In an exclusive unseen extract from our cover interview, Haim have told Music Week that the key to success as a band is “knowing what’s good for yourself”.
The trio, made up of Alana, Danielle and Este Haim, are riding high in the albums chart with new record I Quit this week, and are preparing for their upcoming UK tour – which could be preceded by a rumoured surprise appearance at Glastonbury this weekend.
Before they were being touted as one of the unannounced acts on the line-up, CAA’s Mike Greek described them as a “fantastic rock’n’roll band”.
“Haim are a phenomenal live band who connect with a wide audience,” he told Music Week, for an interview as part of our July cover story. “Their Pyramid Stage performance at Glastonbury in 2022, along with their massive headline show at All Points East in 2023, cemented their reputation, and stadiums and festival headline slots very much part of the plan for the future.”
This year, the band are set to return to The O2.
“It's not a straight path, it's windy and takes insane turns,” said Alana, reflecting on Haim’s story so far. “I mean, half the shit that we've accomplished, it’s crazy to me. If you had told 13-year-old Alana, that I would be sitting here talking to you about our fourth album, I would have thought that you were a crazy person. You just have to have tough skin and be strong enough to pick yourself back up and keep going with your vision, that’s the most important thing. You have to know what's good for yourself.”
The guitarist and keyboardist has fond memories of The O2 as well.
“The last time we played there it was the most mind blowing show, we got to end our tour there,” she said. “One of our first tours, we opened for Florence + The Machine, and I remember watching her perform at The O2 from the side of the stage and thinking, ‘I don't know if we’ll ever get to play here again.’ And then, fast-forward to the last time we played, we sold it out. It's not lost on me how incredible that is.”
We take playing live very seriously – we go up on that stage to give our fans the best show ever
Danielle Haim
“I can't thank the UK enough,” she continued. “It was a dream come true, literally. We're so grateful, I mean, to go back to play The O2, every time I'm there, I just think about baby Alana before Days Are Gone came out, standing at the side and being like, ‘What!?’”
Singer and guitarist Danille emphasised just how seriously Haim take their live shows, which so far in 2025 have included slots at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend and Primavera Sound, with a show in Margate coming up this weekend.
“We started our band, playing in LA, opening up for our friends and for the first five years, we just played any gig we could,” she said. “We continued to open up for some of our favourite bands and it kind of feels like we've opened up for everyone, but that's it, every time we go on stage, even when we're headlining, we have opener mentality. We always want to win the crowd over. We always want everyone leaving our show feeling, ‘wow, you know, Haim gave it their all.’ We take it very seriously. We go up on that stage to give our fans the best show ever.”
“With the I Quit tour, we want people to leave and just feel extremely energised,” Alana said. “We really do give it our all. I mean, we are a puddle of sweat. If anyone tries to hug me after a show, I'm like, ‘Please don't. I smell and this is not okay!’” [Laughs].
“We're a live band,” she added. “We love being in the studio, but from the very beginning, we've always considered ourselves a live band. That's where that's where the magic happens for us.”
Alana said that Haim headlining stadiums would be “a dream” and revealed that fans can expect tweaks to the songs on I Quit when they play them live.
“We were so ready to get back in the studio because we just had so many things to say,” she explained. “But now, we're thinking about how to switch up the songs live, elongate things, add solos, fun moments that keep things fresh. I just love taking an album that we worked so hard on and bringing it to life.”
For Haim, even though they are four albums in, I Quit feels like they’re just getting started.
“It feels like we have so much more to accomplish, this doesn't feel like anything other than a beginning again,” said Alana. “All of us still feel like we're 16, and nothing gets old. Actually, the only thing I have to do now is stretch before a show. [Laughs]. That's new, I’ve got to give a little stretch, because, the joints…”
You can read the full Haim interview in the July edition of Music Week, out now. Subscribers can read it online here.
Read our interview with Polydor Label Group president Ben Mortimer, who signed Haim in 2012, here.
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