I have wanted to post about my friend Candice Birns for a long time. I have worked with her since I moved to Los Angeles and she has proven to be handful, a very talented handful, and a great friend. Candice almost exclusively does hair for the band Haim and I might be their biggest fan, although they probably don’t know that.
Allow me to indulge. If you know me, you know that I can be an overly opinionated jerk when it comes to music. I have an unfounded overconfidence when it comes to my BS filter. I am also, more than likely, a tad too vocal.
I will also go out of my way not to meet the musicians that I admire. It is almost always disappointing. It is highly unlikely that the people who make the music that you adore could ever live up to what the music means to you and it’s application in your life. Half the time, they aren’t even singing about what you think they are anyway, but it doesn’t matter. At that point, that music is yours as much as it is theirs.
And then there is Haim. My buddy sent their track “Forever” to me a couple of years back. If you’ve ever heard this song, it is audio gold. Even the most hard hearted, snarky, music critique would find himself snapping his fingers and bobbing his head. I am a sucker for some good pop, and they nailed every bit of the juicy palm muted 80’s hooks that I adore. The best part is, it seemed genuine, which, when it comes down to it, is the ultimate requirement for music in my collection. Oh, and they actually play their instruments WELL. The track is so good that I almost wrote them off, knowing that the chances of them making a song that was anywhere close to that good, was slim to none. I was wrong.
Fast forward a year or so and I find myself assisting on a shoot for Elle magazine with Haim, but it isn’t with Candice, it’s my friend Patricia Morales. At this point I didn’t realize that Candice was their go-to. I did get to hang out with Haim for the day and quickly realized that they were the real deal.
Since then I have had the opportunity to fill in for Candice on a couple of jobs with Haim and it hasn’t tainted my music experience whatsoever. These girls, as you will see in the video below, take their music very seriously, without taking themselves too seriously. They are hilarious and sweet. Danielle is a bit more mysterious, which is a proper prerequisite for a frontman, ahem, frontwoman.
In a time where it’s easy to lose hope in pop. Where you reminisce about the days of Micheal Jackson, when artists were putting everything they had into making music that had no expiration date. Timeless music that would make you move your feet no matter what era it was being revisited in. In a time where pop music sounds as processed and manufactured as that 5 year old block of Velveeta “cheese” sitting in the back of your refrigerator, we have Haim. It’s fun, it’s real, and everyone, from the indie elitists in Brooklyn, to the 14 year old girl stuck in the suburbs can get down to.
Below is their new video for “If I Could Change Your Mind”. See Candice’s mastery of perfectly undone hair and try not give in to dancing in front of your Ikea mirror.
Haim is Danielle Haim, Este Haim, Alana Haim, and Dash Hutton.
Album: Days are Gone
PS. “Haim” rhymes with “time”.