Sofia Talvik – Americana / Folk with Swedish Roots
Unmistakably Nordic in flavor, Sofia Talvik somehow still conforms to American interpretations of her own original music, a North Sea siren blending sparkle and melancholy, creating a special niche of folk music.
I’m releasing my new album Florida on YouTube. Over a couple of months I will be doing animated videos of the lyrics to each song on the album. When the whole video version of the album is released I will compile all videos and make it available as a download.
First out is the title track of the album.
Florida
Lots of people think it’s just glamour, travels and good times to be an artist. Even friends of mine tell me how great it must be for me to “get to” tour and travel so much. Even they don’t realize I pay for the tour myself most of the time and bringing a band is never cheap, you guys out there who have families know a couple of plane tickets tend to eat up your budget pretty fast.
I also get a lot of questions from up-and-coming artists wondering how to go about the business of starting a record label or how to promote their music. I always try to answer the best I can, but the short answer to all of this is “you have to work your ass off!”. Nothing comes for free in this business and no one will care about your music as much as you do, no matter what that manager/label/pr company is trying to tell you.
So I was very happy to stumble upon this great website where all of the stuff about being an artist and building your brand is collected in a fun and comprehensible way. This post today is mainly for all you artists and musicians out there, but you other guys can check out http://www.eventric.com/ as well (scroll down to featured articles), it’s a lot of fun reading and gives you an insight on all the things you need to know when you want to get out there with your music.Martin Atkins who is the guy sharing all these great tips really knows what he’s talking about!
One of the things that made me laugh was the post about why you need to learn screen printing as an artist. Why? So you can make your own merchandise of course. Just like I started doing a while back. All my tees are hand printed by me, check them out here: shop.sofiatalvik.com. So it’s just a lot of great advice there for all artists, no matter where you are in your career.
Here’s some fast links to my fave posts:
11 (of 27) Things Touring Bands Can Do NOW To Make a Difference
11 MORE (of 29) Tips Touring Bands Can Do Now To Make a Difference
10 Ideas For Making Your Show an Event
We begun the recordings of a new EP suite yesterday. Christian Hörgren who plays the cello in my band will produce the first one. Here’s some pictures from the studio.
September 15th a new book about Swedish artists and bands is being released. The book contains interviews with artists from different genres and backgrounds and a complete discography is included for each artist. I’m interviewed in the book and you can buy it on the Adlibris website, Bokus and other online stores.
The book is in Swedish and here’s a brief description of it:
Vägen till sångerna. Samtal om kreativitet och låtskrivande
Hur går det till när en låt skapas? Hur influeras låtskrivare av annan musik och andra konstformer? Hur påverkar tiden och platsen den kreativa processen? Vad tycker låtskrivare om nedladdning och turnéliv? Hur påverkas de av den sjunkande skivförsäljningen?
I Vägen till sångerna samtalar musiker från olika bakgrunder och genrer kring dessa och andra frågor med musikskribenten Stefan Warnqvist. I centrum står nyare låtskrivare varav de flesta har skivdebuterat under de senaste åren. Några har skördat framgång världen över, andra har hittat hängivna lyssnare inom en viss subkultur. Alla har de en intressant historia att berätta om låtskrivandet och sitt förhållande till musiken.
De intervjuade är Asha Ali, Anna Frank, Lisa Lindal, Miss Li, Timo Räisänen, Elin Ruth Sigvardsson, Syster Sol, Edith Söderström, Sofia Talvik samt låtskrivare från grupperna Anagram (Anna Einarsson), Backyard Babies och Nicke Borg Homeland (Nicke Borg), Billie the Vision & the Dancers (Lars Lindquist), Dear Euphoria (Elina Johansson), Dungen (Gustav Ejstes), Fröken Underbar (Sandra Vilppala), Hästpojken (Martin Elisson och Adam Bolméus), Montag Mania och De Lescano (Isabel De Lescano och Fredrik Blank), Taken By Trees (Victoria Bergsman), The Tiny (Ellekari Larsson Sander och Leo Svensson Sander), Urban Tribe Stockholm (Adam Atterby) och Za Frûmi (Simon Kölle).
Boken innehåller utförliga intervjuer med en unik sammansättning av svenska låtskrivare inom olika musikstilar, ett rikligt och många gånger exklusivt bildmaterial samt albumdiskografier för varje artist.
My new album ‘Florida Acoustic’ is #1 on Amie Streets top 25 download shop! On Amie Street, the community determines the price of music. Every song starts cheap (or even free!) and increases in price up to 98 cents as more and more people purchase it. The people who use Amie Street are what keep it exciting. To encourage you to share and talk about the music you love, they give you money back when you recommend your favorite songs to friends. You will find both super famous artists like Dolly Parton and The National on Amie street as well as new and upcoming acts. The site also learns your taste and recommend music to you based on what you purchased earlier.
“Great find. I’ve always loved stripped down versions of albums.
You really get a feel for the songs. A guitar and a voice – gets no better.
Sofia’s unplugged – cool…”
Jimm73 reviewed Florida Acoustic on Amie Street. Come on and write a review you too!