Haim claim “no one wanted to sign” a “girl rock band”
Haim have revealed that they struggled to capture the attention of record labels for many years at the start of their career because of their gender.
The group began to make a name for themselves in 2012 thanks to their debut EP Forever. Following the success of the release, they eventually secured a record deal with Polydor and their album Days Are Gone followed the next year. At this stage, Haim had been gigging for several years in Los Angeles, but “no one wanted to sign” them, according to the band.
“No one wanted to sign us,” Alana Haim told Elle UK in a new interview. “The amount of people who were like, ‘You’re never going to make it. Give up!'” Danielle Haim added. She continued: “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 Haim said: “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.”
In the same interview, Haim also discussed the differences between how male and female rock bands are perceived. Danielle explained: “On our first two album, 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.”
This summer, Haim are set to headline All Points East in London’s Victoria Park on August 28th. They’ll be joined at the festival by Confidence Man, Snail Mail, Girl In Red, Joesef and many more.
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