“The thing that really caught my attention was the fact that the movie was about sisters,” Estee Haim explains.
The Grammy-nominated artist talks about Netflix’s new romantic comedy, voice messages for isabelle, Who leans heavily towards the sisterhood. If anyone knows about the sibling, it’s definitely Haim, who has spent her entire career singing in front of crowds of fans alongside her sister.
Haim and Amanda Yamate co-scored the film, which is scheduled to be released on Netflix on Friday (June 19). Collaborators join Hollywood Reporter on a video call to discuss the Leah McKendrick-directed film, their latest project with the streamer.
“When we all watched it with Leia for the first time, we almost all turned to each other and agreed that this required a love theme,” Yamate says of the film’s most vivid relationship, and it’s not one that viewers might expect.
in Isabelle’s voicemail messagesZoey Deutch plays Jill, who begins recounting her life’s adventures to her beloved sister who recently died. Jill’s relationship with Wes, played by Nick Robinson, is the romantic engine of the film, but her relationship with her sister Isabelle is the real focus. Composers picked up on that quickly.
“The main theme is the love theme of sisters Jill and Izzie. Wes and Jill don’t even have a love theme,” says Yamate, the song “This Party Sucks Without You,” which THR Exclusively revealing, and repeated throughout the film. “She’s been there five or six times,” they add.
Yamati and Haim joined the film very early, in terms of good timing for the composers. They built this main theme from the record alone. “We like to get involved early because you get to know each other as creatives a little longer,” Yamate says. But they point out that McKendrick had been working on the film for eight years.
“We’re really interested in experimenting as much as we can on pre-recording, just so we can see what we have in mind,” Haim says. The duo treats it as a “musical word dump” in a way, says the musician.
The pair found moments to experiment with some Wes moments. “[He’s] “This hot kid is from Texas, so he had his own Texas sound,” Yamate explains.
However, for the song “This Party Sucks With You”, Haim and Yamati decided to experiment with some live winds and live strings, and that’s when things started to click. “Those moments between Jill and Izzy are so raw and sensitive that I can feel them [that’s] “Hardware that Leah liked,” Yamate says.
Result process for Isabelle’s voicemail messages It was basically typical of the partners, with a slight difference. “The process was actually such that we just cried,” Yamate joked. Their collaborator agrees. “Oh my God, every day,” Haim adds.
“This score was special to us because we had to sing over it,” Yamati says. The pair had never sung together before. “It made a lot of sense,” Yamati adds.
For Haim, the film was more personal than most projects. He was a major factor in taking the project to the musician. “It was a romantic comedy, but it was really about family and the love of having such a deep connection with your sister,” she says. “Obviously, this is a big part of my life.”
Haim also felt another connection to the film, especially with Izzy, who had been ill for most of their lives. “I am a type 1 diabetic and suffer from Hashimoto’s disease and neuropathy, as well as a whole list of illnesses that can sometimes hold me back from living my best life,” she explains. The musician notes that her sisters and bandmates, Danielle and Alana, are there to bear witness daily.
“It’s definitely upsetting for me, but it’s also not lost on me that it can be very stressful for them as well,” Haim says. “But they never let me see that. They never made me feel like I was too much or like I was a burden or like anything I needed was too much.”
“When you have a chronic illness, you never want to be a burden on people,” she adds. “I really felt the first during that.” [beginning] to Voicemail messages Who I was communicating with [the sister’s] mobile.”
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Voicemails For Isabelle premieres June 19 on Netflix.
