Interview with Badmouth

T - Part Three of H.A.T.E

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
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
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
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)

Thoughts about booking a tour

Sofia Talvik

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 cafĂ©, 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.

Sofia Talvik
My folky me in a backyard in San Francisco. Photo by Shelby Duncan

In Sweden nobody even knows what folk music is, here it’s fiddles and Orsa spelmĂ€n (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!

Luna guitar
My folky guitar

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 cafĂ©s, 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!

Sofia Talvik & Beyoncé

Sofia Talvik - Florida

Well who knew that me and Beyoncé had so much in common (I mean besides us both being hot chick singers, right ;)). Seems like we also have the same taste in pets. The blog Album art exchange made me aware of this so I guess the next step is for me and B to take a trip to Gator Land together.

Here’s what they’re talking about:

Beyoncé
Beyoncé likes gators
Sofia Talvik Florida
... and so do I!

“I love you and all your shoes”

So I just told you I love food… Well I also love shoes. And any girl who loves shoes knows it’s more like an addiction. There are ladies who loves handbags. Me, I buy one that I love after many hours looking for the perfect one and wear it till it falls apart (quite literally).

But shoes… They’re quite a different story. I guess I could say I’m a shoe collector with no intention of being one. I see them and I think I shouldn’t. I think I have too many already. And yet they call out to me. Their tiny voices saying “buy me, buy me”.

So today with 15 minutes to spare between work and party I found these great not too high heeled boots on sale (of course).

I asked if they had a return policy – no.

I asked if I could have them reserved until tomorrow – no.

(At this point I felt I’d done all I could to turn them down.)

What was left to do but to buy them?

In a weak moment I heard myself saying” I’ll take them”, while picturing my overfull wardrobe at home, and at the same time picturing someone else walking away in these boots on sale in my size…

Walking to the party with the bag in my hand, I kept thinking how my husband would sigh over me buying yet another pair of shoes I don’t need. So when I called him later from the bar and told him about that new pair of shoes that would clutter our apartment I dreaded the worst but he said… “Honey, I love you and all your shoes”.

And I guess that’s a story of true love, whether you apply it to the shoes or the wife buying them.

new shoes
Yet another pair of great shoes, Jimmy Choo for HM

I’m a lineman…

Everytime I need to do something, like recordings for a new album or something. I get this urge to do something else, something that I don’t need to do. That’s how I started doing the Christmas singles and all the other stuff that I do, just me, just by myself. So I guess it was no surprise that instead of going through the recorded files last week, I picked up the guitar and learned the old classic “Wichita Lineman”. Years back I had a brief collaboration with Swedish artist Niclas Frisk (Atomic Swing, A Camp). He was the one who first played me this song and I still love it. So thank you Niclas! And here’s how it turned out sounding in my kitchen…

Don’t bother with the video? Listen to the mp3.