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Mordechai, or Moti, on drums and mom
Donna on guitar, the sisters joined Rockinhaim. "No joke," chuckles Alana. "I was four
years old at the time."
What was Mordechai planning? Alana
thinks she understands, in retrospect. "My
dad was obsessed with Sheila E., and he envisioned me being the new Sheila E. So he
bought me timbales. But I was pretty chillin'
at four – I'm not even kidding you. I definitely had rhythm." There was just one minor
snafu. "The timbales stand wasn't made for a
four-year-old, and it wouldn't go low enough.
So literally, I was playing timbales with my
hands stretched out over my head – I couldn't even see the top of the drums. I just
whacked 'em, and it was great. So I started
with just percussion, and then I moved on to
piano and eventually graduated to guitar. My
dad definitely woke up from a dream and
saw us playing music together – it was the
craziest experience, ever."
From age four to 12, Rockinhaim remained enjoyable. But at 13, Alana recalls,
things got awkward. "I was in middle school,
and I'd have to play county fairs that my
friends would go to," she says. "And the most
embarrassing one I ever played was this Sherman Oaks street fair, where I definitely saw
the cool group of like five girls walking toward me as I was playing. And I was like 'Oh,
my God! What am I gonna do?' And I couldn't really do anything. But they actually
thought it was cool. But I definitely broke a
sweat. But my parents are super-awesome, so
it's kind of hard to be embarrassed around
them. I feel like my parents might be cooler
than I am, which is just crazy."
In high school, kid sis was simply known
as 'the tall chick.' "For some reason, my parents gave birth to giraffes – I don't know
why," she jokes. "So mostly, I'd hear 'Oh, sh-t
– there's that tall chick Alana that plays with
her family!' But I never listened to other people, because I had my sisters to be like 'Whatever.' My sisters have always been my best
friends since we were kids. And I'm not kidding – this isn't me trying to be cheesy and
cute – I always had t