Stop asking Haim if they play their own instruments – newsflash: they do
“Men commenting that we don’t f**king play our instruments is insanity”
Image: Pedro Gomes/Getty Images
Here’s a message from Haim to trolls who accuse them of not playing their own instruments: shut up, because they do.
Last month, under a video NME shared of the band performing My Song 5 at the Governors Ball music festival, one user commented: “Is it me or is that bassist just acting?”
Which prompted a swift response from Haim: “Lol, I can’t believe this shit is still happening.”
The band then addressed the comment on their Instagram story, writing, “I’m so used to seeing this shit on every fucking video of us playing ever… I’m so over it. Don’t ever say we don’t play our own fucking instruments.”
Speaking about the interaction in a new NME interview, the rock trio said that the constant doubts about their performance and musical skills are “really disappointing” given that they’ve been in a band for the better part of their lives.
“That video came up on my Instagram and I was like ‘Oh My God. that’s such a great video, wow!’” Danielle Haim told the publication. “I think the thing that is really frustrating is, there will be amazing videos of us online playing our instruments really well, and I’ll look at our comments… and I’ll just be shocked that people are still like, ‘They’re not playing,’ ‘That’s not real,’ ‘They’re acting’. It’s unbelievable.”
“It’s just really disappointing because that’s the thing we worked so fucking hard for our whole lives you know.”
Member Alana Haim added, “We have been a band for 16 years, but we have also been a band since we were children. We were in a band with our parents and have been playing since we were kids, so to then be a band for 16 years and still have to prove ourselves… it never ends. It’s like, ‘You don’t play your instruments, you don’t write your songs, you’re not a real band’. And it’s like, we’ve been here for 16 years, and there’s no stopping yet.”
“We’re gonna keep going until we can’t fucking play anymore,” she continued. “So to be so proud of the work that we’ve done and then to see mostly men I mean, pretty much all men comment things that are not only just terrible about our looks but then on top of that, that we don’t fucking play our instruments is insanity.”
Bassist Este Haim, whom the original comment was aimed at, also said, “It’s one thing to talk about the way we look. We don’t care, whatever. But the way we play? I will go toe to toe with whoever, whatever band wants to go toe to toe with me. I know how to play.”