BAND-AID

First Aid Kit’s Healing Power 

photographer / Jonas Jacob Svensson  story / Weronika Perez Borjas + Koko Ntuen 

stylist / Koko Ntuen  hair + makeup / Angelica Adolfsson @ Face Stockholm 

photo assistant / Karin Persson  shot @ Katarina Kyrka and Pelican in Stockholm, Sweden

 Sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg, better known as First Aid Kit, have spent 2014 taking the world by storm. A whirlwind tour through the US and Europe which had them playing iconic venues and festivals such as the Royal Albert Hall, The David Letterman Show, Coachella and Lollapalooza, and has left the pair with more fans that they can count eager to hear their angelic voices

Their heartfelt folk ballads have stolen the hearts of fans and revamped the folk scene with a fresh, approachable twist akin to the good old days, when people made music with real instruments, sang with real voices and had real soul. Back in 2008 when Myspace was the biggest social media site that had ever existed, responsible for propelling such artists as Lily Allen, Sky Ferreira and Kate Nash to global success, Klara, just 14, and Johanna, 16, uploaded their songs from the bedroom of their Swedish lairs in a southern suburb of Stockholm. The Söderberg sisters soon caught the ears of indie folk favourites Fleet Foxes, when they covered their *Tiger Mountain Peasant Song* and shared it on Myspace and Youtube. The girls caught a wave of hundreds of thousands of people tuning in to find out who First Aid Kit were, becoming an overnight sensation in the process. They were quickly signed to The Knife-owned label Rabid Records and the world has watched the girls grow from angel-faced ingénues to beautiful women who have engulfed the music industry with a few simple chords ever since.

With this new platform, success soon followed and since then they have released three  critically acclaimed albums, worked with their heroes, toured the world sharing the stage with artists including Jack White, Lykke Li, and Bright Eyes and creating musical masterpieces that have left them with a glowing reputation.

The girls have an essence of being from another time that puts a still nature into the present day. They make music based on not just what they are going through but what everybody goes through, in that way everyone can relate to it. Most of their songs could easily be the soundtrack to the broken heart of a traveling salesman alone on the road. There are a lot of stings and echos and their voices – voices that sound as magnificent as sirens and come so naturally its almost like they can’t control the magic. Though their tunes leave you complacent and still with the sadness in your heart their sweet and fun personalities completely juxtapose this. In person, they are lively and beautiful .They interact with light ease and humility on set accenting most of their sentences with “Please” and “Thank you,” giggling, chatting and finishing each others sentences like the best of friends. At one point while we are shooting a group of wide eyes teenagers come over with shock at seeing their idols in front of them. One girl cries and Klara hugs her and when they perform an acapella version of Stay Gold on a whim, the girls hold out their iphones trying to capture the moment shaking with excitement.

With this year’s Columbia Records debut Stay Gold making the rounds and climbing up the charts, Sweden’s golden girls chat with me about their current album, love and what it’s like to make Patty Smith cry,

What was the best part of making your Stay Gold album?

It was really incredible. Definitely one of the best things! Last time, when we recorded The Lion’s Roar we’d never been in a studio and worked with a producer before. So now we were a bit more secure and comfortable and knew a lot more about the process. We also had more time to experiment and it became a lot more elaborate.

I read in an interview that your dad plays music with you and that he recorded your first CD in your teenage room. Does your mom play music as well?

No, she doesn’t play anything but she loves music and she is our absolute role model. She is the coolest mom ever! She does join us on tour from time to time.

How did your parents meet?

Actually she was kind of… well, not a groupie, but she was following our dad when he had a band in the 80s. So yeah, they quite quickly became a couple cause they both loved music.

It doesn’t seem strange that you decided to quit high school and follow your love for music then. But do you ever feel like you missed a part of growing up because of that?

We didn’t really drop out – I finished high school and Klara didn’t ever start. I don’t feel like we missed something. We are collecting life experiences. But of course our lives are very different to the ones of our friends at home. So sometimes we do miss stuff that is supposed to be like an everyday life. But it is now that we have this special opportunity, so we just need to take the chance.

How do you preserve your sibling relationship in a show business environment?

It’s a lot of pressure, so it’s hard to deal with anyone who is close to you all the time. But I actually think it’s a lot easier cause we are sisters and can be very open with each other. It’s a very special relationship and we are very lucky, it’s like having my best friend all the time with me. Of course we do argue sometimes, but that’s the way it is with anyone.

It looks like your success has also speeded up after your own idols showed an interest in your music and opened their hearts for you. Karin Dreijer Andersson from The Knife took a look at your Myspace and offered you your first record contract. You’ve gotten great feedback from Fleet Foxes when you recorded that cover of theirs in the middle of the forest. You’ve been called up by Jack White, played with Bright Eyes, and made Patti Smith cry with your interpretation of her Dancing Barefoot. Is this open and thoughtful atmosphere something common in the big music world?

We do actually feel like that, we received so much love from everyone. I think it’s very unlikely that musicians appreciate each other mutually. So that’s amazing, that gives us a lot of confidence. There is a very positive feeling in the air for us right now. We are also aware that in every career there can be ups and downs. We don’t take anything for granted. We are very happy that we received so much love. But hopefully it is also our love for music that transfers and shines through.

Who else would you love to meet or play with?

There are lots of people we would love to play with. Gillian Welch and Ryan Adams are amazing. We would like to do something with other sister bands, like HAIM. I think this is the beauty of folk music, that people are so open for collaboration. It is all about inviting and bringing together the spirit of music and sharing it. I wish that everyone was able to appreciate what is so special about creating music or art; to do it together with other people.

In recent years you’ve been touring all around the world, visiting such great cities as New York and Los Angeles. How does your hometown Stockholm look from this perspective? Do you still enjoy living here or do you feel you’ve grown out of the city and would be tempted to try some other place?

I think that what you discover when you travel around the world is that most cities are actually pretty similar and the only difference is the people. It doesn’t really matter where you live, as long as you have the people you love there. Touring teaches you to welcome the place you are. We don’t really know where are we are going to live in the future. It doesn’t really matter right now because we are always on the road anyway.

What about the music scene in Sweden? There is definitely a great tradition of pop and rock music here. How did it feel to start just there?

I think it is a really great place to start. It is quite a small country, but there is a tight community. Everyone knows each other, and that’s why we were welcomed by other Swedish artists like Ane Brun and Anna Ternheim for example and it was just great to have an opportunity to collaborate with them. Acts like Lykke Li and Little Dragon have shown that you need to try, even if you are from a small country and that you can gain international success. So it’s a very inspiring country.

Can you recommend any Swedish bands that are not that well known abroad yet?

Tallest Man on Earth, Ane Brun, Little Dragon…

Your style, both in music and in your fashion is very retro, very bohemian. Why do you think people are romanticising the past, like 60’s and 70’s and bringing it back not only in their music choices, but even in the whole lifestyle?

I think that era was so different from now. There were similar issues, like the environmental movement and political changes, but it was a different kind of vision back then. You believed that you had the power to change things. Now the attitude is more like: there is nothing we can do. We don’t have a power or vision that they had then. We may think it was kind of utopian but it had a charm because it is like a time when people actually cared. I do think people still care right now, but they may not know what to do with that, they don’t have a tool.

When it comes to music it is different, even though some musicians could have lyrics with political meaning, we don’t follow it. We are just here to make you feel good.

Of course it wasn’t a perfect time and I’m glad that we are here and now. Definitely in terms of the rights that we have it is better now, but if you look back in time you wish that the kind of spirit that they had was still here.

You sound very political, but there is also something very spiritual in your videos and lyrics, like in Wolf or To the Poet. Are you interested in spiritualism, magic and symbols?

Yes, we are definitely interested in the spiritual world. We are not religious but we are very into that whole magic. I think that for us music is real magic. It is this strange way of communicating from the outer world. You can see in our videos that we ‘ve been very drawn to this kind of magical world, for sure.

Are you using folk and fairy tales as inspiration?

Yeah, we grew up with Swedish fairy tales. When we were small our mom used to read us from a collection of tales. In Sweden we have this natural connection with the woods and the creatures that live in woods, wolves and such. The woods are a magical place with a sense of freedom.

We also loved all the movies based on Astrid Lindgren’s books, Brothers Lionheart and Ronja. There could have been parts of traditional Swedish fairy tales in Astrid Lindgren’s books and somehow what we do now is connected to that. We both wanted to be writers when we where small, and in a way we became authors with our songs.

Since you are called First Aid Kit, I got to ask you this very last question: what would be your first aid kit for a broken heart situation?

I would say chocolate, a friend to talk to, anything by Joni Mitchell, watching stupid comedies and crying it out!