THEY hail from the land Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen, and Super Trouper.
Yet it’s taken well over a decade in the music business for First Aid Kit’s Klara and Johanna Söderberg to channel their inner Abba.
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When the sisters from Sweden started out, they looked to Americana for inspiration . . . The indefinable fusion between folk, country and rock music.
They first got noticed for pure, sweet harmonies on a cover of Fleet Foxes’ Tiger Mountain Peasant Song.
One of their first triumphs was Emmylou. It is dedicated to Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons and other alt-country pioneers whose music provided the soundtrack to their lives.
But now their ravishing fifth studio album, Palomino, allows a bit of Swedish pop heritage into the mix — without abandoning the sound we know and love them for.
Talking to me via Zoom from their home town of Stockholm, the siblings explain, in their perfect English naturally, how they’ve become more relaxed about exploring music that’s closer to home.
Klara, 29, says: “When we were younger, we really wanted to be taken seriously . . . ”
Johanna, 32 years old, completes her sentence as is the case with these two. “ . . . and we were underdogs and wanted to be different.”
‘The pandemic gave us a proper break’
They started uploading their own songs to MySpace back in 2007, and three years later, The Big Black And The Blue, their debut album, was released by British indie label Wichita.
Klara continues: “Back then, we felt it important to tell people we loved Americana because it was the music we listened to the most.
“I had a lot of rules about what our music could sound like and what instruments we could use. It was very strict.
“But, if you grow up in Sweden, Abba is the band that has always been with you.”
Johanna recollects the first album she bought, The Abba Generation by tribute band A-Teens.
“Super Trouper and Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! were our favourite songs,”She said. “Oh yeah!” agrees Klara. “We were obsessed and now we’re ready to embrace Abba a bit more.”
They also admit that their new songs, particularly the smooth Ready To Run, bear nods to other artists from their parents’ generation: “Fleetwood Mac, Carole King, Hall & Oates, Tom Petty, T.Rex and Elton John.”
Palomino, primarily due to the Covid lockdowns and their pop-orientation, is their first First Aid Kit album recorded in Sweden.
They were able to rest in Stockholm and take stock of their situation before they began making new music.
Klara says: “The pandemic gave us a proper break. The previous ten or 12 years had been non-stop and we were too tired to fully appreciate what we had achieved.”
They turned to producer Daniel Bengtson, a friend of the sisters’ musician turned teacher dad Benkt, to take charge of recording album No5.
The mood of the 11 tracks is in marked contrast to previous album, 2018’s Ruins, which charts Klara’s devastating break-up.
Album artwork also shows a change in direction.
The stark monochrome faces of Stark are replaced by the couple hugging one another on a beach wearing flowing dresses in green, pink brown, grey, and black against a vast open sky.
“I wasn’t very kind to myself on those Ruins songs,” says Klara. “A big part of the new record is about growing older and learning to be kinder to yourself.”
Johanna chips in: “It was difficult to tour Ruins because, when we’re on stage, we have to live the lyrics.
“We knew this new album had to be different. We couldn’t have dealt with it otherwise.”
However, the resulting Palomino wouldn’t be a First Aid Kit record without a touch of heartache.
‘The song Angel is so naked, so dramatic’
“We could never write 11 happy songs,” affirms Johanna. “There’s still a lot of sadness but it’s not as in your face and the music is more playful.”
The album starts with Out Of My Head in emphatic fashion and continues with Angel. Angel has unflinching lyrics about personal crises juxtaposed with an arrangement that soars towards the heavens. “You choose what you want to share,” says Klara. “But I genuinely want to write things that mean a lot to me and to show some vulnerability.
“That’s why other people can relate to our songs. The day after we released Angel (as a single), someone wrote to us and said: ‘This is a song about my life’.”
Klara asks Johanna to turn to her and she replies: “You didn’t even want to put Angel on the record at first.”
But she tells me: “I always thought it was a great song. It’s so simple and so dramatic.
“We did think, ‘Is this too cheesy?’. Sometimes, there’s a fine line between too much and something that actually hits you.” Another of Palomino’s singles, Turning Onto You, presented a very different type of challenge.
Klara says: “We went, ‘OK, what if we try to write a happy love song?’. The line ‘turning onto you’It’s cheeky and funny.
“When we were younger, we wouldn’t have been able to own that idea, but I love the song and its soul vibe.”
The tracks 29 Palms Highway & Wild Horses II are named after Gram Parsons, the country rock trailblazer.
He’d been a member of The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers and was just forging a fine solo career when he died aged just 26 in 1973.
He succumbed to a drink and drug overdose at his spiritual home, Joshua Tree National Park in southern California’s Mojave Desert.
The song 29 Palms Highway is named after the road that borders the park’s northern perimeter while Wild Horses II serves as a sequel to the yearning Rolling Stones original once covered by Gram, who was Keith Richards’ friend.
Johanna says: “We first went to Joshua Tree to make a video for the song Emmylou in 2011 and were just blown away by it. It was so foreign to the Swedes.
“We stayed at the Joshua Tree Inn . . . not in Gram’s room, but it WAS on his birthday (November 5th).
Klara takes the thread. “We were in the room next door to his and there was a storm.”
Johanna again: “This black raven had been following us. Gram was haunting us!”
Klara and a friend returned to Joshua Tree in late 2019 just before the Covid pandemic.
“We’d cancelled all our shows that summer,”She said. “I was burned out and feeling very lost, as if I didn’t know how to find joy in music again.
“Then we drove out there and listened to Gram’s music. I just cried.
‘We’re like a phoenix rising from the ashes’
“Somewhere along the road, I suddenly felt a connection with the part of me that I thought I’d lost. It was really powerful and that’s when our song came into being.”
Klara wants Joshua Tree to be a part of her life.
She was able to return in August to participate in a three hour meditation ceremony. “It’s where I can embrace the spiritual and the wonder of nature,”She said.
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As well as from Wild Horses II, there is another equine-themed song, the title track Palomino, which closes the album.
It’s typically powerful imagery. This beautiful animal, with its golden coat and white mane, is free to roam.
Johanna says: “We just loved the symbolism. The song is open-ended. You don’t really know where we’re going or what our next record is going to be like.
“Compared with where we were with Ruins, this record is about feeling more free and stronger. We’re like a phoenix rising from the ashes.”
Above all else, Palomino is a testament to the sisters’ love for each other and their continued desire to make music together.
“It’s a miracle. I don’t know what our secret is,”Joanna laughs
Klara agrees: “I don’t know either because we drive each other crazy!
“But we’ve gone to therapy and we’ve learned through these quite hard years that the number one thing is our sister relationship. It is the most important thing to us. The music is wonderful but it can never, ever be prioritised above our friendship and our familial bond.”
Have they been close ever since their earliest years, even as children?
Johanna replies: “Yeah, we’re only two years apart and we would always play together.”
Klara explains how their relationship evolved over the years.
“I think it’s changed but in a healthy way, like we don’t see each other all the time,”She said.
“We also have friends that are not mutual. We have our own lives and then we come together and do this thing and hang out as sisters.”
An extra special addition to their lives is Johanna’s two-year-old daughter Harriet. Klara, Klara’s caring aunt, gives a happy response to Harriet’s mention. “I love her, I’m obsessed with her. She’s incredible and the best gift I’ve ever had.”
Johanna finds that being a mother helps her see things in perspective and set priorities.
She said: “I don’t have as much time as before so Klara and I have to be more efficient but I think we appreciate each other more.”
“Music is always a comfort to us. It’s what we reach for when we’re sad and when we need to connect with other people.”
Do they ever disagree about their musical direction?
“We have this weird, telepathic sister vibe,”Klara glancing affectionately at her soulmate,
“In the studio, if I love a song, I know Johanna will love it too.”
FIRST AID KIT
Palomino
★★★★☆
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