Prompted by my reference to them in yesterday’s post about ‘Running Up That Hill, I felt that I should give First Aid Kit a full post today. They are a Swedish folk duo that consists of the sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg. When performing live, the duo is accompanied by a drummer, a pedal steel guitarist, and a keyboard player. In 2008, they gained some Internet popularity from their cover of the Fleet Foxes’s song “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song”.
The duo released their first album, The Big Black and the Blue in February 2010. It was again produced by their father. The release was followed by an extensive tour (around 100 shows) in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Europe, including Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona. In October 2010, after playing a concert in Nashville, the duo got a telephone call from Jack White, who asked the duo to visit his studio next day. The result was a vinyl single containing cover versions of Buffy Saint Marie’s “Univeral Soldier” and Mel London’s and Tampa Red’s “It Hurts Me Too”. The single was released on White’s Third Man Records label.
First Aid Kit performed first time at the Polar Muisc Prize gala on 30 August 2011 in Stockholm where they performed the song “Dancing Barefoot” for the winner Patti Smith. She was moved to tears at the intense ending of the song. The official YouTube video of the TV broadcast has been watched over million times.
In January 2012, the band released their second album, The Lion’s Roar. The album was critically acclaimed upon release and debuted at number one in Sweden and number 35 in the UK. In support of the album, the band performed the song “Emmylou” on Conan April 2012. In August 2012 they performed “America” for the Polar Music Prize winner Paul Simon. The performance ended with Paul Simon giving them standing ovation.
In November 2012 it was announced that First Aid Kit got “Composer of the year” and “Breakthrough of the Year” prizes from the Swedish Music Publishers Association. The song Emmylou was chosen by Rolling Stone magazine as the #10 “Single of the Year” in 2012. In February 2013 First Aid Kit was 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”.
Following the announcement of their third studio album Stay Gold, that was released in June 2014 and the band released singles “My Silver Lining” and “Cedar Lane. As a result First Aid Kit again got the “Composer of the year” prize from the Swedish Music Publishers Association.
At the beginning of 2017 Klara and Johanna recorded their fourth album. In February it was published that First Aid Kit sings backing vocals on the Jesper Lindell’s “Moving Slow” single and the coming EP. The EP was produced by duo’s father Benkt Söderberg and Sten Booberg. The A Little Less Blue EP was released in April. In March they released a new single, “You Are the Problem Here”, for International Woman’s Day, calling it an angry song and saying that it was inspired by yet another story of a man getting off easy after raping a woman. However, it is not on their Ruins album. All the profits from the song are donated to Women for Women International.
