friends Archives - Page 7 of 13 - Sofia Talvik - Americana / Folk with Swedish Roots

May 4, 2011June 1, 2011

What friends are for

I was talking to a friend the other day about how hard people in Sweden have to support their friends and be happy for their success. We even have a epithet for it “The Jante Law”. Wikipedia lists it as “a pattern of group behavior towards individuals within Scandinavian communities, which negatively portrays and criticizes individual success and achievement as unworthy and inappropriate.” Or as Morrissey so eloquently put it: “We hate it when our friends become successful”.

It’s a quite unpleasant thing and you will see it everywhere, even how people are portrayed in media sometimes. Well I’ve had my share, being an artist and performer. It’s sad when there’s a competition between artists and other actors in the music industry, when we all could benefit from helping and supporting each other. Especially in such a small country as Sweden.

But I think the worst thing is when people who are your friends don’t support you or can be happy for you. Every day I’m stunned by how wonderful my fans and friends abroad are. Helping me out in so many ways. Some whom I haven’t even met. Like with my pledge for my EPs. Or now that I’ve applied for an artist visa. How generous and helpful people really are.

However It makes me just as sad when real life friends brushes off my pledgemusic project with the notion that supporting by pledging would be the same as them giving me a salary. Like I would use the money to party on the town or something (and the funny thing is that they’d gladly buy me a beer any time). And then, they all enjoy my music for free on Spotify. Don’t get me wrong. I want people to enjoy my music for free, but I’m sad to experience that Swedes sometimes are not as generous and loving as other nationalities.

My new goal is therefor to be a better person and support friends and colleagues more. And today I’m starting with my friend Scott. Scott is the writer, designer and publisher of the magazine K Composite. He’s been doing it for years and now he’s working on a new issue. If you like independent magazines, you’ll like K Composite. It’s basically a really beatutiful magazine containing interviews with regular people. Scott has a pledge at Kickstarter to fund the new issue and I think you should all check it out now.

What was that? … Well of course I pledged!!!

March 21, 2011August 4, 2017

New single for Acoustic for Autism

Circle of Friends by Sofia Talvik now available on iTunes Store

I’m happy to announce that my new single “Circle of Friends” has just been released in benefit for Acoustic for Autism. So what is Acoustic for Autism?

– Acoustic for Autism features compelling, independent music specifically chosen to convey themes of love, compassion, hope and healing. The goal of Acoustic for Autism is to increase awareness, acceptance, understanding for those with autism and to help raise funds for US non-profit autism organizations focused on making a direct and immediate impact for children with autism and their families.

Autism has become the most rapidly growing developmental disability – more common than Down’s syndrome, childhood diabetes, and juvenile cancer combined.

Read more here about how you are helping by buying this new single.

Visit the US iTunes Store here to listen and download.

Visit the European iTunes Store here to listen and download.

January 3, 2011October 18, 2011

Concert in your home!

Have you ever dreamed of having your favorite independent artist perform a private concert just for you and your guests?

Starting in October 2011 I will do an extensive tour in the US. I’m now looking for people who would like to host a concert in their home.

Simply put, a House Concert is a private party, employing live original music, held in a private home, garden, civic center, church or other space under your exclusive control. There would need to be enough parking nearby and your neighbors should be cool. It would be a huge bummer if someone called the cops because of all the extra cars and people coming to your house. You should probably not do this if you live in a small apartment with a bunch of uptight neighbors, room mates or a cranky landlord.

You should be able to host a minimum of 10-15 people. It’s up to you to invite people and spread the word about the concert. You can choose for yourself if you just want to invite friends or if you want to advertise the concert publicly. You have to guarantee the artist a minimum of 10 paying guests. A $10-20 donation per guest should be paid to the performer and it’s also customary, but not required, to offer the artist a home cooked meal and a room for the night. A stage isn’t required, and the PA system will be provided by the artist.

Your home address will not be published on the web and we will negotiate from concert to concert if you would like to publish any contact information to you about the concert or if you wish assistance with promotion.

Contact us if you would be interested in hosting a concert or would like more information.

Here’s a preliminary tour route so you’ll know when we’ll be in your state.
If your state is not on the list and you want to host a concert please throw us an email anyway and we’ll consider your offer.

2011
December: Florida

2012
January: South Carolina, Georgia,
February: Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee

December 6, 2010December 6, 2010

Be a part of my new album – L

Hi friends, this is a humble request so please bear with me.

I’m trying to raise funds for my new album “L”, the first EP of an four piece EP saga called L.O.V.E, and I’d be very grateful if you could help. As a thank-you you can download the EP free once it’s completed. It would mean a great deal to me if you would be a part of this musical saga. The minimum pledge of 10$ gets you the download when it’s done, but if you invest in an exclusive item that I have for sale the download is free.

Help me fund this album and check out the exclusives at:
http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/1490

Total funds right now:

By using a fan-funded model to raise the money to release the first EP “L”, not only would you be influencing and enabling the release, you would have access to many rare opportunities to own a piece of my musical journey. And in the end the whole “L.O.V.E” saga.
“L.O.V.E” consists of four separate EP’s with four tracks each, that will be released every 3 months during 2011.
The funding will pay for studio time, producer time, mastering and artwork.

Please read more about how this works at: http://www.pledgemusic.com/site/faq

20% of the profits will go to a charity that is close to my heart; ECPAT. Your donation will support ECPAT International’s work to prevent, protect and seek justice for child victims of sexual exploitation through legal, social and policy work undertaken for and with child survivors to deliver better care, improve practices and policies and ensure justice.

I run my own label Makaki Music, produce everything myself and I’m very hands on with the music and everything around it. All the bundles are endorsed and personally produced. They represent a personal part of me and I want to share that with you.

Please help me get this EP funded today!
http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/1490

best,
Sofia Talvik

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!