business Archives - Sofia Talvik - Americana / Folk with Swedish Roots

December 13, 2011

One week into the tour

I’ve had a pretty fab first week touring. We’ve been on the west coast of Florida and it’s been great. Not to mention the RV life. The RV turned out so nice after we fixed it up and it really feels like a home now. Especially since we got the brand new queen size bed and the cozy king size duvet. And it’s so nice to wake up to different places every day too. One day it’s on the beach, the next in a fruit tree garden. I’ve even overcome my fear of driving the beast.

Truckin' & Dreaming ;) — Truckin' & Dreaming 😉

This week I played at the Independent in Tampa and St Petersburg. Got invited to a real southern lunch at Otis and Sian’s place and was treated to a great massage at the Warm Mineral Springs where I did a sold out intimate concert at the spa café. Yesterday was a long day with two gigs. One in the daytime at the Flamingo Flea Market in Bonita Springs and later on a house concert followed by a bluegrass jam. Bluegrass seems to be the melody of this neighborhood and even though I tried to pitch in, I think I’d better stick to folk music. But Roger Borg who set me up with the gig treated us all to some awesome Swedish meatballs, so I felt right at home anyway.

With John, Sian and Otis at the Independent, St Pete

Trying to understand the bluegrass business

Thanks to all who came out to see me this week. To everyone who has been so kind to invite us to their homes and to all the venues!

Don’t miss out on downloading me free Christmas single and support ActionAid in their fight against poverty here:

October 13, 2010August 27, 2011

The hard work of being an artist!

Sometimes everyones tired and grumpy... — Sometimes everyone's tired and grumpy...

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

Just remember that it's a lot of hard work!

March 24, 2009June 4, 2009

Sofia partners with Worldsound

worldsound

Sofia did a splendid job at SXSW, knocked out the audience at no less than 6 showcases and started a collaboration with American label Worldsound.

– It’s a collaboration that suits the way I work, says Sofia, we have a partner deal so I won’t be kicking off my shoes and wait for anyone else to take charge. My goal has always been to carry a strong business and be able to make my own choices. With Worldsound I have finally found a US label that is on the same page as me.

Worldsound describes Sofia as “The best Swedish discovery since Ikea”.

Worldsound will represent Sofia and Makaki Music worldwide, outside of Sweden, starting in March 2009.