Morning has broken in Stockholm, native city for sibling troubadours First Aid Kit. “I just woke up!” says the elder of the two sisters, vocalist/keyboardist Johanna SЪderberg. Her voice is hazy, occasionally mumbled, but she seems happy and sure of herself, which serves as a welcome contrast from not that long ago.
The band’s third studio album,Stay Gold, dropped around the middle of 2014, receiving a strong critical reception and an even stronger commercial one on its way to cracking the top ten in five different countries. Even with this considered, the SЪderbergs knew it was always going to take a lot of work to follow up their previous album, 2012’sThe Lion’s Roar. The weight of expectation, says Johanna, could have broken them – but they made a point of not letting it.
“We tried not to think about it,” she says. “You’ve got to write for yourself – if you don’t do that, you’re going to lose your creative spark. It was really tough, though – there was a block of time where we thought there may not even be an album. We kind of just had to let go and not think too much about it. I can’t think of a particular moment where it turned around, but it took a lot of time. We thought that if we didn’t finish it then and there, we’d never get it done – it was something that we did for ourselves more than anything.”
Stay Gold was what took the SЪderbergs around the world yet again, touring through 2014 in support of the record. Some of the more left-of-centre highlights of their year, however, came from more unexpected places. Having already performed on television for the big guns – David Letterman, Jools Holland, Conan O’Brien – there was only really one more mountain left to climb: Ellen DeGeneres.
“It was amazing,” gushes Johanna on First Aid Kit’s first-ever visit to the world-famous eponymous morning talk show. “Ellen heard us on the radio in her car – that’s how we got on the show. She asked for us to come on the show while we were on our US tour, and it all came together with really short notice. I can’t believe how sweet she was to us. She was watching our soundcheck in her pyjamas! It’s a very big show, but I think the crowd really got into it.” They all went home with a copy of Stay Gold, right? “That’s right!” Johanna laughs.
The sisters have started 2015 by getting the backs of their heads licked. No, really – just last week, First Aid Kit were featured on a series of limited-edition postage stamps in Sweden. It may seem a bizarre thing to even discuss, but it’s just – pardon the pun – part and parcel of Swedish pop culture, according to Johanna. “We were just asked, and we said yes,” she says nonchalantly. “It was that simple! We do a lot of fun stamps in Sweden – we have soccer players and pop stars. That’s how we roll! We haven’t seen the actual physical ones yet, but the designs look amazing. It’s going to be so weird to lick one of those for the first time.”
In other First Aid Kit news, Wild, the new movie starring Reese Witherspoon, has just hit cinemas here in Australia. If you do make it along to a screening, make sure you listen out for a musical appearance from the band. As part of the film’s soundtrack, the SЪderbergs were asked to cover a relatively obscure track by R.E.M. The song is called ‘Walk Unafraid’, from R.E.M.’s 1998 album Up – a record, it must be mentioned, that was released when guitarist Klara SЪderberg was all of five years old.
“I hadn’t really listened to R.E.M. at all,” confesses Johanna, “but they approached us and we somehow made it work. The original version of the song has a very different feel compared to the way that we ended up doing it. It was quite a challenge, actually. It’s a tricky song, but I think we incorporated it into our style.” Surely covering the legendary US band would have sparked a further investigation into its 30-year-plus canon of work? “No, actually!” Johanna replies with a nervous laugh. “I mean, I know their famous songs from when I was a kid, but I don’t really know all that much more. Maybe I should look into them?”
March will see the sisters back in Australia once again. As well as appearances at Golden Plains and WOMADelaide, they will take in some of their biggest headlining dates yet in the surrounds of some truly luscious theatres. Even after several years of visiting, the excitement and awe never seems to lose its touch for Johanna.
“It’s been nothing but fantastic from the start,” she says. “We came over for the first time in 2010, just doing some really small shows, and they all sold out. We had absolutely no idea that people had even heard of us in Australia. That seemed like such a bizarre thing to us. It’s across on the other side of the world – that just felt completely unheard of. Our Australian fans and the friends that we’ve made there would have to be some of our best in the whole world. We love triple j, we love Melbourne, we want to move there … this isn’t just something that we say about every country! We really do love it so much over there.”
Stay Gold out now through Columbia/Sony. Catch them alongsideLuluc atEnmore TheatreonWednesday March 11, tickets online.
