Sisters of the Moon

Sisters of the Moon: Stevie Nicks and Haim
by Sheila Heti
New York Times

The rock icon Stevie Nicks invites the band Haim to her Los Angeles home for an intimate conversation about the life behind the music.

Asked which band she most wanted to meet for this piece, Stevie Nicks chose the Los Angeles-based Haim. The night after the interview, they were set to play the final show of a two-year world tour of their first album, the sparkling and fast-paced “Days Are Gone.” The band’s members — sisters Este (28, on bass), Danielle (25, lead vocals, guitar) and Alana (22, keyboards, guitar) — once played Van Morrison at state fairs in their parents’ band, Rockinhaim (the family name is pronounced HIGH-im, Hebrew for “life”). They are now managed by Jay Z’s entertainment company Roc Nation, have played shows with Rihanna and won an NME award for Best International Band. They are also frequently courted by the fashion world. Yet when compared to Fleetwood Mac by one journalist, Danielle responded nervously, “Let’s start a little smaller, you know?”

Shortly after I arrived at Nicks’s 1930s white, Southern plantation-style mansion, everyone headed to the upstairs porch, which overlooks the homes of Santa Monica down to the water. When the photographer asked the sisters to stand behind Nicks and each take a section of her hair and pull it outward, the girls seemed nervous about touching her, but did it anyway, and pulling the strands away from her head, Nicks became like the sun and her hair the rays, high above the city in the late afternoon light. A moment later, the idea was abandoned and everyone looked relieved.