Early in their career, First Aid Kit felt they had to be the best at everything they did. “Being women, we thought we had a lot to prove,” says Johanna Söderberg, who formed the acclaimed folk duo with her younger sister Klara at high school in Stockholm.
“Our genre — Americana, country-folk — was for bearded old men. Going into that sphere, we felt we had to be very serious. Prove that we know this music. That it comes from the heart.”
More than a decade on, Johanna (32) and Klara (29) have tamed their impostor syndrome. With a string of hit albums and in excess of three million monthly music streams, they know their worth. This explains the confidence and breeziness rippling through their fantastic fifth LP, Palomino. Created in the stillness of lockdown, it is a record that sees them looking towards their thirties and the next phase of their lives and career with calm confidence.
“We’ve been accepted. We’re older, more sure of ourselves,” says Johanna. “Where we started, we were grateful anyone wanted to come to our shows. We couldn’t believe what was happening to us. We just kept going.”
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We were 14 and 16 when we started. I don’t think we realised how young we were
Palomino is named after a category of horse with an auburn coat, as featured heavily in classic Westerns. True to that title, the project has a bucking, galloping quality that contrasts vividly with their last studio album, 2018′s Ruins.
That was a bitter break-up LP in which Klara wrestled with her guilt over the end of a long-term relationship. It was furious and flensing — and the ennui-riddled recording process was not an experience the sisters were eager to repeat.
“I felt like I had done something — that I’d hurt someone very badly and it was all my fault,” says Klara. “Now I’m older and I can see there’s always two people in a relationship. On Ruins there was a lot of self-deprecation. That is something I don’t think as present on this record — because it’s not present in our lives.”
Romantic angst is still one of the defining themes of their writing. “I’ll love you even if you don’t love me” they sing on Angel, a harmony-fuelled meditation on low self-esteem that pairs an exuberant melody with stark wordplay. However, Palomino also courses with genuine joy.
The degree to which the sisters have hit reset is spelt out with the single Out Of My Head. The lyrics are a celebratory declaration of fealty to a loved one: “But look at me, I’m happy still / If I’m turning on to you”. It is happiness in a heart-shaped box.
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That sense of peace flowed in part from the great hush that descended during lockdown. Having toured since they were teenagers, they relished the opportunity to pause (while Sweden remained largely open, their international itinerary dried up overnight).
“It gave us a lot of time,” says Klara. “With that, there was a lot of perspective on everything that we’ve been through. That made us appreciate it [their success] a lot more. When you’re in the eye of the storm, it’s hard to see all of the good things. You’re just very, very tired, which is what we were. Or at least I was. With a pandemic, it was a good chance to no longer take it for granted. There was no world to tour. In a way, this is a nostalgic album looking back at everything we’ve been through. Because there was nothing going on.”
First Aid Kit are one of the great country rock institutions of the past decade — even if they hail from suburban Stockholm rather than downtown Nashville. With their first two albums, released when they were fresh from school, they were applauded as heirs to Dusty Springfield, Stevie Nicks and Emmylou Harris, even as they won over a new generation of fans to the milieu of ethereal Americana.
Plus, they had an old-fashioned hit with the swooping, string-fuelled My Silver Lining from 2014, which has featured on TV commercials and was the closing music in Sharon Horgan’s recent Apple TV smash, Bad Sisters. It was greeted with lavish praise — as was everything else they shared with the world.
I was a workaholic. I lived and breathed First Aid Kit for years. Now, I can’t be in that role all the time
“The voices transcend genre distinctions — you may not hear a more beautifully sung record this year,” said Rolling Stone of their second LP, The Lion’s Roar, from 2012. “Who’d have thought the best Americana record of the year would come from two Swedish siblings?” wondered the NME
For all the acclaim overnight success was challenging for these quietly-spoken siblings. Within a few months, they went from playing small venues around Stockholm to being feted by the international music press and heralded as the second coming of Dolly Parton. They were thrilled at the attention — but sightly over-awed too. Above all, they were determined to grab hold of the opportunity that had come their way and not let go.
“We were 14 and 16 when we started. I don’t think we realised how young we were,” says Klara. “We have a brother who’s 18 now and we have some perspective. At 18, you’re not very old.”
They were women in a male-dominated industry, travelling the world years before the #MeToo movement. “When we toured as kids we had our father with us. That definitely helped. It would have been a lot scarier just being the two of us,” says Klara. “We weren’t as aware of things as we are after #MeToo. We talk about stuff a lot more now. Back then, you kind of brushed it under the rug — comments or anything like that. We’re thankfully we hadn’t been through anything too bad.”
They also feel that they were denied a normal youth. By the time they reached their twenties, they were veterans of the road. In the decade that followed, recording and touring were all they knew. And if the venues got bigger and bigger — they were selling out the Olympia in Dublin by their third LP — they acknowledge that there were aspects of a “normal” young adulthood they never got to sample. Their lifestyles did not allow for it.
“We missed out on some things. That was the hard part. It was difficult for our friends, too. We’ve always had each other thank God. But it was hard to come back home. Our friends were studying and we couldn’t really relate to what they were going through. And they certainly couldn’t relate to what we were going through — what our daily lives look like to them.”
[ First Aid Kit: Ruins review – As soothing as a warm coatOpens in new window ]
That hectic schedule placed stress on their relationship as sisters. They had gone from siblings to musical collaborators. At moments, the pressure to succeed as artists put a strain on their sibling bonds (in 2015 they needed time away from each other and didn’t speak for months).
“There’s a lot of pressure on our relationship, because we were the only ones,” says Klara. “It’s something that we have to work on — to get our relationship to a nice place.”
Lockdown was momentous in more ways than one. Johanna had a daughter in June 2020. With Palomino, she must balance her responsibilities as an artist with those of a parent. It’s all very new. But, as with so much else with First Aid Kit, she is steering into this challenge with a big heart and a determination to push through.
“I was a workaholic. I lived and breathed First Aid Kit for years,” she says. “Now, I can’t be in that role all the time. It’s like, ‘okay — today I’m a rock star’. And then, ‘today I’m a mom’. You’re juggling these very different lifestyles. It’s nice — and quite healthy, I think.”
Palomino is released on Friday November 4th
