band Archives - Page 6 of 9 - Sofia Talvik - Americana / Folk with Swedish Roots

September 4, 2011September 4, 2011

Thoughts about booking a tour

I’ve just started booking my US tour, starting in Florida in December, and first of all I have to say how amazed I am by these quadrillion of music venues. It seems like every café, restaurant, library and music lover hosts concerts. I’m also amazed how many of them are folk venues, or at least host folk music as well as other genres.

In Sweden nobody even knows what folk music is, here it’s fiddles and Orsa spelmän (if you all want to know what happened to ABBA after the 80’s). (I guess I’m not being totally fair because people here have heard Fleet Foxes and mostly the folk genre is called singer/songwriter here though I don’t think it’s totally right.)

Once in an interview the reporter asked me how I would define my music, and I answered “americana/folk”. When I read the published interview my answer was American funk. That says something about Sweden and folk music. But in the US, folk music almost seems like a cult. And here I am ordering feather hair extensions tuning my Luna guitar. I will probably fit right in!

So anyways, coming from a country that may be small but is really big when it comes to music export (again with the ABBA) I must say that Sweden is a puny country when it comes to live music. I was wondering the other day how many people would actually be confident enough to host a house concert here in Sweden. To actually let musicians and other people into their homes.. I mean what would the neighbors say???

So it’s really uplifting to see how many venues there are to chose from in the US. Unfortunately I’m not alone with this knowledge and I’m competing with so many bands. I just have to pray that I stand out in the crowd and that all these people will find it in their hearts to invite me to their homes, their cafés, libraries, galleries and what not.

And if you live in the US and want to host a house concert with yours truly, get in touch here http://book.sofiatalvik.com!

August 31, 2011September 3, 2011

V – is released today!!

Hurray! Today ‘V – Part Three of L.O.V.E‘ is finally released, and it’s all thanks to all of you pledgers who helped me fund this EP and encouraged me through the production.

This time my bass player Janne Manninen has transformed my songs into electronica pop – a totally new sound for me which I love and I hope you will too.

Last night I started printing all the posters and T-shirts that you have ordered so soon all the goodies will be in your mail box! It’s now just one more EP in the L.O.V.E saga to be made and I hope you will support me through that too. It’s time to pop the champagne my friends so start dancing to your very own copy of ‘V – Part Three of L.O.V.E’

And don’t forget to check out ‘A – Part Two of H.A.T.E‘ by Swedish metal band G.A.I.N which is also being released today!

August 30, 2011August 30, 2011

Great review of ‘O’

: ‘A – Part Two of H.A.T.E’

On Thursday we’re releasing not one but two EPs! ‘V – Part Three of L.O.V.E’ is the most electronica I’ve ever been thanks to producer Janne Manninen, and ‘A – Part Two of L.O.V.E’ is the most hard rock my songs have ever been thanks to Swedish metal band G.A.I.N. (you can buy them both here! )

Speaking of EPs I just got a nice review from Swedish rock music site Hallowed on my second EP ‘O’. Daniel Källman who wrote it seems to be into singer/songwriters so I hope he won’t get a total chock when he hears ‘V’ 🙂 Here’s what he thought about ‘O’

“This EP is just absolutely fantastic in its best moments. Sure if you are a narrow minded typical metalhead you will probably not like this album but then again you will probably have stopped reading after singer-songwriter anyway. For all of us who like music however, this EP is a real treat.”

Read more in Swedish HERE!

Read more in English HERE!

August 9, 2011August 15, 2011

Interview with G.A.I.N

I met up with G.A.I.N who have recorded the second part of the H.A.T.E saga, ‘A – Part Two of H.A.T.E’. Here’s their thoughts about the project.

Hi G.A.I.N! You guys are doing “A – part two of H.A.T.E” how is the EP coming along? 
It’s coming along very well. It’s all done and waiting to be released. Niklas Stålvind of Wolf produced and mixed. Mike Wead of King Diamond and bibelblack mastered. From the final result we can definitely say that it sounds kick-ass! We’re very proud of what we’ve done and we can’t wait until we can share the result with the world!

  Great! Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves?
 We’re just a couple of metalheads doing what we love. We all come from different places but our love for Metal brought us together. We all live in Stockholm and we like to go out and have a good old dirty time. It happens a little too often but that’s Metal for you! We live by the motto, Sex, Booze and Tattoos!   

What did you think of the original songs when you first heard them and did you think it was hard to interpret them into your own style or did you get ideas straight away? 
When we first heard the songs we wondered what the hell we’d gotten or self’s in to. It was a little hard to “connect” with the songs at first but after a few listening’s they grew on us and now we like them.  We decided early not to listen to the originals that much too ensure that our versions came more from us, so that they would sound like G.A.I.N.  Some songs we had ideas for right after the first listen but some came harder. The song that came easiest was probably “King of the Willow Tree” and one that we had to work a bit on was “Glow”.   

Which of the songs are you most pleased with and why? 
Our favorites are probably King of the Willow Tree and The War. We really like the raw drive of the riffs in both songs. They are really in our own style and don’t sound like covers at all. Your way of writing really fitted well into our kind of music. They came out just like our own songs.  

What’s your favorite gig memory? 
Three of us remember on gig in particular. Mr Bandiit was a little too excited and played a bit fast. This resulted in that Gus had to prioritize ether singing or breathing in the last song. He chose to sing…  He gave his last bit of energy in that song and as a result of that he ended up taking an ambulance ride to the hospital.   

Can you tell us a little bit about the recording sessions and what was most fun with being a part of this project? 
We recorded everything in Viper Studios. From this experience we learned that we will never record four songs in two days again. It’s borderline impossible and we don’t recommend it. We finished all the rhythm guitars and the drums in one day and thought we were doing very well. Only lead guitar, bass and vocals left right? The lead guitar and the bass were done at about 8 o’clock the next night. The vocals took another 7-8 hours and would have taken longer if it weren’t for the excellent vocal coaching Niklas Stålvind of Wolf provided. We’re forever grateful for that.  But on the whole it has been a lot of fun to be part of this project. We’ve learned a lot and would like to thank you for this opurtunity.  

What’s next on the agenda for G.A.I.N this fall? 
Get out and play. The big damn show! This fall we will focus on getting out and bring our music to the masses. We haven’t played all summer so we’re really excited about getting out there again! We’ll just have to make sure that Gus gets to breath. Do you know where we can get a portable oxygen tank?

  Thanks for hanging out! We look forward to hearing the songs.

Listen and pre-order ‘A – Part Two of H.A.T.E’ here!

July 12, 2011April 26, 2018

Pledge for ‘V – Part Three of L.O.V.E’

It’s been amazing that I have received so much help, support and interest from my fans during the production of my two latest EPs. Thanks to YOU I have been able to record and release them, and for that I am eternally grateful!

Now it’s time for me to start making part three of the L.O.V.E saga and I need your help again. This time it will be a little bit different. For one I’m using Bandcamp instead of Pledgemusic and this time I have affixed packages to make it easier for you to choose your level of involvement. Like before, you’re very welcome to send me an email or comment below if you feel that something is missing amongst the items available to pledge for and I’ll be happy to include it. You will still receive updates from the project such as blogs, pics and videos.

The interesting thing about this project is that I have four different producers, the four guys that also happen to be in my backing band. They are all very talanted but they all have very different taste in music and I thought it would be interesting to see how they interpreted my songs if I gave them the chance. ‘L’ was produced by my cello player Christian Hörgren and ‘O’ by my drummer Joakim Lundgren. We’re now down to ‘V’ and this time it’s my bass player Janne Manninen who produces the EP. His roots are more dance and electronica than the others and this EP will be very different from all my other stuff. But it’s still me doing the vocals and guitar and it’s all my songs, just in a new exciting suit.

So, go and check out the new design on the tees and posters and start choosing your pledge package. Go to the pledge site for more information about the different items and how to pledge. Thanks again for helping me out!