Este Haim has been telling the story of how she came to be a bass player, a tale that involves sibling rivalry, parental encouragement, Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth, and the frequently-kidnapped Nintendo character Princess Peach.
Este, of course, plays bass guitar in Haim, the band she ended up forming with sisters Danielle and Alana. However, as she recently revealed while taking Track Star’s Perfect Song Challenge, this wasn’t her first choice of instrument.
“I grew up hearing my mom sing and play guitar,” she explains. “So when I was eight and Danielle was five, my mom started teaching us how to play guitar.”
For Este, though, this turned out to be dispiriting. “Danielle, like, flew past me when it came to technical skill, musicality,” she remembers. “Like I, as an eight-year-old, was like, ‘My fucking five-year-old sister is better than me at guitar. Like, she's five. How is this even possible?’ She was like a savant.”
Enter Este’s father, who spotted that something was up with his eldest daughter.
“My dad saw this and was like, "My daughter is ‘Depr-Este’. That’s her new name.’ I was like walking around, moping around, like ‘I don't have any talent. What is my place in the world?’ At eight years old! Existential crisis. So my dad was like, ‘I got an idea. I think Este should try to play bass, another stringed instrument.’”
After assuring Este that it was easier to play, a second-hand bass guitar was purchased, but its recipient wasn’t keen. Recalling her reaction to her dad’s idea, Este says: “I was like, ‘I don't even know what that is. I don't want to do that. That sounds lame.’”
Mr Haim, though, came up with a plan: “My dad was like, ‘OK, I know what's gonna change your mind. Este loves Nintendo. Loves. Mario loves Princess Peach – I'm gonna show her [1984 Talking Heads concert movie] Stop Making Sense, and she's gonna see this magical, beautiful lady playing bass with her blonde hair, and she's literally like… the most ferocious, she's having the most fun.’”
And guess what? The plan worked.
“So my dad takes me to Blockbuster, gets the movie, puts it on, and I was literally, like, transfixed. I was like, ‘I get it now. I get it. This is for me. This is what I want to do. I want to be Tina Weymouth.’ And that's the start of my love affair with bass.”
Smart thinking from dad, then, who realised that what Este needed was a bass playing role model who she could relate to.
“He was like, you need to kind of see it to be it,” she says. “That was the correct way to go. And then, you know, from Stop Making Sense, then I started researching all the other music that she was involved in. Tom Tom Club being one of them [Este and Track Star host were sharing their appreciation for that band’s Genius Of Love]. And yeah, she's so cool and such a good bass player, and so tasteful. And again, I love the way she performs. She's having the best time.”
With any luck, Este herself will now have inspired the next generation of girls to start playing the bass, but she insists her father was wrong about one thing: that bass guitar is easier than guitar.
“Dad – that was incorrect,” she says. “Not true.”
