Who are First Aid Kit and what’s your story?
We are Klara and Johanna Söderberg, two intelligent, gorgeous and talented sisters from Stockholm. We've been making music together as First Aid Kit since October 2007.
It all started when Klara heard Bright Eyes for the first time when she was 12. The song was "First Day of My Life" and it was the "first day of Klara's musical life". This acoustic song was so different from the mainstream pop that had been what she listened to earlier. It was simple, honest and very touching.
Bright Eyes inspired Klara to pick up the guitar and write her own songs. Then I (Johanna) started to sing harmonies with her. We started performing live and got a record deal from our neighbour Karin Dreijer of The Knife. We released our debut EP in 2008 in Sweden. In 2009 we released the EP in the rest of the world through UK label Wichita Recordings. This year we're releasing our debut LP. We're very excited!
Where does the name 'First Aid Kit’ come from?
When Klara was 12 years old she decided that if she was ever going to make music, she wanted to work under as pseudonym. She scanned through an English-Swedish dictionary and found the name First Aid Kit. When she started performing live with me, we decided to stick with that name. For us our band name means that our music is a sort of consolation, a comfort. Call it a plaster for the soul, if you like.
Describe your music to those who have yet to hear it.
Strong vocals. Harmonies - plenty of them. An acoustic guitar, some keyboards and occasionally a bit of drumming. Emotional.
Where does your unique sound come from?
Is our sound really unique? If you think so, then thank you! We don't strive to be unique. We just make songs that we enjoy. If it turns out being unique then that's great.
Where do you draw influences, in both lyric and music style?
We mainly listen to traditional folk music from America and England. We are as inspired by old stuff like The Carter Family and The Louvin Brothers as well as contemporary music like Bright Eyes and Devendra Banhart.
We follow the storytelling tradition in our lyrics. The lyrics aren't always about us, it's often a fairytale of some kind. We're very much inspired by the contrast between melody and lyrics that exists in old country music. We love a song called "Knoxville girl" (performed by the Louvin Brothers): It tells the story about how a man, for no reason whatsoever, murders a girl brutally. While the lyrics are extremely dark the way they sing their harmonies is very beautiful. We try to incorporate that into our music.
How do you go about penning lyrics and writing music?
Our songwriting is very spontaneous. It's completely unpredictable. There's no real pattern to it. Every song is made in a different way. Some we write together and some individually. For example one of the songs on the album called "Wills of the River", was written while watching "Into The Wild" by Sean Penn. Another one, called "Ghost Town", came into existence at a train station in Oslo. After a rather sleepless night on a train Klara hallucinated and heard Jenny Lewis sing the melody/lyrics of the song in her head.
How much does place, i.e. where you come from and where you write your songs, affect your particular music style?
We live very close to nature - the forest is one minute away. On the other hand, the city is just 20 minutes away. My theory is that a reason to why our music might sound both old and new at the same time is because throughout our childhood we've had a mixed connection with the timeless nature as well as the new urban environment.
We also sing a lot about family and close relationships and I think that has to do with being close to family and writing our songs at home.
How much of your Swedish background do you bring into your music?
That's hard for me to tell. I don't think we sound particularly Swedish in any way. Maybe there is a Swedish flavor to it, but we can't hear it, haha. Some people say we have a slight Swenglish accent, so that might bring something Swedish into our music.
Your Myspace slogan is 'we aim for the hearts not the charts’, what do you aim to achieve through your music in this sense?
Our goal is not to top the charts, to have No.1 hits. We want to survive on our music, but we don't intend to make a lot of money. We make music for the sake of making music and enjoying it. We aim for touching peoples' hearts, however cliche that might sound. We want to make people feel something. If it's a feeling of sadness or happiness doesn't really matter, as long as they feel something when listening to it.
You’ve got a lot of live dates coming up, what can fans expect when they attend a live performance?
We're not a band that brings on a big show. It's no spectacle, just music. It will be me and Klara singing our hearts out. There will be some guitar, some keys, some auto harp.
Hopefully, they can expect to hear something that will touch them. Maybe they can dance a little bit to it too, cause we've now got a drummer (yay!).
We are Klara and Johanna Söderberg, two intelligent, gorgeous and talented sisters from Stockholm. We've been making music together as First Aid Kit since October 2007.
It all started when Klara heard Bright Eyes for the first time when she was 12. The song was "First Day of My Life" and it was the "first day of Klara's musical life". This acoustic song was so different from the mainstream pop that had been what she listened to earlier. It was simple, honest and very touching.
Bright Eyes inspired Klara to pick up the guitar and write her own songs. Then I (Johanna) started to sing harmonies with her. We started performing live and got a record deal from our neighbour Karin Dreijer of The Knife. We released our debut EP in 2008 in Sweden. In 2009 we released the EP in the rest of the world through UK label Wichita Recordings. This year we're releasing our debut LP. We're very excited!
Where does the name 'First Aid Kit’ come from?
When Klara was 12 years old she decided that if she was ever going to make music, she wanted to work under as pseudonym. She scanned through an English-Swedish dictionary and found the name First Aid Kit. When she started performing live with me, we decided to stick with that name. For us our band name means that our music is a sort of consolation, a comfort. Call it a plaster for the soul, if you like.
Describe your music to those who have yet to hear it.
Strong vocals. Harmonies - plenty of them. An acoustic guitar, some keyboards and occasionally a bit of drumming. Emotional.
Where does your unique sound come from?
Is our sound really unique? If you think so, then thank you! We don't strive to be unique. We just make songs that we enjoy. If it turns out being unique then that's great.
Where do you draw influences, in both lyric and music style?
We mainly listen to traditional folk music from America and England. We are as inspired by old stuff like The Carter Family and The Louvin Brothers as well as contemporary music like Bright Eyes and Devendra Banhart.
We follow the storytelling tradition in our lyrics. The lyrics aren't always about us, it's often a fairytale of some kind. We're very much inspired by the contrast between melody and lyrics that exists in old country music. We love a song called "Knoxville girl" (performed by the Louvin Brothers): It tells the story about how a man, for no reason whatsoever, murders a girl brutally. While the lyrics are extremely dark the way they sing their harmonies is very beautiful. We try to incorporate that into our music.
How do you go about penning lyrics and writing music?
Our songwriting is very spontaneous. It's completely unpredictable. There's no real pattern to it. Every song is made in a different way. Some we write together and some individually. For example one of the songs on the album called "Wills of the River", was written while watching "Into The Wild" by Sean Penn. Another one, called "Ghost Town", came into existence at a train station in Oslo. After a rather sleepless night on a train Klara hallucinated and heard Jenny Lewis sing the melody/lyrics of the song in her head.
How much does place, i.e. where you come from and where you write your songs, affect your particular music style?
We live very close to nature - the forest is one minute away. On the other hand, the city is just 20 minutes away. My theory is that a reason to why our music might sound both old and new at the same time is because throughout our childhood we've had a mixed connection with the timeless nature as well as the new urban environment.
We also sing a lot about family and close relationships and I think that has to do with being close to family and writing our songs at home.
How much of your Swedish background do you bring into your music?
That's hard for me to tell. I don't think we sound particularly Swedish in any way. Maybe there is a Swedish flavor to it, but we can't hear it, haha. Some people say we have a slight Swenglish accent, so that might bring something Swedish into our music.
Your Myspace slogan is 'we aim for the hearts not the charts’, what do you aim to achieve through your music in this sense?
Our goal is not to top the charts, to have No.1 hits. We want to survive on our music, but we don't intend to make a lot of money. We make music for the sake of making music and enjoying it. We aim for touching peoples' hearts, however cliche that might sound. We want to make people feel something. If it's a feeling of sadness or happiness doesn't really matter, as long as they feel something when listening to it.
You’ve got a lot of live dates coming up, what can fans expect when they attend a live performance?
We're not a band that brings on a big show. It's no spectacle, just music. It will be me and Klara singing our hearts out. There will be some guitar, some keys, some auto harp.
Hopefully, they can expect to hear something that will touch them. Maybe they can dance a little bit to it too, cause we've now got a drummer (yay!).
