First Aid Kit Interview PREV / 2 of 3 / NEXT o say either one. JAMES: I actually agree with JP on this. JP: Woa. JAMES: It's a big responsibility, to come out and state an opinion through a band. A band like Propagandhi, they come out with pretty extreme opinions, and you see a whole bunch of kids will listen to their CD and just adapt to the opinion, just assimilate it, and so you really have to be responsible with what you say. You can't just come out and say "the American government is stupid" or something like that without having real information backing it up. Very few bands do that. And I appreciate the fact that JP abstracts it more to main ideas and things he sees wrong with society as oppose to pointing out specific events and going on about them. Like the Beastie Boys put out that song just about war and pretty much called Bush stupid and I think that's silly. You should promote the idea of educating yourself and even educating yourself on the opposing side. You rarely see that in music. If you're against the war you should go out and read National Review and hear what the people for the war are saying. You don't get anything like that with most political bands. It's a shame. NICK: I've been in bands before that use themselves as a vehicle for political ideas and it's refreshing to be with people who are more about the music and just having a good time. Being tight as a unit, rather than trying to spread ideas. I like playing music with these guys and that's what it's about for me. How would you describe First Aid Kit's music? JP: Let me restate for the record what Nick said earlier. Brad came to practice today with this new part that we all think is pretty cool.... I thought it was cool too. [Band laughs] JP: Thanks. And Brad's like "Well, it's only one thing so far and it might be kind of hard to work with..." And then Nick says, "I know what you should do next. Do something in sevens. I just did something in sevens... It's fucked!" [Band laughs] Basically that sums up a lot about us a group. We like not knowing how to handle something and then figuring it out. So you guys really like to experiment with beats? BRAD: Yeah. I think we also prefer to experiment with rhythms and stuff as appose to effects. I'm just not into that. I like what we can do with raw sounds and the basic elements of rock music. I like how the product turns out so much more when you approach it from that angle. Do you think a lot of bands have rhythms that suck? BRAD: No. [Laughs] That's not what I'm saying... This sounds dumb, you can take this out [of the interview], but I have this Away-Message that says "Repetition is the opposite of renewal, therefore it's a form of death." JAMES: Uh... You just mentioned Away-Messages in our interview. JP: Yea, he's such a fucking loser! [Laughter] BRAD: Whatever man. [Laughs] I just prefer something new to something that we've tried before. It's just so much more fun than dumbing it down I guess. JP: We definitely like experimenting with new things. Sometimes that leads us to really simple solutions and we're just like "Wow... That's perfect even though it's so sim PREV / 2 of 3 / NEXT