Hotly tipped for 2009 as ones to keep an ear out for, First Aid Kit consist of Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg. From their world-weary song subjects you'd think these two have led long troublesome lives, but in fact they are just teens, just 18 and 15. Citing inspirations including 50's films, they let their imagination do the work, and it's creating brilliant results. Wise beyond their years so young and already producing infectious soulful melodies, they can only get better as they get older. The pair's debut EP will be released by Wichita on 23 Feb, and the girls will play just three shows in the UK, so catch them if you can. We've got the most important facts from the girls' answers to our Same Six Questions.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
We've been singing together since childhood, but we started making music of our own very recently. Two years ago Klara learned how to play some basic chords on the guitar and wrote her first songs. What inspired Klara to write these songs was finding the music of Bright Eyes.

Q2 What inspired your latest single?
It's difficult to pinpoint an exact source of inspiration for a song. That especially goes for the song on our single 'You're Not Coming Home Tonight', since we didn't really struggle for inspiration with that song, it was written in minutes and came very spontaneously. We guess at the time we were really into old movies from the 50s, as well as the more recent movie 'Pleasantville', which portrays life in a suburban village during the 50s. There's something about the gender roles at that time that is very fascinating and we just wanted to tell a story about it.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
It's very different for each track. Some songs are written very spontaneously and others require more time. Often the songs that require most time are the ones that we work together on. In most cases, the lyrics come first and then we create a melody fitting the lyrics. The lyrics mean a lot to us, we want to be storytellers.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
We are very much inspired by folk music. We really love the American folk scene, both the older country roots music, like The Carter Family, Louvin Brothers and Bill Monroe, and the 60's folk revival with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Karen Dalton as well as the latest so-called "freak-folk" scene with Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom and Alela Diane among others. We also like folk music from other countries, for example right now we listen very much to African Pygmy folk music.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Get ready for a journey through space and time... sit back, relax and let it blow your mind. No, seriously we wouldn't say anything and let the music speak for itself. We know that sounds really lame, sorry. But it's just the way it should be.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest single, and for the future?
We hope to be able to reach outside of Sweden with our music, and to play a lot live because we love it so much. Our ambition is always that our music is enjoyed by others and inspires people. We want our music to be a comfort, hence the name First Aid Kit.

published february 2009