All Fans is Welcome to Be the Extra Haim Sisters Member.
"Any idea when you're chatting with the Haim sisters?" a text reads. "My request was to ask if I can become their fourth member."
There is only a key snag: The sender also longs to be Haim's fourth member. What's more, we are not alone. Multiple high-profile fans have openly begged for the position.
It's clear an irresistible appeal is happening. The siblings Este, Danielle and Alana started their career doing sets at small eateries with their family. Now they're multiple Grammy Award hopefuls.
Like all the best groups, they're a tight-knit gang. Their visuals often feature them marching in harmony down the streets of Los Angeles. During performances, they perform with such pure joy you inevitably think, "I want to be involved in that, too."
"How often on tour that audience members told us and said, 'Watching you live, I bought a guitar'," remarks Alana, the youngest of the sisters. "That is the ultimate compliment. That is recognition in itself. We've done our job if we can encourage people to form a group."
"And thus anyone gets an invitation to be the next Haim sister."
Award Nod
The trio are connecting from their homes, where they're taking a pause after an extensive tour in promoting their fourth album, I Quit.
They're currently reeling from the news it's been nominated for a top rock honor at the Grammy Awards – with Haim the pioneering all-woman band ever in consideration for the trophy.
"I follow the lists every year, so it sort of feels like a surreal movie when your name is read out," explains Alana. "I needed to phone my sisters to say, 'Did we just hear this right or am I hallucinating'?"
The significance of the honor is deeply felt by the sisters.
"We really set out to make a guitar-driven album this time, so it's a major step," says Alana. "But we're just appreciative for the pioneers that paved the way."
Heartbreak and Candor
The album came out of a phase of transition. All three sisters found themselves single, and the music inhabits that strange transitional period where you're relieved to be free, but not yet ready to let go.
The lyrics track breakups and goodbyes. The sisters want love, but not the kind of love they've had. You can hear them figuring out in the moment who they want to be.
"I love way of putting it, yes," says Danielle. "I Quit is essentially a personal statement. You have to consciously practice ignoring the outside opinions and saying, 'I don't give what people think'."
Refinement of Music
That recent confidence demanded a fresh approach – more raw and direct than anything the band had done before.
For Danielle, who co-produced the album, that started with the percussion.
"Percussion is such a specific thing, and I am so passionate about it," she states.
"'Journey of the drum sound' will be the subject of our biography," jokes Alana. "I always say, our albums don't start until we find the ideal drum sound."
Anecdotes and Collective Camaraderie
The trio's openness fueled the album's marketing, where the sisters shared some of their romantic horror stories.
Someone left Este over a medical concern. Alana shared a story of travelling to celebrate New Year's Eve with someone, only to receive a high five at midnight.
"During these heartbreaks, you just feel like there's only darkness," explains Alana. "So to be able to find humor in those stories and have them tell you even crazier stories, it's therapeutic."
A Confident Future
It's not difficult sense a change in the band. Now, Haim are more certain of their position in the rock pantheon.
They're major draws, with hit albums and an global audience.
But Haim will always be their top priority.
"Me and my siblings have been performing since I was four," shares Alana. "There is nothing else that we were destined for. And I'm really fortunate we've reached this point and we're still going strong."