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.
Every year on Christmas I write small Christmas Poems on the presents to my family. The poems are small cute clues to what the present might be and we read them out loud so everyone can try to guess whats inside.
I want you to join me and write some clever and cute poems this year. Enter my Christmas Poem Competition and write a poem for a present to a family member or friend and I will choose a winner. Encourage your family members to do it as well, maybe it will become a tradition in your family as well!
You might also use it for shopping inspiration, maybe you will find a few things that are just begging for a poem. You don’t have to be Dickens and nothing really has to rhyme. Just give it your best shot and have a good time! Hey, what do you know, there’s a poem right there!
We caught a few moments with Chris LeMon from Badmouth to hear what his thoughts about their new EP “T – Part Three of H.A.T.E” are. “T – Part Three of H.A.T.E” will be released November 1st and you can pre-listen and pre-order it here!
Badmouth, Photo by Michael Johansson
Hi Badmouth! You’re making “T – Part Three of H.A.T.E” would you start by telling us a little bit about your music and your band? Badmouth started 4 years ago, we released our debut album in 2008 and our second album this summer, which is produced by Chips Kiesbye. When we got the offer to do this EP we just couldn’t resist, such a cool thing to be part of, so even though we just released the album we called Chips and he was up for it … Badmouth is rock’n’roll, its about having a good time, we are having a great time and we want the crowd to smile as they see us live, its all about the love for music …
You’re usually writing your own songs, so what did you think was the hardest part of making Sofia’s songs feel like your own? Actually nothing was hard … haha … It’s great songs! The hardest one was “To watch the bridges burn” we had a different version going first but it was just strange … haha … but then we tried the way it is now and it sounds great! So it has only been a lot of fun!
T - Part Three of H.A.T.E
Which one are you most happy with and why? I guess it depends who you ask in the band, for me personally I would say Jonestown, I think the arrangement turned out great and it is truly a great song, but I also think Bridges turned out great in a different way, to me its a radio hit! I think it’s cool that all four songs turned out so different from each other so I would say I am really happy about all four ...
Rumor has it you’re on tour with Gilby Clarke from Guns & Roses, how did that come about? Totally true, actually sitting in the tour bus right now on our way to the last show, it’s been a great tour, 8 shows in Sweden … Well, I also work as a booking agent and I booked this tour and Gilby needed a band and it wasn’t hard for me to suggest the best band to him 😉
Chris LeMon and Vinnie Sharp from Badmouth with Gilby Clarke
What’s your all time favorite tour memory? There’s a lot, and some things that shouldn’t be mentioned here 😉 But right now I would say this tour, to be on a stage with Gilby Clarke is truly a dream come true!
Making rock music out of singer/songwriter tunes isn’t something bands do every day. What did you think about the experience and would you do it again? I would love to do it again, this shows that good songs are good songs no matter which category you place them in … We actually said that if this EP becomes a hit we will have Sofia write our next album! 😉
What’s your recipe for success? Be yourself and love what you do!
What’s in store for you this fall? Well, the release of the EP is the next thing and we have a release party for it in Stockholm on November 4th at RoQ. As soon as we are back from the road we will start planning the next tour, the main goal is to play live as much as possible and get out the word of BADMOUTH!
Thanks for chatting with us, can you tell us your three favorite songs right now? Thank you! Wow that’s difficult but right now I would say “Jonestown”, “Heavy Metal Parking Lot” (Badmouth) and “Tijuana Jail” (Gilby Clarke)
Marcus playing the guitar on "E - Part Four of L.O.V.E"
“E – Part Four of L.O.V.E” is coming along nicely! Here’s some pics and videos from our first recording session. Marcus was a bit annoyed with me for making him have wine before recording but we had a good time and as you can hear it sounds great too 🙂
“L.O.V.E” consists of four separate EP’s with four tracks each, that will be released every 3 months during 2011.
I had a great response raising the money to release the first 3 EPs, not only were the fans influencing and enabling the releases, they also got access to the making through exclusive videos, demo releases, blogs and my musical journey.
2. Enjoy Updates
I’ll be posting exclusive videos, mp3’s, photos, and blogs throughout our journey. You’ll be able to comment, so if you have any interesting ideas, let me know.
3. Receive the download first
Once completed, you’ll be the very first to receive the download of the album. I’ll then be making all of your items, and the Pledge project will then come to a close.
I run my own label, produce everything by 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 do keep checking back for updates and you can always hang out with me on http://www.facebook.com/sofiatalvikmusic and I look forward to our journey together.
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.
.. but most of the time it's great!
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.
This motel room seems so depressing right now. We had such a good time together here. I tried to spend some time by the pool but it’s really windy today and a lot of clouds. It feels like something has gone horribly wrong, me being here without the guys, like I overslept and missed the plane or something. Fortunately I’ll meet up with Worldsound tonight, and maybe some other friends. Some facebook friends invited me to some bar tonight as well, which is really nice of them, but I dread going back downtown Austin now that the festival is over. It feels like the place is going to be deserted and I want to remember it like it was last night with loads and loads of people on 6th street, bands playing in every bar and an air of opportunies… I’ll probably lurk at the motel and write a song about my self pity…
