You


know you’ve hit the big time when you appear on your country’s


stamps. This is exactly what’s happened to Swedish folk singers First Aid Kit. From Stockholm, these two sisters have been making music and writing songs since childhood. Their big break came in 2008 when their cover version of the Tiger Mountain Peasant Song by Fleet Foxes hit Youtube to wondrous acclaim. Since then they’ve gone from strength to strength and have worked with Jack White, Conor Oberst, The Knife and Jenny Lewis amongst others. Heading out on tour with their most recent epic album Stay Gold, they’ll be playing Norwich in January. I caught up with Johanna to find out more about their rise to fame and their heart rending harmonies..


FIRST AID KIT


You first played Norwich back in 2010 at our (award winning) Arts Centre and now you're playing our largest venue, Te UEA. Tis UK tour finds you playing a host of substantial venues. How are you finding performing to bigger and bigger crowds? We are finding it quite amazing. Of course it’s different to perform for 5,000 people rather than 50. Te gigs now are a little bit bigger in terms of production, more people are involved and we have more lights. However, still we haven’t changed that much! We’re only a four piece on stage, and we keep performing our song ”Ghost Town” completely unplugged. Tere is still a sense of simplicity and


12 / January 2015/outlineonline.co.uk


intimacy. We want to stay true to our thing, connecting with the audience through our lyrics and harmonies. It’s so cool that more people have gotten into our music; we’re very happy and thankful for that. In September you played and sold out Te Royal Albert Hall in London. How was the experience of performing at such a beautiful and historic venue? It was a surreal moment for us. When we met our booking agent back in 2009 she told us that in five years we’d be doing a sold out show at Te Royal Albert Hall. We simply couldn’t believe her; we thought she was crazy. Yet she was right, and there we were! We were so freaking nervous


the entire day. Just walking through the halls and seeing all the photos of the legends who’d played there before, it built quite an anticipation. However, the show went amazingly well. It felt surprisingly intimate despite being such a huge room. We had a lot of our family from Sweden fly to London for the show, so it was like a big family gathering. It was a special night we shall never forget; a true highlight of our career. Your latest album 'Stay Gold' has a fuller sound and utilizes more instruments that your previous records. Were you involved with the arrangements on the album and do you enjoy being in the studio? We loved being in Omaha and


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48