First Aid Kit have just completed a tour of the UK, If you were able to catch Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg live, you’d know that Master Pretender was one of the highlights of First Aid Kit’s set At the apex of their alt-country musings on the purpose of life and various other existential questioning set to a dusty desert lilt.
Following a year which included sold-out tour dates across the globe, a performance at the Royal Albert Hall and the release of their critically lauded album “Stay Gold”, they begin 2015 with the release of this track, and with it comes an animated video
“Universal Soldier” is a song written and recorded byCanadiansinger-songwriterBuffy Sainte-Marie. The song was originally released on Sainte-Marie’s debut album “It’s My Way!“ in 1964. “Universal Soldier” was not a popular hit at the time of its release, but it did garner attention within the contemporary folk music community. It became a hit a year later when Donovan covered it. Sainte-Marie said of the song: “I wrote ‘Universal Soldier’ in the basement of The Purple Onion coffee house in Toronto in the early sixties. It’s about individual responsibility for war and how the old feudal thinking kills us all.”
“Walk Unafraid” appears in the motion picture, WILD . Thursday’s revelation of the 2015 Oscar nominations, First Aid Kit have released a new video for the song they contributed to an Academy-recognized film. The Swedish folk duo cover R.E.M.’s“Walk Unafraid” on the soundtrack for Wild, the movie for which both Reese Witherspoon (Best Actress) and Laura Dern (Best Supporting Actress) scored Oscar nods. And it’s pretty clear the singing sisters have the iconic alt-rockers’ stamp of approval… at least from guitarist Peter Buck, who joins First Aid Kit’s Johanna and Klara Söderberg in the live performance clip.
The Söderberg sisters met Buck while on a tour stop in Portland, Oregon, where the former R.E.M. member now lives. They were also in Portland to shoot the official music video for “Walk Unafraid”and invited Buck to the Pendarvis Farm set, where he sat with them to film a second, stripped-down rendition of the song.
The uplifting “Walk Unafraid,” written by Buck with bandmates Mike Mills and Michael Stipe, originally appeared on R.E.M.’s electronic-leaning 1998 “Up” album. While never released as a single, it became a fan-favourite .
The new album from the Swedish Indie Folk sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg delivers on the promise of the incredible “TheLion’s Roar” and then some. with their third released album. That album’s producer, Mike Mogis, returns for “Stay Gold” — and brings a 13-piece orchestra to fittingly and flawlessly support the sisters’ soaring, airy vocals.Mike Mogis, who worked on the band’s previous album,The Lion’s Roar. The album was released in June 2014 in mainland Europe and the following week elsewhere.
According to an interview in Swedish TV webpage, the album is more about their own lives than their previous ones. “That one has to learn appreciate what is and that all flows, that nothing stays “Stay Gold” introduced new elements to First Aid Kit’s music, such as a 13-piece orchestra. Their previous albums had been produced in such a way that would allow the band to perform with 3 people on stage, however these limitations have been lifted to give the band a bigger, more fulfilling sound.
The album has been well received by most music critics, noted that the album is “noticeably more expansive than any of their previous work”, and “has a rich texture of classic country instrumentation and stirring string arrangements, matching their soaring vocal melodies. The larger sound that came from the band utilising more instruments, as well as the sister’s “new-found, beefed up timbres”. It also described the album as poised to knock you for six this summer, aimed at cracking the United States, making the kind of wide-eyed, ‘70s-tinged folk-rock that thrives on soaring vocals, warm harmonies, big choruses, and heart-on-sleeve lyrics.
with First Aid Kit covering this REM song thought we should look at the originators and this quite powerful song. taken from their eleventh album release “Up” by the American alternative rock bandR.E.M.It was the band’s first album without original drummer Bill Berry, who left the group amicably in October 1997 to pursue his own interests. In his place, R.E.M. used session drummers and drum machines.
So excited to share the video for our cover ofR.E.M.‘s“Walk Unafraid” from the “WILD“ film and original soundtrack. It’s a beautiful and inspiring movie, Reese Witherspoon is unbelievably incredible in her role.
The Swedish pair released their third LP ‘Stay Gold’, the follow-up to their acclaimed 2012 album ‘The Lion’s Roar’, in June. It was produced by Mike Mogis and features the Omaha Symphony Orchestra and arrangements from Bright Eyes band member Nate Walcott.
They’ll also tour the UK during January and February 2015, with dates in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Brighton, Cardiff and other major cities.
presents First Aid Kit performing live in the KEXP studio. Recorded November 15, 2014.
Songs: My Silver Lining ,Stay Gold ,Waitress Song ,Master Pretender ,
Swedish duo comprising sisters Johannaand Klara Söderberg, whose vocal harmonies and woodsy, folk-influenced songwriting take influence from the likes of Fleet Foxes and Joanna Newsom. Hailing from suburban Enskede, the siblings began composing songs as young teenagers in 2007. The home-recorded “Tangerine” enjoyed airplay on Swedish radio later that summer, and the debut EP “Drunken Trees“helped expand the girls’ audience upon its release in April 2008. The London-based Wichita Records reissued Drunken Treesone year later, bolstering its track list with a reverent Fleet Foxescover and three additional songs performed live in a Swedish forest. The duo then set to work on a full-length album, balancing schoolwork with the recording sessions. “The Big Black & the Blue” was released in 2010, and was followed by a request from Jack Whiteto record a single at his Third Man Studios, which resulted in their cover of Buffy Sainte-Marie‘s “Universal Soldier.” They struck up a friendship with ConorOberst and appeared live with Bright Eyes on tour, before they entered the studio with the band’s guitarist Mike Mogis for their third release, Lion’s Roar, which arrived in early 2012. The lead single “Emmylou” was a mild success in the U.S., and was listed by Rolling Stone as their tenth best single of the year in 2012. Their creative relationship with Oberst was cemented in 2014 when the sisters sang backing vocals on his solo album Upside-Down Mountain, and that same year the duo released Stay Gold, their first album on a major label.
the Harmonies of First Aid Kit just amaze me every time I see or listen to them perform, the Swedish folk duo. Their 2008 YouTube video cover of the song “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” by Fleet Foxes spread their name rapidly on the Internet. In need of a little uplift on this gray fall morning? Peep this new video from Swedish folk band — and sisters — First Aid Kit. The clip shows Johanna and Klara Söderberg performing their Stay Gold track “Heaven Knows” during a studio session in Stockholm. The sisters say that the song “kind of sounds like an old Christian gospel country song” but that it was “a sarcastic decision to make it sound that way.” The duo are kicking off a headlining tour in the U.S. this fall and will come out to NYC on October 24 to play the Hammerstein Ballroom. You can see a full list of tour dates HERE and, in the meantime, jam out to “Heaven Knows,” above.
Effortless harmonies both sweet and strong from First Aid Kit sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg. Some nifty finger picking from Klara and a set that might be modelled on Grandma’s country house
This is listed as a “Stockholm Session” but seems to be the only video with this heading in this moody setting. It could almost be Victorian, a Victorian female Everly Brothers. Talent oozes out of them and they make it look so easy with their telepathic timing and gorgeous blend. Long may they prosper with their warm vibes and philosophical musings.
The Fat Angel Sings 