Band of the Week: First Aid Kit

Maybe it's the long cold winters perfect for sitting inside and practising the guitar; the internationalist pop pedigree handed down by the likes of ABBA, the Wannadies and the Cardigans, or perhaps even an as-yet-undiscovered link between pickled herring and musical prowess.

Whatever the reason, few groups have arrived with the instant assuredness of Swedish duo First Aid Kit -- sisters Johanna and Klara Soderburg, aged 19 and 16, and bearers of a spine-tingling collection of folk songs that have drawn comparisons to everything from Joan Baez to the Carter Family and Bon Iver.

The Soderburg sisters, who grew up in a suburb south of Stockholm, were first turned on to music by the pure pop thrills on Britney and Christina, but discovering the work of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen and learning the guitar led them to create First Aid Kit's folk.

The sisters first came to the world's attention via YouTube and a shiver-inducing version of the Fleet Foxes' 'Tiger Mountain Peasant Song.' The cover brought them to the attention of fellow Swedes the Knife, who released their first EP 'Drunken Trees' on their label Rabid Records last year. Wichita Records -- the home of the Cribs, amongst others -- released it in the U.K. earlier this year, and the duo recently played both the Field Day and End of the Road festivals.

This week the Soderburgs kicked off a tour with Slow Club in the U.K. and will also play a co-headline tour with Fanfarlo into October.

On Oct. 5 Wichita releases 'Hard Believer,' a slow-burning classic of a folk song built around the simple call: "And it's one life and it's this life and it's beautiful." You may never question the wisdom of teenagers again.

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