First Aid Kit in interview

Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg are First Aid Kit, a country folk band who recently released their third album, Stay Gold.

The duo have been performing since they were teenagers and were recently nominated at the Brit awards as one of the five best international acts.

They play at den Atelier on Wednesday, June 24 and the pair took some time out of their busy schedule to talk to Sam Steen in advance of the concert. 

By Sam Steen

Hi Klara and Johanna, by the looks of things you’ve got a busy summer of festivals ahead of you. Is there a big difference between your festival sets and your club concerts?

Klara: Yeah I think so, well bigger crowds and a lot of people who don’t know us so we have to win them over sometimes. It’s a challenge but it generally just depends on what kind of festival it is. Sometimes we have played festivals where we just felt out of place, like it just didn’t fit. I think some people expect our music to be very quiet and soft but we like kind of rock a little bit more when we’re playing festivals.

Yeah of course and I guess with the new material you have to sort of rework the songs for the live set?

Johanna: We have a different approach when we’re playing festivals to when we do our own shows. We do a song, when we do our own shows, without microphones. We come to front of the stage and just sing completely acoustic but we can’t do that at festivals because no-one would hear us (laughs).

You employed a lot of additional musicians to play with you on the new album, what happens when you go out to play those songs live? I suppose it lends a different vibe to the songs.

K: We see it as two completely different things you know we’re never going to be able to recreate what’s on the record. Not without spending a ridiculous amount of money that we just don’t have. We just see the live experience as something different but at the core of the songs it’s our voices and the lyrics and those are there, that’s the main thing.

So, did you get all of those extra musicians on the album because you could, and you just wanted to see what it would be like?

K: Yeah we always wanted to try. Our first record was very spare. We recorded it in my bedroom with our Dad. It was very very simple and we always wanted to see what would happen if we put more elaborate arrangements with our songs and it was fun.

J: Yeah but I mean it wasn’t just because we could, I think the we felt that some of the songs called for it.

K: Yeah it just fit the songs and the message of the songs.

Let’s talk about that message then, I’ve read that you said there’s a lot more of you in the lyrics of your new songs, is that true?

J: Yeah I think there’s a lot of us in all of the records. I think someone else just said thatand we were like, 'yeah sure I guess'. But, the lyrics on this album are more direct. There’s not as much storytelling about other people you can kind of see that a lot of it could be about us, so I think we have taken a little bit from our own lives on this record which does require some courage which you only get with time because it’s a scary thing, to open yourself up in front of people.

Is it easier or more difficult to do that when you’re working with your sister? I imagine it being easier or at least maybe less embarrassing to open yourself up to strangers than to someone so close to you.

K: I think we’re just used to it, like I remember being really nervous when I had written my first song and I was going to play it for Johanna and our parents and I just felt really scared but now that’s just how we do it.

J: We’re very open, we don’t have that many secrets as far as I know (laughs) even as a family we’ve always been very open about things so I don’t think it’s that sensitive. We talk about our emotions so we sing about them. It’s not too much of a change for us.

Speaking of your family, your father helped you record the debut album but I understand he wasn’t that into country music when you started, is that right?

K: No he wasn’t but he liked our music from the start I think and now he loves country music! It’s funny because most people think we got into this music through our parents like that they had old vinyl’s that we listened to but it’s actually the opposite. We discovered country and folk and now our parents listen to it so now I would say that he’s just as big a country fan as we are. 

J: But it was kind of strange to work with our parents at the beginning. Our Mom’s also involved in it because we were so young. We were 14 and 16 and we needed their help, we couldn’t do it otherwise. But now we’ve been working with Dad for eight years so we don’t even think about it, the fact that he’s our father, it’s just like anyone and he loves to do this! He loves being on the road and he loves music so it worked out great for everyone.

Oh so your Dad goes on tour with you?

J: Yeah he does the sound so he’s been to all of our shows and always did the sound.

What are your plans then, for the rest of the summer? Lots of festivals?

K: Yeah we’ve got a lot of festivals, we’re going to Germany next then we’ll be in Luxembourg which is going to be exciting because we’ve never been before and then we’re due in a month in America and then we’re ending it all in Sweden at a festival there that we love and then we’re going to take a break for a while and find new inspiration.

Tell me about the States, that must be a big deal, going to the home of country music, do they accept you as another country act? Like one of their own or are you a foreign band playing in America or what?

K: I don’t know actually, I think they kind of accept us, maybe not the mainstream kind of Nashville country pop scene. We’re not part of that, we’re kind of more alternative to them but we were surprised because we were at the country music hall of fame in Nashville and we found our CD in their gift shop amongst other country artists so I was like 'Wow!' I mean that must be a sign of acceptance you know? 

J: And most people think it’s very flattering when two people from a country far far away interpret their culture.

K: I think also a lot of them don’t know that we’re Swedish, I don’t know what we did to fool everyone, maybe it’s our accents.

If not from your parents where did you discover country music?

K: Well it started with a band called Bright Eyes that I started listening to when I was 12 years old and I just fell in love with that kind of music where the lyrics were the most important part of the songs and it was just nice to hear music that felt real. People could just be themselves and talk about their lives and it was really comforting to me. We both started digging into the country music world and discovered Bob Dylan and the Carter Family, going deep down and we just loved it, loved all of it and then we started writing our own songs.

Great! Thanks so much again and I’m looking forward to seeing you next week! J&K: Bye! Stay Gold is out Now.

Find out more about the band at www.thisisfirstaidkit.com

Buy tickets at www.atelier.lu

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