Exposure: First Aid Kit
Recent tour partners with new indie folk favourites, Fanfarlo, this Swedish duo are known to write the odd acoustic pleasure too. And all the more remarkable considering they’d still be at high school in the UK. For First Aid Kit are sisters Klara, 16, and Johanna, 18 who are travelling Europe when the rest of us were worrying about English poetry prelims and whether the invigilator would check you’d put all your physics equations into your scientific calculator (they never do). This alternative education is working out though, with a wonderful EP already gaining rave reviews and their live performances showcasing an unheard of maturity, affability and humour. Oh, and talent of course. A pleasing alternative to Miley Cyrus, and more than worthy of Exposure, we talked to Klara.
Is it weird touring the world at such a young age?
Well, I guess a little, but it feels kind of natural too. If I had gone to school then I would have just done a music production thing, and I wanted to play music anyway, so rather than doing it in three years I thought I’d just do it now. And if it doesn’t work, I can still go back to school.
Has making music for a living matched expectations?
It’s a lot of sitting in cars and airports and hotel rooms, and you don’t get to see a lot of the places you go to, which is pretty sad, but it’s great to play music.
Is it easier being with your sister too?
Yeah definitely, and we have our dad as well. We’re surrounded by family.
How supportive is your dad of your music?
He’s been great, and really involved with the record. He was our producer too.
Was music a part of growing up then?
Yeah, our father was a guitarist in a band in the 80s and our parents played music around us all the time. But we were never told ‘you should play music’. They were just supportive and we sang a lot. First Aid Kit is our thing though – we’ve found this music we really liked.
When did you know you were going to start taking this seriously?
Well it happened kind of gradually. We wrote songs, and that was one thing, and then we got shows and then a booking agent, and things started happening happening. And we just thought: "Go for it, this looks good".
You’re part of a great Swedish music scene too.
Our biggest influences aren’t Swedish, but there is a lot of great Swedish music too. And I don’t really know why that is. We get that question a lot, but I don’t think anyone knows.
And you sing in English too?
For us, if you sing in Swedish it’s a lot more ... naked. And most of the music we listen to is in English, so it came naturally. And we attended English schools, so for us, the English language was always a part of who we are.
And you’re debut album’s out next year. What can we expect?
We definitely think our singing has grown a lot and come together, and we feel more confident with the way we sound. The EP was more of an experiment but this is more the finished product.