Haim rocker Alana reveals how pre-gig ritual has changed in her 30s
The American rock band - comprised of sisters Alana Haim, Este Haim and Danielle Haim - have built a reputation as a ferocious live band and Alana, 33, has now revealed that her pre-gig ritual has had to change from when they started out as teenagers because she has to limber up to ensure she isn't in pain after coming off stage.
Discussing how Haim have no intention of slowing down in the wake of the release of their fourth album I Quit, she said: "It feels like we have so much more to accomplish, this doesn't feel like anything other than a beginning again.
'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. That's new, I've got to give a little stretch, because, the joints…'
Haim played a secret set at the Glastonbury Festival last weekend which earned them rave reviews, and they are heading out on their I Quit Tour this September.
The If I Could Change Your Mind hitmakers believe their live shows are unparalleled because they still have the mentality of a support band who want to "win the crowd over".
In an interview with the July edition of Music Week, singer-and-guitarist Danielle said: "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.
"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.'
Guitarist-and-vocalist Alana won't let anyone hug her after a concert because she is always drenched in sweat due to the energy she expends playing.
She said: "With the I Quit tour, we want people to leave and just feel extremely energised.
"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!'
'We're a live band. 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.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News AU
3 hours ago
- Sky News AU
James Bolt: Outrage over Snoop Dogg playing the AFL Grand Final reeks of hypocrisy when other hedonistic acts are given a pass
Looking forward to watching Snoop Dogg perform at this year's AFL grand final doesn't necessarily mean you endorse pimping or illegal drug use, James Bolt. Snoop Dogg's lyrics are violent, sexist, glorify gangster culture and condone the use of drugs. I can't wait for him to perform at the AFL Grand Final. The AFL's announcement this week that Snoop Dogg will headline pre-game entertainment unleashed a wave of criticism. Commentators felt that this move would be bad for children, as though seeing the rapper on stage would tell kids that the AFL is a place for thuggery, sexism and drug use. I thought AFL players were doing a good enough job of that already, but that's not the reason to keep Snoop as a performer. The reason is because enjoying music is not an endorsement of the artist's lyrics or personality - it's just enjoying music. Let's not shy away from it - Snoop Dogg has a history. His song 'Gin & Juice' glorifies drinking and driving. 'What's My Name?' is laden with profanity and sexism. 'Murder Was Tha Case' depicts Snoop Dogg selling his soul to the devil to become a rich and powerful gangster. All three of those songs come from the same album - his first and best - inappropriately titled 'Doggystyle.' But those sentences are as shocking to the young as they are to the old. For those born after 2000, the idea that Snoop Dogg was once someone to be feared is baffling. This generation grew up with Snoop Dogg the mainstream icon. The one who hosted a cooking show with Martha Stewart, carried an Olympic torch in the lead up to the Paris Games and seemingly endorses every product available in the international marketplace (he once fronted an advertising campaign for Norton Anti-virus.) There's a reason ESPN's Monday Night Football pre-game entertainment each week is Snoop Dogg with country music star Chris Stapleton performing a remix of 'In The Air Tonight' - the American media world knows Snoop in the modern day appeals to a wide variety of demographics. He's not that young gangster rapper anymore. To digress - that the same man who made Doggystyle is now a cross-cultural American icon should be universally praised. If you lined up all young and successful rappers in 1993 and asked people which one was going to make it to 2025 - let alone succeed in it - there wouldn't have been many guessing Snoop. It's not as if he made enough money to protect himself - the relatives of Tupac and Biggie Smalls would attest no amount of money can - he deliberately remade himself in the way the American dream idealises. A Long Beach Jay Gatsby, without the crushing end. But back to the AFL Grand Final. A predictable phrase criticising Snoop Dogg is that rap music isn't music, and the AFL should sign the kind of bands that made real music which didn't send out the wrong messages. But what artist worth a damn has never been accused of corrupting morals? The Rolling Stones literally have a song called 'Sympathy For The Devil', and 'Under My Thumb' has Mick Jagger celebrating that the once-rebellious girl he is dating is now a 'squirming dog who's just had her day' and 'does what she's told'. The Beatles 'Back In The USSR' depicts someone relieved to have returned to the communist dictatorship on the other side of The Cold War. Black Sabbath owe their name to a time when their bassist believed he had seen the devil after hanging inverted crucifixes around his bedroom. KISS, who performed at the 2023 AFL Grand Final to minimal controversy, have a song 'Christine Sixteen' where the singer lusts after a schoolgirl. But enjoying the output of those bands doesn't turn the listener into a sexist, communist devil-worshipper. And nor does enjoying Snoop Dogg's music make the listener turn to a life of pimping. Because all music does is activate the hippocampus and limbic systems of the brain, releasing endorphins and a feeling of nostalgia. When you listen to Mick Jagger's dripping sexism, you are not endorsing the message but connecting yourself back to your adolescence. Snoop Dogg's music does just the same thing to others. What can reasonably be overlooked in one artist must then be overlooked in others. Snoop Dogg should only be graded as a pre-game performer on whether or not he can hold a 100,000-person crowd from a variety of demographics for a few songs. With a catalogue spanning 30 years and having already performed to great acclaim at a Superbowl halftime show in the US, my money says he'll be able to do it. So the AFL should be praised for landing a cultural icon to perform at the pregame entertainment, and I can't wait to listen to his set. My only word of advice to the AFL is to be very clear with him when explaining what a pregame smoking ceremony is. James Bolt is a contributor.
7NEWS
21 hours ago
- 7NEWS
Remember when Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's simple wedding gown changed bridal dress codes forever?
In 1996, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. got married outside a peeling white log cabin chapel on Cumberland Island, Georgia. With no paparazzi and no media present, it offered the pair a brief moment of normality before they re-emerged into the world as one of the most famous couples on the planet. Despite often being referred to as American royalty, Bessette-Kennedy didn't arrive to their big day in a frothy princess gown. Instead, she used the moment to set her own sartorial standard — by wearing a dress that upended traditional bridal trends and would continue to inspire for decades to come. Her simple white slip dress was made from silk and cut on the bias, with a scooping cowl neck as its only flourish. The look was finished with a silk tulle veil, crystal beaded Manolo Blahnik satin sandals and a pair of sheer elbow gloves. Her gown was designed by her friend, the fashion designer Narciso Rodriguez. To some, the decision was surprising. Bessette-Kennedy was a prominent publicist at Calvin Klein and an unofficial face of the brand on the New York circuit. And if Klein wasn't to design her gown, others wondered if it would be a rising star like John Galliano — a master of bias-cut slip dresses and then-creative director at Dior. 'For some reason she chose Narciso,' the author of 'CBK: Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: A Life in Fashion,' Sunita Kumar Nair said in a phone interview. 'I think the fact that she chose an unknown friend, as opposed to Calvin Klein, is just her all along: Championing her friends and wanting them to enjoy her new limelight.' Rodriguez was recruited to the task over drinks at The Odeon, a restaurant in the Tribeca neighborhood in New York City. It took him three months to design three versions of the wedding dress, which Bessette-Kennedy picked from. In an interview with the New York Times in 1996, Rodriguez called the final dress 'sensuous' — a direction he said he and Bessette-Kennedy were aligned on from the beginning. The dress, which Rodriguez ended up gifting, was reportedly worth around $40,000 at the time. 'I made that wedding dress with so much love for the person that I loved most in the whole world,' the designer told PBS in 2020. 'I never viewed it as a press event.' The understated, timeless column dress was fit for a small, laid-back wedding. But its simplicity soon sent reverberations through the wider bridal industry. 'There was a massive boom in this kind of very sleek silhouette,' said Nair. 'Everybody was like, 'I want to look like her.' Gone with the meringues.' Not long before, Janet Jackson had married fellow singer James DeBarge in a jacquard wedding gown with a full tiered skirt. Madonna's first wedding dress in 1985 featured several layers of gathered tulle, while in 1992 former First Lady Michelle Obama opted for a trailing floor-length duchess satin gown and dramatic sweetheart neckline. But it was the royal union of Princess Diana and then Prince Charles in 1981 that became the yardstick for wedding glamour. Diana's gown was defined by its many layers of opulence, from the bow-trimmed puffed sleeves to a 25-foot-long veil, which was hand-embellished with 10,000 micro pearls. Even in the '90s, many still looked to Diana's nuptials for fashion inspiration — including Mariah Carey, whose 1993 satin Vera Wang gown was modeled after the seminal dress — but Bessette-Kennedy wasn't one of them. 'It's interesting to think about Princess Diana, that was the wedding dress of the 20th century,' Rachel Tashjian, fashion critic at the Washington Post, told CNN. 'It was this woman coming out of this fairytale horse and carriage in an enormous, richly embellished dress that was all about indulging fantasy and fairytales of royal life.' By contrast, Bessette-Kennedy, whose marriage to JFK Jr. placed her firmly in America's political dynasty, made sure her gown had 'no embellishment, no ruffles, nothing,' she said. 'She's sort of saying, rather than embodying some past fantasy or fairytale fulfillment, 'I am going to do a clean slate, and look forward to the future,'' Tashjian added. 'It was the biggest indicator Carolyn gave of what was to come for the global public as the new Mrs. Kennedy,' agreed Nair. 'Apparently Princess Diana was very jealous of that wedding.' Ironically, Bessette-Kennedy's trend-rebuking dress became the blueprint for brides all over the world. Today, simple ivory slip dresses remain a popular style and are sold everywhere from Victoria Beckham and Max Mara to Reformation and Rixo. Alexandra Macon, a wedding editor at Vogue, said she 'very often' sees women reference the Narciso Rodriguez gown. 'When writing a wedding feature, it's not uncommon for a bride to tell me she emulated Carolyn's bridal look,' Macon wrote in an email to CNN. Even Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, was besotted with the dress. Just a few months before she met Prince Harry in 2016 (and experienced the tumult of joining a pre-existing dynasty first-hand) Markle told online women's magazine Glamour her 'favorite celebrity wedding dress' was none other than Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's. 'Carolyn's was just done to absolute perfection,' said Nair. 'Thats why we're talking about it today, 25 years on.'
The Advertiser
2 days ago
- The Advertiser
KISS 'deeply honoured' to receive Kennedy Center gong
KISS feel "deeply honoured" to be receiving a Kennedy Center honour. The veteran rockers are among the recipients of the prestigious award - which "recognises and celebrates individuals whose unique artistic contributions have shaped our world". They couldn't be happier to be recognised alongside the likes of stage star Michael Crawford, disco legend Gloria Gaynor, country musician George Strait and actor Sylvester Stallone. "From our earliest days, Kiss has embodied the American ideal that all things are possible and that hard work pays off," frontman Paul Stanley told TMZ. "The prestige of the Kennedy Center Honors cannot be overstated and I accept this on behalf of the long legacy of Kiss and all of the band members who helped create our iconic band." Gene Simmons added: "Kiss is the embodiment of the American dream. We are deeply honoured to receive the Kennedy Center Honor." Ace Frehley said: "(It is) a dream come true that I never thought would materialise." Peter Criss simply said: "I feel so blessed. This is the greatest honour of our career." Despite various members of KISS being critical of President Donald Trump in the past, their remarks don't seem to have had an impact on their selection because the US leader said he was "very involved" in choosing the recipients and turned down some suggestions he didn't personally approve of. "I would say I was about 98 per cent involved. They all went through me," he said while announcing the recipients this week," he said. "I had a couple of wokesters. Now, we have great people. This is very different than it used to be, very different." In a major change to the ceremony - which will take place on December 7 and air on CBS and stream on Paramount+ at a later date - the president himself will serve as host. When he made the announcement at the Kennedy Center's Hall of Nations, where he unveiled five portraits draped in velvet, Trump admitted he himself had long wanted one of the prestigious accolades. "I waited and waited and waited, and I said, 'The hell with it, I'll become chairman and I'll give myself an honour ... Next year, we'll honour Trump, okay?" he said. Tom Cruise is believed to have turned down the honour due to scheduling conflicts. KISS feel "deeply honoured" to be receiving a Kennedy Center honour. The veteran rockers are among the recipients of the prestigious award - which "recognises and celebrates individuals whose unique artistic contributions have shaped our world". They couldn't be happier to be recognised alongside the likes of stage star Michael Crawford, disco legend Gloria Gaynor, country musician George Strait and actor Sylvester Stallone. "From our earliest days, Kiss has embodied the American ideal that all things are possible and that hard work pays off," frontman Paul Stanley told TMZ. "The prestige of the Kennedy Center Honors cannot be overstated and I accept this on behalf of the long legacy of Kiss and all of the band members who helped create our iconic band." Gene Simmons added: "Kiss is the embodiment of the American dream. We are deeply honoured to receive the Kennedy Center Honor." Ace Frehley said: "(It is) a dream come true that I never thought would materialise." Peter Criss simply said: "I feel so blessed. This is the greatest honour of our career." Despite various members of KISS being critical of President Donald Trump in the past, their remarks don't seem to have had an impact on their selection because the US leader said he was "very involved" in choosing the recipients and turned down some suggestions he didn't personally approve of. "I would say I was about 98 per cent involved. They all went through me," he said while announcing the recipients this week," he said. "I had a couple of wokesters. Now, we have great people. This is very different than it used to be, very different." In a major change to the ceremony - which will take place on December 7 and air on CBS and stream on Paramount+ at a later date - the president himself will serve as host. When he made the announcement at the Kennedy Center's Hall of Nations, where he unveiled five portraits draped in velvet, Trump admitted he himself had long wanted one of the prestigious accolades. "I waited and waited and waited, and I said, 'The hell with it, I'll become chairman and I'll give myself an honour ... Next year, we'll honour Trump, okay?" he said. Tom Cruise is believed to have turned down the honour due to scheduling conflicts. KISS feel "deeply honoured" to be receiving a Kennedy Center honour. The veteran rockers are among the recipients of the prestigious award - which "recognises and celebrates individuals whose unique artistic contributions have shaped our world". They couldn't be happier to be recognised alongside the likes of stage star Michael Crawford, disco legend Gloria Gaynor, country musician George Strait and actor Sylvester Stallone. "From our earliest days, Kiss has embodied the American ideal that all things are possible and that hard work pays off," frontman Paul Stanley told TMZ. "The prestige of the Kennedy Center Honors cannot be overstated and I accept this on behalf of the long legacy of Kiss and all of the band members who helped create our iconic band." Gene Simmons added: "Kiss is the embodiment of the American dream. We are deeply honoured to receive the Kennedy Center Honor." Ace Frehley said: "(It is) a dream come true that I never thought would materialise." Peter Criss simply said: "I feel so blessed. This is the greatest honour of our career." Despite various members of KISS being critical of President Donald Trump in the past, their remarks don't seem to have had an impact on their selection because the US leader said he was "very involved" in choosing the recipients and turned down some suggestions he didn't personally approve of. "I would say I was about 98 per cent involved. They all went through me," he said while announcing the recipients this week," he said. "I had a couple of wokesters. Now, we have great people. This is very different than it used to be, very different." In a major change to the ceremony - which will take place on December 7 and air on CBS and stream on Paramount+ at a later date - the president himself will serve as host. When he made the announcement at the Kennedy Center's Hall of Nations, where he unveiled five portraits draped in velvet, Trump admitted he himself had long wanted one of the prestigious accolades. "I waited and waited and waited, and I said, 'The hell with it, I'll become chairman and I'll give myself an honour ... Next year, we'll honour Trump, okay?" he said. Tom Cruise is believed to have turned down the honour due to scheduling conflicts.
