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In The Studio: First Aid Kit

The Swedish sisters give us the lowdown on their second album.

When First Aid Kit first entered a recording studio, it wasn’t to produce demos, or to work on their 2010 long-player ‘The Big Black & The Blue’. No, the teenage sisters spent a day in Third Man Records’ Nashville premises recording a single with Jack White, after the man himself took a liking to them at one of their many shows.

Up until last autumn, their music wasn’t created with flashy gadgets, or well known producers. “Our last record was recorded at home with our Father and we were producing it ourselves,” explains Johanna - the elder of the two.

“Now we’ve a completely different perspective on our music; we’ve been working in a completely different way. We’ve definitely grown musically.”

The siblings are currently holed up in the States once again, working on their second record with Bright Eyes’ Mike Mogis.

“We’ve been writing songs for the past year, on and off tour,” Klara tells us. “It’s a special thing, getting to travel round and see the world; there’s a lot of inspiration. Just seeing places, seeing people, and hearing stories...”

“We were nervous sometimes, if we had enough songs” continues Johanna, “but once we knew we were recording with Mike we got inspired and wrote so many - it was amazing. We’re huge fans of Bright Eyes so working with Mike and being in Omaha was like our dream. It’s really helped us.

“People are always asking “why are you going to Omaha,”” she laughs. “It’s not really like a famous place in America where you go to make music, or go for any reason, but it’s been great being here. I think it’s definitely coloured the record, that we’re not at home. I don’t know whether it will help, but it’s definitely changed our music.”

Their first album, understandably, was a fairly low-key affair - there’s only so much you can do when you’re limited to “just a computer and a microphone.” For the follow up, they’re pulling out all the stops.

“We had a string quartet,” Johannaenthuses. “That was really something very special. On our last record we didn’t have anyone else come play, except for drums. It was extraordinary; sitting there, hearing them... Nate Walker came by and wrote string arrangements too. We don’t know anything about music theory really, we can’t read notes, so to hear [the musicians] play that song was incredible. We were almost crying because it sounded so beautiful.

“We had people coming in for all the songs, playing different instruments, and Mike played the drums, so it’s new sounds on all the songs.”

And how much is there left to do? “We’re almost done with mixing. We’re working on [the tracklisting], that’s what we’ve left to do. Arrange some songs. They sit together quite well I think. We’re thinking we’ll probably release a single in Fall, then we’ll see when the album will be re- leased. Early next year is what we’re thinking right now.”

“We’ve got some titles but we can’t reveal any just yet,” Klara adds. “We’re still figuring that stuff out.”

Taken from the Summer 2011 issue of DIY, available now. For more details click here.