Help me get a new tire *pretty please*

The flat tire took the air out of our tour spirit
The flat tire took the air out of our tour spirit
The flat tire took the air out of our tour spirit

Today on our way out from Cleveland, OH we got a flat tire on the RV  *sobbing* – So it seems a new front tire for the RV will set me and the tour back about $400 🙁
I put up a little “Tire Fund” and if you have a few dollars to spare I would be extremely grateful if you could help me out by donating to help keep the Drivin’ & Dreaming Tour on the road, right now we’re stranded.

Go here or click the “DONATE” button below and enter an amout of choice – anything will help! (All major credit cards accepted) Thank you!!!!

Interview in Nordstjernan

Sofia in front of Radio City Music Hall in NYC photo: Hanna Aqvilin /Nordstjernan
Sofia Talvik - Drivin' & Dreaming photo: Hanna Aqvilin /Nordstjernan
Sofia Talvik - Drivin' & Dreaming photo: Hanna Aqvilin /Nordstjernan

Swedish American newspaper Nordstjernan just published an interview about my tour. Nordstjernan was founded in 1872 and is the oldest Scandinavian publication in the US. They visited me for my shows in NYC, of which the last one is today Thursday June 7th at Ella Lounge 7pm.

Read the full article here!

See all the upcoming tour dates here!

Jonas Westin and Sofia at the RV photo: Hanna Aqvilin /Nordstjernan
Jonas Westin and Sofia at the RV photo: Hanna Aqvilin /Nordstjernan
Sofia in front of Radio City Music Hall in NYC photo: Hanna Aqvilin /Nordstjernan
Sofia in front of Radio City Music Hall in NYC photo: Hanna Aqvilin /Nordstjernan

Two last minute shows!

Sofia Talvik live at Fresh Brewed Coffee House
Sofia Talvik live at Fresh Brewed Coffee House
Sofia Talvik live at Fresh Brewed Coffee House

Last night I played at the Fresh Brewed Coffee House in Myrtle Beach, SC and when they heard that I had a few days off they kindly invited me to do another show on Monday January 9th. So around 5.30pm I’ll play some songs in the front room.

If you can’t catch me in Myrtle Beach you might want to try South Port, NC where I’m playing January 11th at the Playhouse 211.

Check out info about all my upcoming gigs here: https://sofiatalvik.com/gigs

I also did a house concert in Hartsville the other day. I think house concerts are the best because they’re so intimate and you get to meet so wonderful people. It’s really easy to host a house concert too and I’ll come and play in your living room if you want to. Here’s some simple guidelines for how you host a house concert: how to throw a house concert

If you decide this is something you would like to do; check out my concert schedule to see when your state is listed and then go here to contact me.

Here’s some pics from the house concert in Hartsville.

Sofia Talvik live at Artsville House Concerts
Sofia Talvik live at Artsville House Concerts
Sofia Talvik live at Artsville House Concerts
Nice ambience at Derrick's house
Sofia Talvik live at Artsville House Concerts
Hosting a house concert is an awesome way to experience music in your own home

 

Merry Christmas

Sofia Talvik in Forida for Xmas
Sofia Talvik in Forida for Xmas
Me in front of a huge Christmas tree in Florida

Too early? Well here in Florida, where the sun is shining every day and there’s no sign of any snow people have already started putting up their Christmas decorations. You guys know that my tradition is to release a Christmas song every year and I just thought I’d let you know that I will this year too!

This year I’m happy to announce that the charity connected to the song will be Action Aid. Action Aid works in 6 different areas: Hunger, Education, Women’s rights, Economic justice, Emergencies and conflict and HIV/AIDS.

The song will be released Advent second, or December 4th if you will. Keep checking in for updates!

Interview with Akribi

Akribi photo by Alexa Andersson
Akribi photo by Alexa Andersson
Akribi photo by Alexa Andersson

Soon the last part of H.A.T.E will be released by Swedish metal band Akribi. We managed to keep them still for a few minutes to ask them some questions about the meaning of life and metal…

Hi Akribi! You guys are doing “E – Part Four of H.A.T.E”. How has the experience been so far?
Definitely different. We’re not at all used to interpreting other musician’s materials, nor working with such tight deadlines, but it’s been a very fun and rewarding experience so far.

Great! Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves?
We’re a female-fronted progressive metal band based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The band started out back in 2003, based on the idea of playing ambitious metal with strong songwriting. It’s an ideal that has remained intact through countless lineup changes over the years. As a consequence of this, we like to work with a slightly expanded palette of scales, chords and time signatures in our music. Oh, and let’s just get one very common misconception out of the way… “female-fronted” in this case does not mean “gothic” or “operatic”.

Just like Badmouth you’re releasing this EP only a few months after your
album release. Are you always this productive?
Given the right circumstances, sure. As hinted above, the band has had a bit of a rough history with lineup changes and whatnot. We have begun writing the next album and it’s going surprisingly fast so maybe we’ve learnt a thing or two about efficiency.

Did you think it was hard to interpret Sofia’s songs into your own style or did you get ideas straight away?
We decided to transcribe the chords and scales that Sofia used. After we had done that we stopped listening to Sofia’s versions and began working. We sent note sheets with ideas to each other; “Could this be something?”, “Would this passage sound better if we changed scales to Lydian?”, “What happens if we add this chord there?” and so on and then we tried playing the ideas. We changed a lot, added riffs and details to make it more Akribi. It took us about a month and then we recorded it, sent it to our mixing guys in Brazil and voilà.

Which of the songs are you most pleased with and why?
It’s difficult to pick a song. It sounds weird but when you live with a song in the intense way that’s required for writing and recording it it sort of becomes your baby. The song we play the most often nowadays is The Garden. The guitar solos are great and Alexander gets to play his Chapman Stick and that always makes him happy. Our songs are usually pretty long and that makes set lists tricky to do so it’s good to have a shorter-than-four-minutes-song up our sleeve.

What’s your favorite gig memory?
That must be the first time we were on stage and the audience sang along with our song Carry the Rain. It’s an incredible feeling. But if you’re looking for an awkward anecdote it must be when the guards didn’t let our drummer back into the building after a sound check. He tried to convince them that he was in the band but the guards told him “yeah right, that’s what everybody says”. The rest of us were backstage ready to go on stage not knowing where he was.

Can you tell us a little bit about the recording sessions and what was most fun with being a part of this project?
Well, the recording workflow was the same that we always follow. When we’ve written the chord progressions, melodies and overall structure of a song, we record (or in this particular case, program) a drum track and have everyone record their parts individually to that. All recordings are then assembled in a sequencer and a rough pre-mix is done. Feedback is sent out, obscene words are exchanged, and adjustments are made. When everyone is sufficiently satisfied, the tracks are sent away for mixing. The most interesting and fun part of this project was that is was far out of the realm of what we usually do. Apart from on a few auditions, we don’t play or record external material. Oh, and we finally got to put a growling part in a song, courtesy of Rafael Basso of “Unlit Face”.

What’s next on the agenda for Akribi this winter?
In October we got a new drummer and we’re in the process of getting to know each other musically and he’s learning all our songs. Parallel to this we’re in contact with booking agents and promoters around Europe. Music is always better live and life on stage is great so we’ll play live as much as possible.

If you would record a Christmas metal album, which three songs would be on your list?
Hey, we’re a metal band! We don’t do Christian things 😉

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

Listen and pre order E – Part Four of H.A.T.E by Akribi here! You’ll get an instant download of one of the songs! The EP will be released December 1st.

Listen to all the EPs of the L.O.V.E vs H.A.T.E saga here:

L.O.V.E VS H.A.T.E
L.O.V.E VS H.A.T.E