E – Update #2

Notes for "If I had a man" by Sofia Talvik
Marcus playing the guitar on "E - Part Four of L.O.V.E"
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 🙂

Notes for "If I had a man" by Sofia Talvik
Notes for "If I had a man" by Sofia Talvik

Please help ups make this EP by pledging here!

Here’s how it works:

The EP “E – Part Four Of L.O.V.E” is the last part of a four piece saga called “L.O.V.E” – Help me fund them today!
http://www.sofiatalvik.com/v-part-four-of-l-o-v-e/

“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.

This is how you can be a part of this:

1. Make A Pledge
Invest in an exclusive package from the list on http://www.sofiatalvik.com/v-part-four-of-l-o-v-e/. The packages includes signed memorabilia and other personalized treats.

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.

xoxo
Sofia Talvik

The hard work of being an artist!

Sometimes everyones tired and grumpy...
Sometimes everyone's tired and grumpy...

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!
.. 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.

Here’s some fast links to my fave posts:

11 (of 27) Things Touring Bands Can Do NOW To Make a Difference

11 MORE (of 29) Tips Touring Bands Can Do Now To Make a Difference

10 Ideas For Making Your Show an Event

Just remember that it's a lot of hard work!
Just remember that it's a lot of hard work!

Sofia partners with Worldsound

worldsound

Sofia did a splendid job at SXSW, knocked out the audience at no less than 6 showcases and started a collaboration with American label Worldsound.

– It’s a collaboration that suits the way I work, says Sofia, we have a partner deal so I won’t be kicking off my shoes and wait for anyone else to take charge. My goal has always been to carry a strong business and be able to make my own choices. With Worldsound I have finally found a US label that is on the same page as me.

Worldsound describes Sofia as “The best Swedish discovery since Ikea”.

Worldsound will represent Sofia and Makaki Music worldwide, outside of Sweden, starting in March 2009.

Coming up on the tv and radio

I’m being interviewed tonight on the news at 8.30pm (kl 20.30) on Swedish TV8.  For everyone who wants to know what it’s like to run your own label this might be a treat.
Update: Check out the interview HERE. (the interview is 12:10 minutes into the show)
Tv8 Intervju

… or you can listen to Swedish Radio P2 Felicia Show on Sunday at noon, when they’re airing an interview recorded in London after my gigs there.

I thought the reviews had stoped coming but apparantley not… so thank you ICA kuriren and Jönköpings Posten for giving me solid 4:s yay! 🙂

desperate daniel

I didn't intend this blog to become personal but I have to make a small exception and judging by the loooads of comments on this blog I suppose not that many people read it anyway.

I just watched "The Devil and Daniel Johnston". What a fabulous documentary! If I felt at all broken, insane and raging before I saw that movie it has all disappeared by now. I'm nowhere near as fucked up as Daniel Johnston. Probably not near Daniel in any other way either, genious or madman.

Anyway. As long as you have to deal with other people and especially if there's money involved things always become a drag. As fun as it can be sometimes making an album, for me it's mostly hard work and disapointments. I guess to feel entirely happy I should do what Daniel did, record a tape on my own and just hand it out to people. Be free of the business and the demands. At some point quality seems to become more important than the feeling, the songs and everything. I want it top of the top and truth is today I just woke up wondering where all the fun had gone. Noone tells you this before you start making an album. I did one before and it was hard at times but not like this.

I suppose if you have a backing label, manger, publicist whatever, things can get alot easier, but I make it all by myself and it's starting to eat on me. I'm lucky to have such an involved, supporting husband or I don't know how I would manage. Inspired by the book I'm reading "Hotel California", Daniel Johnston and my bad moods I wrote this little piece.

It won't be on an album, at least not on this one so feel free to download the lot of it.

"Circle of Friends"

 

g'night folks