First Aid Kit are on top of the world right now. Following a summer of festival appearances, the girls have bagged slots supporting Ryan Adams this weekend at the iTunes festival at London's Roundhouse, and are one of the leading acts during the BBC's 6Music Live event in October, not to mention being set take their addictive brand of folk-pop on tour with a string of dates around Europe for the rest of the year.
At the recent Green Man festival, sisters Johanna and Klara Soderberg drew one of the biggest crowds of the weekend, seemingly everyone in attendance turned up to be dazzled en masse by an appropriately gilded stage set as they blasted out their latest album, Stay Gold, with plenty of added lovely hair swishing. 'It was a much bigger show than we expected it to be,' Klara told us following the performance, still clearly on a high from playing to such a massive audience. 'At our shows, we see that there's a lot of different types of people coming together which is really exciting,' Johanna added. 'I love that people have made the effort and are taking something from the show.'
Not that they shouldn't be used to it by now, as the music world fell for the Swedish sisters back in 2008 when their cover of Fleet Foxes' *Tiger Mountain Peasant Song *made the familiar viral journey from YouTube to Twitter and Facebook feeds everywhere, before their signature hit, Emmy Lou, cemented them into the cultural lexicon in 2012. 'The first album, The Big Black & The Blue came out, and all of a sudden there were all these people here to see us, and who knew the songs, and that was really cool,' Johanna said.
That hasn't changed, except now there are even more people, who know the words to even more songs. 'People really loved songs like Emmy Lou, and those from the first album, so when we play and people know the lyrics and sing along, it's really great,' added Klara. Can they ever be totally chill about having huge crowds sing along their creations like in impromptu backing chorus, or as is often the case, singing the lyrics entirely when Klara proudly holds her microphone to the crowd? 'No, I mean, it will always be kind of weird,' she laughs. 'But we really love it'.
As well as major audience appreciation, a particularly sweet bonus of the ascent of First Aid Kit's star is that it's afforded them the opportunity of working with and meeting some of their biggest musical heroes. Having previously played with their fortuitous favourites, Fleet Foxes, at the Roundhouse in 2009, their return to the venue for this year's iTunes festival sees them playing alongside another of their icons, Ryan Adams. As huge admirers of the indie-king, Klara notes that 'getting to play there with him is really special'.
Spending so much time on the festival circuit has seen the sisters share lineups with many more of their favourite acts too, including Patti Smith, although they're as nervous as someone in their crowd might be if they were meeting them, when they come across performers of that stature. 'It's very scary!' Johanna interjects when we suggest it must be a dream come true to hob-nob with the greats. 'The thing is, when you meet someone like that, there's no way you can explain to them what they've actually done for you, you just have to kind of keep quiet about it or you'll feel really stupid,' Klara continues. 'But it's amazing that you can admire them and they want you to play with them so that on its own is really cool. Just that they know about your music and stuff.' They do say you should never meet your idols after all. 'I always try not to make a big deal of it, you know?' Klara says.
That would explain why Johanna's awestruck face was clearly visible from the side of the stage as Bill Callahan hypnotically crooned through his set, that preceded theirs at Green Man, but they looked as scared to approach the majestic singer as the rest of us did backstage at the festival. 'He is the kind of artist I love,' she noted.
Whether they're devoted fans off-stage, or recruiting their own loyal army of them when they take to it themselves, playing it cool it seems, is what First Aid Kit do best.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.