First Aid Kit is a Swedish folk duo.
Their 2008 YouTube video cover of the song "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" by Fleet Foxes
spread their name rapidly on the Internet.
After that they have achieved world wide fame with their harmonious singing and country-influenced
songs.
History Sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg are from
Enskede, a suburb of Stockholm.
Johanna was born on October 31, 1990 and Klara on January 8, 1993.
They both attended the English school of Enskede.
Their father is a former member of Swedish rock pop band Lolita Pop and had a home studio;
Klara started to write songs when she was 13.
However, things started to roll after a friend of Klara's introduced her to the band Bright
Eyes.
This led her to country music stars such as the Carter family.
It took a while to persuade Johanna, who was fond of German Techno, but soon they were
both singing country-folk together.
Their younger brother was in the same kindergarten as the daughter of Karin Dreijer Andersson,
half of Swedish electronic duo The Knife.
Their mother asked Dreijer in 2007 to check out her daughters' songs on the social networking
site MySpace, and the duo was soon signed to Rabid Records, a label co-owned by The
Knife.
They also started to perform live but as Klara, who was then 14, was still at school, they
could play only during weekends. April 2008 saw the release of the debut EP Drunken Trees
in Sweden.
The album was a re-recorded collection of songs from their MySpace site called originally
"Cross Oceans".
Their first appearance in Swedish TV was also that month.
The duo was already quite well known in Sweden when they, in August 2008, uploaded a cover
version of the "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" by Fleet Foxes to YouTube.
Robin Pecknold, front man and lead guitarist for the Fleet Foxes had noticed it and posted
a link on their webpage causing an avalanche like popularity of the video.
This made First Aid Kit internationally known and led to the re-release of the Drunken Trees
EP by Wichita Records in February 2009.
On November 21, 2008 at Crossing Border Festival, that was their first show outside Scandinavia,
they also performed the song with Fleet Foxes.
Due to international touring, Johanna quit high school and Klara never started it.
Their father, who had been a teacher of history and religion, took leave and accompanied them
on tours, also helping with soundchecks.
The duo released their debut album, The Big Black & The Blue, in 2010; the release was
followed by an extensive tour in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and parts of
Europe, including Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona.
In November 19, 2009 they managed to get backstage when Monsters of Folk was performing in Stockholm
and give a copy of their first record to Conor Oberst.
Nothing was heard of it until after playing a concert in Nashville on October 11, 2010,
the duo was approached by Jack White, who requested they record a single for his Third
Man Records series.
In February 2011 the duo collaborated with Bright Eyes during their performance of "Lua".
In January 2012, the band released their second album, The Lion's Roar, produced by Mike Mogis.
The album was critically acclaimed upon release and went straight to No. 1 in Sweden on the
week of release and No. 35 in the UK.
In April 2012 the band performed the song "Emmylou" on Conan.
In August 2012 the band performed at the Lollapalooza festival.
They also performed at Bestival and the Berlin Festival in September before returning to
the United States to play Austin City Limits Music Festival in October 2012.
First Aid Kit have performed twice at the Polar Music Prize.
In 2011, they performed the song "Dancing Barefoot" for winner Patti Smith, and in 2012
they performed "America" for winner Paul Simon.
Their song "The Lion's Roar" was featured in episode 2 of series 4 of Misfits.
In the Hearts of Men it was featured in episode 21 of season 8 of Bones.
The song "Emmylou" was chosen by Rolling Stone magazine as the #10 "Single of the Year" in
2012.
In January 2013 the band toured in Europe with Conor Oberst.
The duo was singing backing vocals during the set of Oberst and he was singing with
the girls in some songs of their set.
In February 2013 they were awarded the Nordic Music Prize for "Best Nordic 2012 Album".
They were also awarded four Swedish Grammis awards for 2012 "Artist of the Year", "Songwriter
of the Year", "Best Pop of the Year" and "Album of the Year".
In June 2013 they performed at Glastonbury festival in the Pyramid stage.
In October the band performed "Emmylou" on The Late Show with David Letterman.
This was their second appearance on the show, as they had backed Lykke Li there in November
2011.
The same month, the sisters opened for Rodriguez at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
Altogether in 2013 they performed about 30 concerts and appeared at 10 different festivals.
Conor Oberst said in a 2014 interview that he is finishing work on a solo record, with
First Aid Kit singing harmonies throughout the LP.
The album, titled Upside Down Mountain, was released on 20 May 2014.
The duo sings on six tracks of the record.
First Aid Kit's eighth US and Canada tour, of which some of the concerts were already
sold out in the beginning of March, started in May 2014.
Also several other concert and festival dates for the summer have already been fixed in
Europe, Japan and Australia.
In autumn they have a tour in Europe performing for example in the Royal Albert Hall in London,
UK on September 24.
They will tour again in the USA in October and November, 2014.
Following the announcement of their third studio album Stay Gold, that was released
on 10 June 2014 through Columbia Records, the band released their first new single "My
Silver Lining" on 31 March.
On May 6 another song, "Cedar Lane", was released.
Both were released only as digital files accompanied with videos in YouTube.
On June 12 they performed again on The Late Show with David Letterman, this time singing
"My Silver Lining".
Discography Albums
EPs Singles
References
External links
Media related to First Aid Kit at Wikimedia Commons
Official website AllMusic.com profile
Myspace Page Guardian article on First Aid Kit