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.
Thanks to all of you wonderful people who contributed with clever, creative and crazy name suggestions for my tour. With a twenty something suggestions on his list it’s no wonder that Paul Rosenberg rode home the winning name with “Drivin’ & Dreaming”. I love the name because it referrers to the vast distances I will be driving across America to play for all of you, and the fact that I also follow my dream by doing so. It also reminds me of a favorite song that’s called “Falling and Flying” from the movie “Crazy Heart”. Paul, a CD and T-shirt are on their way in the mail to you!
On a close second place was Nikolas Huffman with his “Interstate Hootenanny Tour”. It’s quirky and yet bears a lot of meaning in it. Nikolas, you get a free download of one of my albums.
Thanks to everyone who contributed I had so much fun reading all of your suggestions!
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 café, 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.
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 spelmän (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!
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 cafés, libraries, galleries and what not.
Hurray! Today ‘V – Part Three of L.O.V.E‘ is finally released, and it’s all thanks to all of you pledgers who helped me fund this EP and encouraged me through the production.
This time my bass player Janne Manninen has transformed my songs into electronica pop – a totally new sound for me which I love and I hope you will too.
I met up with G.A.I.N who have recorded the second part of the H.A.T.E saga, ‘A – Part Two of H.A.T.E’. Here’s their thoughts about the project.
Hi G.A.I.N! You guys are doing “A – part two of H.A.T.E” how is the EP coming along? It’s coming along very well. It’s all done and waiting to be released. Niklas Stålvind of Wolf produced and mixed. Mike Wead of King Diamond and bibelblack mastered. From the final result we can definitely say that it sounds kick-ass! We’re very proud of what we’ve done and we can’t wait until we can share the result with the world!
Great! Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves? We’re just a couple of metalheads doing what we love. We all come from different places but our love for Metal brought us together. We all live in Stockholm and we like to go out and have a good old dirty time. It happens a little too often but that’s Metal for you! We live by the motto, Sex, Booze and Tattoos!
What did you think of the original songs when you first heard them and did you think it was hard to interpret them into your own style or did you get ideas straight away? When we first heard the songs we wondered what the hell we’d gotten or self’s in to. It was a little hard to “connect” with the songs at first but after a few listening’s they grew on us and now we like them. We decided early not to listen to the originals that much too ensure that our versions came more from us, so that they would sound like G.A.I.N. Some songs we had ideas for right after the first listen but some came harder. The song that came easiest was probably “King of the Willow Tree” and one that we had to work a bit on was “Glow”.
Which of the songs are you most pleased with and why? Our favorites are probably King of the Willow Tree and The War. We really like the raw drive of the riffs in both songs. They are really in our own style and don’t sound like covers at all. Your way of writing really fitted well into our kind of music. They came out just like our own songs.
What’s your favorite gig memory? Three of us remember on gig in particular. Mr Bandiit was a little too excited and played a bit fast. This resulted in that Gus had to prioritize ether singing or breathing in the last song. He chose to sing… He gave his last bit of energy in that song and as a result of that he ended up taking an ambulance ride to the hospital.
Can you tell us a little bit about the recording sessions and what was most fun with being a part of this project? We recorded everything in Viper Studios. From this experience we learned that we will never record four songs in two days again. It’s borderline impossible and we don’t recommend it. We finished all the rhythm guitars and the drums in one day and thought we were doing very well. Only lead guitar, bass and vocals left right? The lead guitar and the bass were done at about 8 o’clock the next night. The vocals took another 7-8 hours and would have taken longer if it weren’t for the excellent vocal coaching Niklas Stålvind of Wolf provided. We’re forever grateful for that. But on the whole it has been a lot of fun to be part of this project. We’ve learned a lot and would like to thank you for this opurtunity.
What’s next on the agenda for G.A.I.N this fall? Get out and play. The big damn show! This fall we will focus on getting out and bring our music to the masses. We haven’t played all summer so we’re really excited about getting out there again! We’ll just have to make sure that Gus gets to breath. Do you know where we can get a portable oxygen tank?
Thanks for hanging out! We look forward to hearing the songs.
You haven’t forgotten about the mirror project of L.O.V.E have you? The second EP in the H.A.T.E series is soon being released and it’s the ultra cool rock band G.A.I.N from Sweden who has recorded this awesome version of ‘O – Part Two of L.O.V.E’. Be prepared for heavy riffs, spot on vocals and drums that will make your world shake!
G.A.I.N is recording 'A - Part Two of H.A.T.E'
Here’s a some videos from one of the recording sessions.
G.A.I.N is: Gus Savage – Guitar and Vocals, Johnnie Bane – Bass and Vocals, Rob Thorn – Lead Guitar, Rob Bandiit – Drums
