Danielle: Everything you see and everything you hear comes directly from us, and the label knows it. That was the man thing. We were able to sign a record deal with people who said, “You guys are doing something right,” and so they just let us do our thing, and their hasn’t been any weird stories like, “The label made us do...”––they’ve just been awesome.
MC: Then how do you three handle your day-to-day business dealings with them?
Danielle: We just come together and go over what we need to do, and if we want to do something we do it, but if we don’t want to do it we don’t.
MC: For the longest time, you weren’t satisfied with your demos. For instance, the Forever EP was re-recorded several times, once with the legendary producer Mike Chapman. What prevented you from releasing music to the world?
Danielle: We went into the studio every year since 2007 to try to get a demo, and every time it just didn’t sound right. It sounded like a run-of-the-mill post-‘90s rock band because we didn’t know anything about production value. Mike Chapman is amazing, he had the best vibe in the studio, and knows how to get a good performance out of a band, but we didn’t release it because we felt it wasn’t the best that we could be. It just didn’t sound modern enough. We are into so many different types of music––we like sub-bass and keyboards––and it wasn’t until I toured with Jenny Lewis and then with Julian Casablancas that I got a better understanding of what touring was and what it takes. I saw how they wrote everyday, and how they really cared about what their music sounded like, and that’s what I wanted for our band.
Este: Basically, our friends would be like, “You guys have been together for five years and you haven’t released anything––like, what the fuck are you doing?” It wasn’t until the Forever EP that we were really happy with what we’ve done and we put it out online to show our friends, “Here you go, assholes! We’ve finally recorded something so you can stop making fun of us.” We made the EP to be able to say, “Here it is, we hope you like it,” but we don’t give a fuck because we love it. It was a real proud moment for us.
MC: Do you feel that you’ve found the balance between nostalgia for big studio ‘80s pop, ‘80s lo-fi (with those Casio-like drums) and today’s glitchy laptop music? Any advice for new artists trying to find their way around a studio?
Danielle: I think Garageband helped a lot, because we understood what was good and what we should re-record, and we evolved in our learning when it comes to recording. We have a better idea of what we like, and with new technology now you don’t need to go into a big studio. That really blew our minds, how we could have saved so much money instead of going into a big studio and coming out with something lackluster, sometimes something recorded on an iPhone microphone sounds cooler, you know what I mean? We threw away the rules and that was a big discovery to us as a band. There’s not a certain way to do things.
MC: You really have to know what you’re doing, though, to make a home studio sound fantastic.
Danielle: I’m not disregarding a big studio at all––you really can’t fuck with Sunset Sound when it comes laying down big sounding drums on tape––but you can make something sound more special rather than just going into a studio and miking every drum and making it sound “professional,” which sounded boring to us. Drum machines are really classic now, so I would play drums but then we’d stick a drum machine snare to the real snare so it has an extra element. I think it’s cool to play around with that stuff and it’s easy now with technology.
MC: You uploaded your Forever EP online and the Spotify version of your debut full length has a track-by-track interview segment. Is it safe to say you are embracing online music and social media?
Danielle: We kind put it on Facebook and Soundcloud just saying, “this is our EP.” And it really grew form there. I didn’t know much about blogs before we started but now we have a better understanding of them. I think Spotify is cool because it helps in the discovery of new artists, and like how we were able to talk abut each song. When I hear stuff like that about artists I find it to be an awesome learning tool, like, “Oh, I had trouble getting that drum sound too. Wow they re-wrote that song because they didn’t think it was good enough.” It’s comforting to know how artists feel about making their music. And yeah, we try to do extra things so people can kind of get to know us through social media, because I do think it’s really important to have a direct dialogue with your fans online, I think that’s the most useful tool as an artist. I’ve seen other artists set the record straight on things. We write what we want to let our fans know what’s going on with us.
MC: How does it feel to have one of your songs remixed by the one and only Giorgio Moroder?
Alana: Oh my god. First of all, he’s Giorgio Moroder! He’s a legend, at least in our family he’s a fucking god, and the fact that he even thought about doing a remix for us is like insane. When our manager told us Giorgio Moroder was doing a remix we were like, is there someone new named Giorgio Moroder? He was like, no, it’s the Giorgio Moroder. We almost died. And it’s the sickest remix I ever heard, it’s so on the next level.
Danielle: I love the remix that he did. It was a pinch-me moment.
MC: What are your plans for the next year; how do you plan on promoting yourselves?
Danielle: I think we’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing, and keep writing and keep demoing. And I still have my trusty Garageband setup, so we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing––it’s worked so far.
Este: Next year I hope we’re wrapping up record two and still touring and seeing the world and, you know, making new friends and meeting new people and staying creative. And becoming better songwriters, just having fun, because we just want to have a good time. I think the paramount thing is that we just want to have a good time. That’s why we started the band. It’s kind of our devious plan; it was like, “How can we see the world and be together at the same time?” And the answer was, “I guess we’re going to have to start a band, write music and go on tour!”
Contact Brooke Black Just-Olesen, brooke@bighassle.com; http://haimtheband.com
Twitter: @Haimtheband
