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.
Tune into Chicago radio show “Noteworthy” on UIC radio (The official Illinois University radio) tomorrow Monday July 23rd at 5:30pm. I’ll be chatting about the tour and might even play at tune or two. You can listen through their website.
After the show, make sure you get on the bus to the Elbo Room where I’ll be performing at 10pm. Chicago based cellist Ian Maksin will be doing a set at 9pm so don’t miss that! We’ll also play a few tunes together! I can’t wait!
Last week I attended the Folk Alliance International Conference in Memphis, TN.
I spent a few hectic days attending seminars, networking and playing showcases. It was a lot of fun and we met a bunch of great people there that I hope to reconnect with further down the road. It was interesting to be totally surrounded by folkies for a while. I’ve always counted myself into the genre but haven’t quite been part of the scene if you know what I mean. Folk – being such a small genre in Sweden, I’ve always been a part of the pop scene anyway and that’s what I know so it was cool to see how the folk sceene thrives in the US.
Jonas took a bunch of pictures from the conference and you can see a selection here! Feel free to tag yourself if you find yourself in any of the pictures.
The Cumberland Collective at FAI
I’ve been down with the flu for a week now, there were a lot of bugs circulating in the AC system at the hotel those days and I’ve heard a lot of attendees got sick. I’m glad to be (almost) well again though as I have some great gigs in Texas ahead of me.
Here’s the ones ahead:
Wednesday, 03/07 Lindale, TX Art of Coffee
Thursday, 03/08 Texarkana, AR Hopkins Icehouse
Friday, 03/09 Dallas, TX Opening Bell Coffee
Saturday, 03/10 San Antonio, TX G.I.G On The Strip
I promise I’ll make a better blog about the tour, with pics and videos soon. But for now I have gathered a few interviews and stuff that has been written about my performance at Lolla. Check them out here:
It’s been a hectic week to say the least. I decided to skip one of the songs for the album (as everybody thought it was horrible except me, haha) and had to choose and record a new one. I decided for yet another song with the word “shoe” in the lyrics and probably will have to rename the entire album to “shoes” now 🙂 .We decided not to put Baby, eeerr I mean Anders, in the corner anymore (as he was forced to be there during the recordings of the last album, that studio simply wasn’t big enough for him and his bass) so we even gave him his own room this time. Check out the video here:
[flv:/video/recordingbass.flv 320 240]
I’m nothing but truly impressed of the way he nailed all these songs in just six hours. We rehearsed a few of them for the gig at Landet and the radio gig last week but there were several he never heard before and he did brilliantly! Even the song “Holding your hand” which he renamed “the Zappa-song” because of all the half times hidden in it. Being unrehearsed may not be the ultimate way of doing it but I must say it does add a kind of nerv that you don’t get if you know the songs too well.
Anyway, next week we’ll be recording Marcus and his guitars, yep he’ll be doing both acustic and electric this time. And I’ll record the last song for the album (no shoes in that one), which I have to do in the studio where we recorded the bass, because I have to play and sing at the same time.
The studioMe as the true technician.. press "rec" press "stop"... Jonas, behind the camera, did all the real work.No wonder we had to give Anders a bigger room, we couldn't even fit him into one frame...It's a kind of magic: the other halft of AndersNow here's the big picture! With a bit of a distance we managed to get all of him. Isn't it beautiful, well it sure sounds beautiful!