har Archives - Page 7 of 9 - Sofia Talvik - Americana / Folk with Swedish Roots

April 29, 2012

The rat in the RV

You know the rat in the pizza myth. So there’s a couple of misperceptions about our tour and the RV, and some of them are so reaccuring that I felt I had to write a little post about it. Everyone’s been really sweet and I know they all mean well and just don’t know better but here’s the most common things people think/ask/tell us about our tour and the RV. It always makes me smile 🙂

“You can stay in our guest room and have a good night’s sleep in a REAL bed”
Well, we actually have a brand new IKEA Sultan Queen Size mattress with a real feather duvet in our bedroom in the RV, but thanks 😉

“You should come over for dinner, when was the last time you had a home cooked meal?”
Probably for lunch, or dinner yesterday… Actually most of the food we eat is home cooked, in the RV. I actually wish we would have more money to spend on eating out. But we ALWAYS appreciate being invited for dinner, so please keep inviting us!

“It must be nice to have a two year vacation, just cruising around the US!
Seriously, that would be a dream come true. But we have to work every day with booking shows, doing promotion, driving to the next gig, performing etc. We work more and harder than we ever had before. And it’s worth it for sure, but it’s NO vacation.

To check out the before and after pictures of our RV redesign go here!

April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

Swedish filmjölk in Houston

I was planning on making a post sxsw post here on my blog but I’ve just been so busy I haven’t gotten around to it. We did eight shows at sxsw this year and getting to all the shows proved to be the hardest part. We hitch hiked, took the bus (if it came one) and managed to “catch a Chevy”. Forget about taxis..

Last day both me and Jonas bought some really cool boots. I got a pair that was exactly like my old pair but in a different color and had my old boots repaired for $135 ouch!!! Jonas found a vintage pair for $40. And then we headed to the rodeo. That was really cool as I’ve never been before. We really went there to see Glen Campbell who was performing but the rodeo itself turned out to be a big plus. Glen was wonderful and I was so happy to have caught him live at his goodbye tour.

So on that happy note we packed up and was going to leave for Houston when the RV decided to give up. So we got stuck in Austin with our home in the shop for two extra days. Fortunately Ranger Bob and his wife Elaine saved us from having to camp out on the street and took us in to stay with them. The repair of the RV totaled to $1000 which kinda set us aback a bit and we missed two gigs in Houston.

But when we finally got to Houston a lot of fun awaited us! We played at the Swedish Club of Houston’s crawfish party and I’ve never had such good crawfish in my life. Swedish style with dill of course. And hanging out with John and Edie who arranged it was great too. Edie gave me a filmjölk starter. Filmjölk is kind if a Swedish yogurt that has a living bacteria culture. You can get it in every grocery store in Sweden so I never even thought about making it myself but as you can’t get it in the US I was happy to learn all about it. Turns out it so simple you almost don’t have to do anything at all, you just mix it with milk and let it sit overnight and in the morning it’s filmjölk.

You can actually make soft cheese from it too and I just tried that. It’s actually getting ready in my kitchen right now. I flavored it with black pepper and garlic. I hope it’s going to turn out good. I can’t wait to try it!

So that’s about what I’ve been up to since we last spoke. I hope to see you on the road!!

March 4, 2012

Live review, Artsville House Concerts

[quote] We were impressed with Sofia’s professionalism and style. Her performance was a wonderful multi-sensory experience, and she was a joy to work with. [/quote]

Dylan Sneed, music director Artsville House Concerts, Hartsville, SC

February 22, 2012February 22, 2012

Ny grym recension för TOANWTS

Innan jag börjar gotta mig i den nya fina recensionen min skiva The Owls Are Not What They Seem har fått så vill jag gärna pålysa lite tråkiga nyheter om den svenska media- och musikbranschen. Eller jag nyheter är det väl inte direkt, i alla fall inte för oss independent-artister som kör vårt eget race med egna skivbolag.

Mitt bolag Makaki Music som jag drivit sedan 2006 är givetvis med i SOM – Svenska Oberoende Musiker. Och idag fick jag den här hemska statistiken från dem i ett mail:
“Under vinterns arbete i SOM kring sammanslagningen EMI/Universal har statistik framkommit som visat på en ännu mer massiv dominans inom media än vi tidigare trott (90-95 % majorreleaser på Europeisk nivå) och då främst på radio.”

Det är tufft som det är för oss DIY-artister. Men att svenska media är så jävla köpta (ursäkta kraftuttrycket) får mig att må smått illa. Jag släpper skiva ungefär med 1,5-2 års mellanrum och TOANWTS är min 5e(!) skiva. Varje gång kämpar jag hårt med inspelning och sedan minst lika hårt med promotion. Men vad hjälper det när man är borträknad direkt för att man inte ligger på ett storbolag?

I November förra året tog jag mitt pick och pack och drog till USA för att turnéra på obestämd tid framåt (vi siktar på 2 år). Idag känner jag att det var det enda rätta, för jag har ju ändå ingen chans att få in mina låtar på rotation på svensk radio – även om 7 Miles Wide från min nya skiva blev framröstad av både jury OCH svenska folket som veckans överlägsna vinnare i p4 radio stockholm för ett tag sedan. Vad svenska folket gillar bryr sig nämligen inte radio och tidningar om. Låter jag bitter? Well kanske lite, men kan ni klandra mig när statistiken är som den är?

Nåväl, på grund av detta blev jag extra glad idag när Uppsala Nya Tidning gav TOANWTS en GRYM recension! Just därför tänker jag ta och publicera hela här och nu!

[quote]SINGER/SONGWRITER.

På sitt femte album låter förra Uppsalabon Sofia Talvik sin akustiska musik bli än mer avskalad men samtidigt också än mer mångbottnad. Den spröda, sårbara sången och de skimrande vackra refrängerna skapar drömska stämningslägen, där en känsla av skymning och ett ödsligt, vidsträckt nattlandskap kommer allt närmare ju mer man lyssnar.

Trots ett synbart vänt anslag målar musiken fram bilder av ett annalkande mörker där oanade faror lurpassar. Kontrasterna mellan det sköra och det hotfulla gör att skivan känns allt annat än förutsägbar och helheten är synnerligen fängslande.[/quote]
Av: Stefan Warnqvist

February 16, 2012February 17, 2012

Interview me and win wristbands to SXSW

Sofia Talvik live on the Drivin' & Dreaming Tour

Hey guys!

I have two exciting things to announce! I’m playing at the SXSW festival in Austin, TX in March and here’s two ways you’ll be able to join me there! Firstly I’m going to be a part of “Discover Me @ Austin” which is a video interview made by Twenty.Me.

The Twenty.Me app is free from the iTunes store but is currently in BETA. Fans will be able to learn more about bands playing at SXSW by typing in the band name, in my case; SofiaTalvik@. There you can listen to my music and learn about the me, as well as get my SXSW schedule. The interview will be made on February 21st at 1pm CST on the Spreecast site.

Spreecast is a social video platform that lets people broadcast together and create shared experiences. In a Spreecast social video stream, up to four people at a time can interact face-to-face on screen, while hundreds of others can watch, chat, and participate by submitting comments and questions. The creator of a spreecast uses producer controls to determine who comes on camera and when. That means that if you want to come online and ask me questions for the interview you can create your own account and do that at Spreecast. You can join with your own spreecast or simply submit questions. The great thing is that it’s early enough for the US so that all you Europeans can join too. The local time in Sweden will be 8 in the evening.

So the second way you can join me at SXSW is actually by getting a free wristband. And here’s how you do that:

Sonicbids has an official party at SXSW and by voting for me once a day and helping me get to the top list I’ll get to play at the party. If you go vote for me now you have to chance to win TWO wristbands for the party!!!!

You know you want to – Do it now and do it here: https://playsxsw.sonicbids.com/BandDetails.aspx?b=30837