Haim may have named their brilliant fourth album I Quit, but in fact its release is set to ignite their biggest era yet. It’s now 13 years since the sisters’ first UK trip saw them sign to Polydor amidst a maelstrom of hype, which they have delivered on via two No.1 albums, a BRIT win, festival headline sets and not one, but two tours with Taylor Swift. Music Week finds Alana, Danielle and Este on imperious form as, joined by Polydor Label Group, CAA and producer Rostam Batmanglij, they talk freedom, the importance of “finding your gems” in the industry and why they never want to hear the words “women in music” again…
WORDS: Ben Homewood
PHOTOS: Elise Schatz
Can we get that on the record? That you can print, Music Week!”
Este Haim is having her say on her band’s first Music Week cover feature, having just hit upon something the bassist/vocalist and her sisters, vocalist/guitarist/drummer Danielle and vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Alana, want to say about their group.
“Haim write their own songs, Haim produce their own songs and – shock – we play our songs!” Alana chimes in. “That shouldn’t be a headline, but if you would like to make that the headline of this article…”
“Go for it!” exclaims Este, theatrically finishing her sister’s sentence.
“And that…” Alana says, pausing for further dramatic effect, “…you can print!”
We’re discussing the biggest challenges Haim have faced since forming in 2007 and, as they talk, it’s hard not to interpret their words as a giant middle finger to anyone who has ever cast doubt on their craft.
“It sucks when people think that we don’t play our instruments,” says Alana, plainly. “That fucking sucks.”
Given that they’ve been playing music since they were kids growing up in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, not to mention that their recorded work is so unmistakably theirs, that argument doesn’t seem to carry much weight.
Further facts are on offer, too. Haim became the first all-female rock band to be shortlisted for the Album Of The Year category at the Grammys for 2020’s Women In Music Pt. III, which debuted at No.1 in the UK, won them a BRIT for Best International Group and is soon to pass 100,000 sales, according to the Official Charts Company. So, too, is 2017’s Something To Tell You, while their No.1 2013 debut, Days Are Gone, has 376,701. Since their last record, other big-time moves include contributing to the Barbie soundtrack and Alana landing her first acting role, starring in the Oscar-and Golden Globe-nominated Licorice Pizza.
On the stage, Haim headlined All Points East in London in 2023 and last year opened on Taylor Swift’s Eras juggernaut, as they did on her 1989 tour (their 2020 collaboration No Body, No Crime has 337,960 sales). They sold out The O2 on their last UK run, and are set to return later this year, as part of an arena tour.
So, why on earth would anyone question them?
“Your guess is as good as mine,” shrugs Alana. “We’ve been playing music since we were children. So when people try to decipher if we can actually play or not, I don’t know how much more we can do. We’re musicians, we take our live show so extremely seriously and we leave everything on the stage, because that’s where our happy place is: we’re a live band. So when someone says, ‘They’re not actually playing,’ I’m like, ‘Errr, come on the bus, guys, come be with us, and you can see us play…’”
Ben Mortimer, president of Polydor Label Group, has more experience than most of what Haim can do. In fact, they were the first act he signed for the major, which can now proudly point to a UK-driven global success story for a huge US act.
“Haim were the first act I signed when I came to Polydor in 2012,” he smiles. “To still be working with them 13 years later is something I’m very proud of. They’re a formidable live band – I’m not sure that’s something that’s celebrated enough about them.”
Haim are friendly – overwhelmingly so – but you get the idea that they might quite like the idea of squashing their naysayers to a pulp. Welcome, then, to Haim’s ‘fuck you’ era.
I’m Gone, the thunderous opener on I Quit, their fourth album (due via Polydor on June 20), sees Danielle imparting swaggering lines such as, ‘I’ll do whatever I want’ and, ‘You can’t make me disappear’.
It’s no surprise when she says that making I Quit was all about embracing freedom.
“It felt like, ‘I’m doing me and I’m just not gonna let other people dictate how I live my life,’” she explains.
Mortimer praises the album’s “rockier” feel and promises that the band “went really deep on the process – expect good surprises”.
Alongside the likes of Lana Del Rey and Olivia Dean on Polydor Label Group’s 2025 release slate, Haim are a big part of the reason Mortimer is “buzzing” about the future.
“We are having a truly phenomenal 2025,” he says. “We’ve had the biggest global dance record of the year with Chrystal’s The Days. We’ve released a record-breaker of an album with Sam Fender’s People Watching, and a career best with Inhaler’s Open Wide. Internationally, Doechii has been a huge breakthrough, plus Sabrina Carpenter and Gracie Abrams continue to dominate.”
Haim, who recently joined Carpenter on the books at Volara Management, are equally optimistic about I Quit. Alana says that if Women In Music Pt. III nudged the door ajar for them getting towards how they’ve always wanted to sound, its hard-rocking follow-up sees it “fly wide open”.
While cooking up ideas for the 15 songs on the record – which she co-produced with Rostam Batmanglij, who worked on Something To Tell You and Women In Music Pt. III – Danielle came across a photograph of the actor Katherine Hepburn, beaming while standing next to a sign outside her house that read: ‘Please Go Away’.
“She just looks so happy in her garden and I was so inspired by that,” she says.
“Danielle showed us and we thought it was so funny,” says Alana. “When things make us laugh, we really pay attention.”
“It’s not easy to make us laugh,” adds Este.
Haim’s interpretation of that image adorns the cover of I Quit – it was shot in a dry cleaners near where they grew up by previous collaborator and Licorice Pizza director Paul Thomas Anderson. Este drove around for hours looking for a suitable place.
“I can be very persuasive,” she notes. “We shot some things during opening hours, but we knew it would go into after hours, too, and they let us have the run of the place.”
For Este, the endeavour says a lot about where Haim come from.
“We rep the San Fernando Valley really hard, and I think a lot of that comes from the fact that people are just really kind and nice and want to help out,” she says. “And this one guy, who was not getting paid [overtime], was just like, ‘I’ll stay.’”
“It was very sweet,” says Alana. “We went in there and we didn’t tell anybody. We definitely didn’t tell our label or anything like that. We don’t like telling people what we’re doing.”
On the artwork, the band wear sparkly vintage dresses scooped up from a nearby thrift store, Danielle holding a neon LED sign illuminated with the words ‘I Quit’.
As for the title itself, it comes from a line in That Thing You Do!, Tom Hanks’ 1996 directorial debut. The Haim sisters have been obsessed with it since it came out.
“It’s about this band that writes a song and it immediately goes to No.1,” says Alana. “It’s the dream scenario that doesn’t happen in real life, but that’s what we thought the music industry was.”
In the film, dismayed at being encouraged to write a “snappy song” in the studio by their manager, the band’s singer Jimmy pauses before singing “I quit” into the mic, snapping his fingers.
“We’ve always sung that, since we were kids,” says Alana. “Whenever we would check the mic in the studio or at soundcheck we would sing ‘I quit’ and we were doing it throughout recording the album. We joked about naming the record I Quit and then [we realised] that we were singing about quitting things that don’t serve us any more.”
Haim note that, for them, quit is not a negative word.
“Quitting is a new beginning and quitting things that don’t serve you any more is a good thing,” says Alana. “It’s funny, the other day someone gave me a copy of our last album, and I love it so much, but I just felt like that chapter of my life was done. Then, we got the first pressing of I Quit and it felt so extremely exciting. It really does feel like a new chapter has begun.”
When Danielle Haim moved her belongings into her sister Alana’s apartment some time after the end of a long tour in 2022, it marked a historic moment. For the first time since Haim had formed (in the wake of performing with their parents Moti and Donna in family band Rockinhaim, and Este and Danielle’s brief stint in pop group Valli Girls) all three sisters were single.
“The last time we were all single was when I was in high school,” says Danielle. “So there is a huge nostalgic feeling with this album, but it’s about dating stories throughout our adult lives, actually.”
With a home studio set-up and Danielle “hunkering down, making little ideas up on GarageBand like always,” I Quit began to take shape. Heavy on guitars and rich in texture and quality, it draws from all over Haim’s pot of influences, from the 1960s to the present day.
“We’ve learned so much about being in the studio,” says Alana. “Seeing Danielle was like watching a ballet.”
Also, Alana says, thanks to Danielle’s culinary skills, they were well fed (“She was cookin’ in the studio, in the kitchen, cookin’ everywhere!”).
“It was a real push and pull of being loose, but also serious,” says Danielle, noting that Haim stopped focusing too much on small details in favour of paying attention to the overall impact of the songs, which include a track on which Alana and Este each assume lead vocal responsibilities.
“It’s good to stay loose, you know?” she points out. “I really feel we accomplished that with this album; we really did try to feel loose and let our emotions take the forefront. It was just such a fun time in all of our lives, especially for me. I was dating and having this amazing [period of] self-exploration about what I want and what I need as a woman and in relationships. You can feel that on the record, and I’m really proud of that.”
That feeling is most emphatic on lead single Relationships, which pulls off the classic Haim trick of evoking multiple genres while sounding completely new.
‘I think I’m in love, but I can’t stand fuckin’ relationships,’ deadpans Danielle, while the sleeve is Haim’s tribute to the Nicole Kidman ‘divorce’ meme, based on a photo of the actor, arms aloft, allegedly celebrating her split from Tom Cruise (she has since debunked it as an internet myth).
I Quit is stuffed with one-liners, nowhere more so than the acoustic-driven pop-rock of Take Me Back, which evokes Fleetwood Mac and was co-written with Tobias Jesso Jr (Justin Vernon also contributed to Everybody’s Trying To Figure Me Out).
‘Billy St. Reams didn’t wanna fuck/Bad GPA couldn’t get it up’, goes the second verse, referencing a character who struggled both sexually and academically (GPA stands for ‘grade point average’ and is used to measure academic achievement in American schools).
“I changed his name!” Alana says, to uproarious laughter. “But yeah, Billy St. Reams didn’t want to fuck, unfortunately, which is what I ran into a lot in my high-school years… and my 20s and 30s… and today!”
Danielle regains composure first.
“Looking back was so fun,” she says. “We were a bunch of art school kids and there were no rules, which was amazing, but craziness ensued.”
“That day in the studio, we were pissing ourselves,” says Alana. “You can’t write a song like that and not be crying with laughter. It actually came out of a day where we were refusing to finish songs and Rostam was like, ‘We cannot start a new song,’ then we did it anyway. It’s one of my favourites on the album.”
Haim say that their bond with Batmanglij is boosted by his background as a member of Vampire Weekend.
“It’s really hard to find someone who can record a live band nowadays, and we’re an organic band when it comes down to it,” says Danielle.
Batmanglij believes the key to I Quit is that they focused on songwriting in a very specific way.
“We spent a long time making sure we had fully finished songs that anyone could sit with an acoustic guitar and record a cover of,” he says. “I’m proud that every song feels like a complete thought.”
At Batmanglij’s base on the East side of LA, they recorded some songs live all together in the room, and he says I Quit is “more about playing live than the modern pop process”.
“In this era, where so much music is constructed from copying and pasting, there’s something about capturing the living performance that I think separates Haim,” he says. “The fact that it’s them performing, and the way they play, it has a distinct sound to it.”
Mike Greek, the band’s agent at CAA, also sees the magic in Haim’s performance.
“Haim are a fantastic rock’n’roll band who carve their own path, creating music that is both personal and aspirational,” he says. “As they continue to evolve, stadiums and festival headline slots are very much part of the plan for the future.”
Batmanglij says, on stage, the band “strike a chord on an almost primal level”, that seeing them play is an “emotional, visceral experience”.
He believes the songs on I Quit “will live long lives” and has a hunch that “when people see them play these songs and experience the thrill of seeing them nail the acrobatics that are happening musically, more and more people will understand Haim”.
Don’t believe him? Batmanglij has back up.
“I remember having dinner with Bono back in 2015 or 2016…” he says, allowing the clang of the namedrop to reverberate.
“I went to hang out with Ryan Tedder, and he didn’t tell me who’d be there, but it was Bono and the three of us had dinner,” he continues. “Bono said he’d heard of Vampire Weekend but had never listened to an album [laughs], then when he asked what else I was doing and I said I was helping Haim on their next record, he’s like, ‘Oh, well, Haim, now that’s a band… they could be the biggest band in the world.’”
That Thing You Do! wasn’t the only thing the Haim sisters obsessively watched on TV as kids – they were also devotees of VH1’s Behind The Music, eagerly soaking up tips on how to make it. In many ways, it’s always seemed like they were preordained to try to become a huge band, and the industry they are returning to feels perfectly set up for them.
As the rollout for I Quit has shown, with their Instagram homages to Britney Spears’ Stronger and more, they are a dab hand at a choreographed video (no surprise given they’ve been doing dance routines together pretty much since they could stand). And, since they’ve been away, the landscape has been dominated by their peers, including friends and collaborators such as Taylor Swift and Charli XCX. Indeed, a key moment in Haim’s live comeback is a prime slot at Primavera Sound, where XCX, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan are headlining.
“We’re so excited and honoured to play with all these women and we’re so inspired by all the women on the line-up,” says Danielle.
They felt the same when they shared a stage with Swift last year.
“Even when we weren’t opening up for her, we basically followed her tour and just saw as many shows as we could because she’s just incredible,” smiles Danielle. “The love in the crowd is something that I had never experienced before, that many people just being so excited. The way that she performs is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It’s so inspiring, I don’t know how she does it.”
Yet, given that their last album was a riposte to constantly being asked what it was like for women in the music industry, Haim are understandably done with the discussion.
“Listen to our last albuuuuum!” Alana sings, poking fun at the idea of the question ever coming up again.
“First of all, the title of that album came to Danielle in a dream, which I love, but it also just made us laugh,” she continues. “We obviously take our music so seriously, but we don’t take ourselves so seriously. And we were so annoyed by people asking us that question. But now, I think it’s just such an exciting time.”
They have studied Charli XCX’s Brat campaign particularly keenly.
“She’s been doing this for so long and is such an amazing songwriter and seeing her tour and seeing her on stage [is incredible],” says Alana. “Seeing all of these women on stage is… that’s all we care about, we just all want to play.”
“We’ve known Charli since True Romance came out, so it’s amazing to see the world catch up, we’re just so in awe of her,” adds Danielle. “[The campaign] is genius, the world building, all of it. That whole thing was about just fucking having a good time, and I fucking ride for that so hard.”
On I Quit, Haim are once again teaming up with photographer and digital strategist Terrence O’Connor, who worked on Brat.
“Haim are a career act with a profound effect on culture and they’re brilliantly equipped for this landscape,” says Ben Mortimer. “They were very early in their use of social media, which remains such a potent driver. Terrence O’Connor’s profile has exploded, and their partnership is continuing to hilarious effect.”
Nodding to his 13-year bond with Haim, Mortimer says his focus on long careers will continue.
“We really stand for and invest in career longevity, Polydor acts like Haim, Lana Del Rey, Florence + The Machine, Michael Kiwanuka and Sam Fender continue to develop and evolve,” he says. “That is something I want to bring to Capitol and 0207 Def Jam, too.”
Haim feel very much at home on the major.
“We’re lucky, Ben was our A&R, he signed us and has always been such a huge supporter of us and really has fought for us,” says Danielle.
The trio speak in similarly glowing terms about the UK, still elated to have followed in the footsteps of The Strokes in being a US band catapulted to success by being signed in the UK.
“It’s an honour and a privilege to have the love of the UK,” says Este, before Danielle cuts in.
“We’re obsessed with all British music and rock’n’roll… seeing Kate Moss with Pete Doherty, there was such a moment in the early 2000s where it just felt like the UK was the only place to be,” she says. “Every time we go over to you guys, the shows are electric, there’s just nothing like it in the States... Sorry!”
By now, Haim are well placed to offer counsel on industry survival, and they’re unequivocal about their top tip.
“The only advice is to find the people that really believe in you, because it’s really hard,” says Alana. “And once you find those people, hold on to them for dear life, because it gets really confusing. We’re lucky that finally we’ve found our people that believe in us more than anyone ever has in the past. It’s amazing how your emotions change when someone actually says, ‘You’re doing great,’ as opposed to the opposite.”
But the biggest thing at Haim’s disposal when it comes to navigating the industry is their sisterhood.
“We’ve been so lucky to have each other, because it’s not a secret, this industry is tough,” says Alana. “There’s a lot of people that have a lot of strong opinions that try to pipe in when, you know, we don’t need it. There are times when other people’s opinions make you feel like you need to doubt what your vision is and we’re lucky that, at any point in time, one of us is steering the ship.”
“Early on, there were things where people could try and make you feel like if you didn’t do a certain thing then your career would suffer,” says Danielle. “But if it’s not truly aligned with our artistry, it’s an absolute no, and we’re three people that can just [say that].”
“This industry is not for the weak,” Alana sums up, “and you can’t really trust a lot of people, but you can find your gems.”
The question is, now that they have found their gems, what happens next? Are Haim harbouring aspirations of Grammy-winning, stadium- and festival-headlining world domination?
“Oh my God!” shouts Alana, “Nooo! I probably should, but I don’t.”
Still, Haim leave us with the sense that they’re about to make a big step up, even if, when they eventually do come up with their number one ambition for I Quit, it’s not what you might expect.
“Can Danielle get a boyfriend? That would be nice,” says Alana, before cracking up again.
“Honestly, the fact that I still have not got one person in my DMs when I’ve been so outward about wanting a boyfriend…” Danielle adds.
“Yeah, that’s really what this album was about, we just really want Danielle to get a boyfriend,” says Alana, grabbing the final word. “That would be so sick…”
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