First Aid Kit

The Soderberg sisters first rose to prominence in 2008, shortly after they started playing music together; they uploaded a video of themselves covering the Fleet Foxes track “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” in woodland near their home in the Stockholm suburb of Enskede to MySpace, and it quickly went viral, attracting the attention of record labels the world over. They would go on to sign to Wichita and put out a debut record, “The Big Black and the Blue”, that won them plaudits from critics and enjoyed modest commercial success. Most importantly, though, it provided the springboard for its follow-up, their 2012 breakthrough “The Lion’s Roar”, which saw them fulfil a childhood dream of working with two members of one of their favourite bands, Bright Eyes.

The pair flew to Omaha, Nebraska to make the record in Mike Mogis’ studio, with Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst dropping by to lend backing vocals to “King of the World”; it’s a creative relationship that’s gone on to bear real fruit, with First Aid Kit performing on no fewer than six tracks on Oberst’s latest LP, “Upside Down Mountain”, and backing him up on tour in Europe, too. “The Lion’s Roar” was a runaway success, selling 250,000 copies worldwide - partly thanks to lead single “Emmylou”, which Rolling Stone called the tenth best song of 2012. The sisters followed up “The Lion’s Roar” in quick-fire fashion with album number three, “Stay Gold”, in June 2014; their first album on a major label, Columbia, it’s seen them earn another slew of rave reviews and embark upon their biggest tours to date.