When Haim started working on their fourth studio album, the title I Quit was never meant to stick.
“We always like to make each other laugh,” says Alana Haim. “If a title makes us laugh, we know that we’re on the right path.”
The joke came from a childhood favourite — the 1996 Tom Hanks film, That Thing You Do. “There is this pivotal moment in the end where Jimmy, the lead singer, he’s asked to sing something peppy, something snappy by his manager, and he says, ‘I quit. I quit. I quit, Mr. White,'” Alana recalls. “And we have been saying that basically since birth.”
They were even using the phrase during mic checks while working on the record. “As a joke, we were like, ‘Why don’t we just for right now name the album I Quit for the files,'” Danielle continues. “And also, people would never think that it would be called I Quit. So we did that.”
Eventually, though, the title took on a deeper meaning. “We just realised that every song, we were kind of quitting something that didn’t serve us anymore,” Alana explains. “We talk about it a lot as songwriters — I feel like a lot of the time you write songs and you don’t understand their meaning until you have some time away from it. Your subconscious is kind of working overtime before your body can catch up.”
“So yeah,” she adds, “we decided to name the album I Quit because sometimes quitting is looked at as a bad thing. And I think throughout this album we really bet on ourselves.”
Danielle puts it simply: “Giving up doesn’t feel like giving up. I feel like it feels like a choice. You’re kind of making a choice to leave things that don’t, like Alana said, don’t serve you behind. That can be hard sometimes.”
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Released this Friday (June 20th) via Polydor Records, I Quit is the band’s first full-length release since Women in Music, Pt. III (2020), the critically acclaimed album that earned them a BRIT Award and two GRAMMY nominations, including the first-ever Album of the Year nod for an all-female rock group.
But where WIMPIII navigated grief and uncertainty, I Quit feels freer, maybe even celebratory. As Alana puts it, “We were single for the first time, all three of us, making this album, and so it was really this feeling of feeling uninhibited, and that’s where I Quit kind of came from.”
From that seed grew their most emotionally open and stylistically sprawling work yet. I Quit opens with a parting shot: “Can I have your attention please, for the last time before I leave?” Danielle sings, before adding, “On second thought I changed my mind.” Across the record, Haim lean into a kind of joyful chaos, dancing between rock, folk, pop, and experimental textures with longtime collaborator Rostam Batmanglij.
Danielle says this period marked a kind of return to themselves. “I think we were also listening to things that we listened to a lot in high school,” she says, when asked about sonic influences. “It just kind of ran the gamut.”
One of those bands was Australian indie pop outfit Architecture in Helsinki. “I know that my pre-drink was always Architecture in Helsinki — it’s ‘Do the Whirlwind’,” Alana reveals. “Honestly, it was all night. That was such a specific moment in time where it was like there’s that thing where it’s like a song comes on, you’re like, ‘I got to get on the jam,’ for me and my friends… that was ‘Do the Whirlwind’ and we would just dance and be so happy.”
That spirit of movement and reconnection runs through the entire album. “We were going out together, we’re going to bars, we’re seeing live music, we’re dancing, and we really wanted to bring a lot of joy to this album,” Alana says. “I think you can tell listening to this album that it’s filled with so much joy. And I think we really needed that, as siblings.”
One of the album’s standout moments is “Relationships” — a track that’s resonated with fans but had an unusually long road to release. “I had this kind of inspiration spark as we were taking off,” Danielle says, remembering a flight between Sydney and Melbourne several years ago. “I just plucked out some piano chords and that chorus kind of just came to me.”
She held onto the melody for years. “It kind of took us eight years to figure out the feel and the drums and the way. But we always knew that it was special.”
Alana jokes, “Once Danielle figures out the drums, we’re smooth sailing, but it took us eight years.”
And while others may not have seen its potential at first, Haim trusted their instincts. “We would show it to some people and they’d just be like, ‘Oh, okay, I don’t really get that song,'” Danielle admits. “And I think the three of us, we were like, ‘No, there’s something to this song.'”
The song’s visual treatment was just as memorable. The band recreated the viral paparazzi photo of Nicole Kidman walking away from her lawyer’s office post-divorce from Tom Cruise — beaming, relieved, and free.
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“We also love Nicole Kidman,” Alana says. “Just for when we were finishing up ‘Relationships’, the wide array of emotions that she is conveying in those photos fit the song so well. We were like, ‘Wait, every emotion she’s going through is an emotion that we’re trying to convey in the song.'”
“I think Nicole is the epitome of I Quit energy,” Danielle adds.
“She has I Quit energy,” Este confirms. “Specifically in those photos.”
From there, the concept evolved into a whole visual series. For “Everybody’s Trying to Figure Me Out”, they channelled Kate Moss in LA in 2000; for “Down to Be Wrong”, it was Jared Leto and Scarlett Johansson.
Alana says the “Down to Be Wrong” video came to her in a dream — maybe inspired by a Google rabbit hole. “I am boy crazy and Googled how to manifest having a guy text you back. That’s me, that’s where I’m at,” she jokes. “There’s this method called the Whisper Method that you literally have to meditate and pretend — not pretend, but you’re literally supposed to feel like you’re whispering in his ear, ‘Text me back.'”
“Did not work,” she clarifies. “But when we were thinking of music video ideas for ‘Down to Be Wrong’, I had a dream of like, oh, it’s like… what if you could Whisper Method, kind of manipulate somebody… but we’re not there. He can’t see us, but we can see him.”
Despite the surreal concept, filming was full of laughs. “We’ve been really lucky [working] with Drew Starkey and Logan Lerman, the two nicest boys on the planet,” Alana says. “And the fact that they were so up for our crazy ideas and just being down to do music videos… it was just the best.”
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Haim’s deep affection for Australia is woven throughout our conversation, from their teenage memories to festival experiences. Laneway, in particular, holds a special place in their hearts.
“Every time we’ve played Laneway, it’s been the best time,” Alana says. “You become such a family with all the bands that are on the bill.”
Este agrees: “Some of the best shows I think we’ve done were on Laneway.”
Watching Djo cover “Gasoline” at this year’s Laneway sparked a familiar ache. “I always get so much FOMO when I see people playing Laneway,” Alana says. “I was like, ‘Wait, we should be there. You want to play in Australia? We should be there.'”
And they just might be. “We’re ready to come back,” she adds. “Please. We only need one person to say come back — and you’re that person.
Haim’s I Quit is out now via Polydor Records.
