the band in 2017 to focus on his own projects. In early 2018, Haim announced the Sister Sister Sister Tour for the United States, Europe and the United Kingdom.