For Haim’s third studio record Women In Music Pt. III, the sister trio was able to work with longtime collaborators Rostam and Ariel Rechtshaid. But for one song in particular, Danielle Haim wanted to get a feature from the renowned artist Bono. Haim was initially uneasy about reaching out, so she found a way to calm her nerves: by drunk-texting him.
Haim and Rostam recently sat down to detail their album’s recording process with the podcast Song Exploder. Speaking about the track “Summer Girl,” Rostam recalled wanting to get the U2 singer to lay down vocals. After ad-libbing a verse during a brainstorming session, Rostam knew Bono would be the perfect edition to the track. “In my head, I was like: ‘That’s such a Bono line, I can just picture Bono… Maybe we should ask him if he would sing that section of the song?’ And Danielle was kind of like, ‘Well you know I know him. When I lost my voice in Ireland, he sent me this care package, it was the sweetest thing. He recommended a doctor.” Rostam said.
Chiming in, Danielle finished the story:
“So I have his number. Rostam’s like, ‘You gotta text Bono.’ I was like, ‘What the f*ck are you talking about? You want me to text Bono?’ I think we got super drunk and he finally convinced me, ‘Just send it!’ So, I sent Bono the song. He was so nice. He was like, ‘This is great. Let me see where I fit in.’ My mind was exploding. Finally, he texted me back and was like, ‘You know, I’m so sick. I’m so sorry. If you want a blow horn on this song — my voice is so shot. I don’t think I can come up with anything in time.’ And that was that.”
Listen to the full Song Exploder episode above.
Women In Music Pt. III is out now via Columbia. Get it here and revisit our review of the album here.
