The first CD that Danielle Haim ever bought
In the early part of the 2010s, HAIM was established as one of the most talked about pop-rock acts of the 21st Century. Comprised of the sisters Este, Danielle and Alana Haim, the band found their roots in a musical family and played several cover songs with their parents in their youth.
Discussing her early musical tastes, Danielle Haim noted: “I think the first CD I bought was Ace of a Base, from the early 1990s. It’s not that bad – the most embarrassing thing on my MP3 player is probably an old HAIM demo. People are always like, ‘Oh, what is this? Is this new?’ and we’re like, ‘Don’t listen to that!’ It’s an old garage band thing that I don’t want anyone to hear.”
Danielle went on to explain that she started playing the guitar when she was 17 years old, and her mother taught her how to play several Beatles and Joni Mitchell songs. In fact, according to Haim, her mother has dreams of becoming “the next Joni Mitchell”.
“I don’t know what happened,” she said, “But she didn’t end up doing that for a living, so I think she always secretly wanted us to pursue music because she couldn’t”. The Haim sisters had started out playing music with their parents after their own band had split up”.
“[They] had a band with another couple called Boomerang,” Haim explained. “When that fell apart, my dad didn’t want to deal with anybody else—I think they kind of had a bad falling out – so he decided ‘, Why don’t we just start a band with the kids!?'” From there, the Haim family band began playing at charity gigs and at the children’s hospital.
Discussing what it was like playing in a band with her parents, Haim noted: “I think I always thought it was kind of cool. Sometimes I would get embarrassed about song choices; when we were younger, my parents would pick what songs we would cover, and we would do Santana.”
And as for playing in a famous band with her sisters, Haim also explained that many people get a bit freaked out by how close they are with one another. “We do bicker – when you’re sisters, you always bicker – but it’s usually a quick thing; we get over it really fast,” she said. “Alana is five years younger than Este; she’d started going out with us when she was 16, but it was definitely weird, especially now when Este’s friends will hit on Alana.”
