microphone Archives - Sofia Talvik - Americana / Folk with Swedish Roots

June 8, 2013June 8, 2013

New album and book in September!

Kisses and hugs to all who pledged on my Kickstarter Project! Thanks to you the project is now GO! and I’ve started working on the book.

Go HERE to place your order for the book and live album now!

The pre-order for the live album and the book will be open until August 2nd, but even if you order now you will not be charged until August 2nd when the pre-order closes. Note that pre-order is the ONLY way to get the book and it will only be printed in a limited edition. So after August 2nd, there will be no way and nowhere to get a copy unless you pre-ordered.

The order is made via Kickstarter and Amazon, so if you have shopped at Amazon before it will be easy as pie to just log in and order. (If you are unsure how to order, here’s a video that will guide you.

Watch it here and follow the instructions:

Everyone who places an order for the live album or the book will get a complimentary download of the acoustic version of my album “The Owls Are Not What They Seem” direct to your email.

Some info about the album and the book:

Drivin’ & Dreaming – One artist’s odyssey through America

I spent a year and a half from 2011 to 2013 traveling across America in an old RV, playing over 250 shows in 37 states. I named the tour “Drivin’ & Dreaming”. During the tour I met amazingly wonderful, weird and inspiring people, and I got to see and experience every corner of the US.

This book is the product of all the stories and pictures from the “Drivin’ & Dreaming” tour that I collected along the way. The book is in coffee table format with beautiful pictures and funny short stories. You will be able to open the book to any page and just start reading. It will be around 200 pages and you’ll get to experience the life on the road, breakdowns, the wonderful people that came to our rescue, weird gigs, breathtaking places and smiling faces. The book also contains a collection of my favorite recipes that we cooked in the RV.

Drivin’ & Dreaming LIVE – full length album (CD)

We recorded almost all of the 250+ shows on the tour and have chosen the best of the best to be featured on this live album. If you weren’t able to make it to any of the concerts, here’s your chance to experience it, just like you were there in the room with me. All the recordings on the live album were recorded with room microphones and direct sound from the board. The final product will be a high-quality live album mixed and mastered from these source recordings. Many of you asked about the Swedish folk song that I sang on the shows, this song will be featured on the album!

You can get the book + live album for $100 (including shipping in the US, +$5 for outside the US) or the live album alone for $25. There is also a possibility to get some other cool stuff, like your name in the thank you notes in the book. Check it out here!

When the pre-order closes on August 2nd the album and the book will be sent to the printers. You will have your copy approximately a month later.

October 27, 2011

E – Update #6

Marcus and Sofia playing live. Photo: Jonny Andersson

I’m so happy to announce that we met our goal in the pledge and thanks to all of you who pledged we will be able to release the last part of L.O.V.E next week. If you haven’t pledged you can still pre-order the physical CD, T-shirts and other goods up till November 1st. After that the EP will only be available as a digital download.

For this update I thought we’d grill the producer a little bit, so I tied him to his amplifier and made him answer all these questions…

Marcus Högquist, you are the producer of “E – Part Four of L.O.V.E” and you are also the guitarist in Sofia’s band since many years, how do you think this recording was different than the others you’ve made with Sofia?
More guitars 🙂 The previous recordings I´ve done with Sofia have all been different from each other. For example, the first one we recorded almost completely live with just two microphones. All of us sitting in the same room and playing together. And for that one we used mostly acoustic instruments. For the following records we have been doing more and more overdubs, recorded separetly and used more electronic sounds. This time I’ve tried to capture the essence of Sofia’s songs and let them guide me toward where I was going. Maybe in some cases I’ve put them in a slightly new context, soundwise.

What’s your favorite song on the EP and why?
I like them all. But if I have to pick just one I’d say If I had a man. I’m really pleased with how it came out.

If you would describe this EP as the love child of two bands/artists, which would that be?
John McEnroe and Mats Wilander 😉

If you would have had an unlimited budget, is there anything you would have done differently?
I think I would have recorded the songs live with the band in a big fancy studio somewhere in the countryside. We would stay there for a few days and be totally focused on making the best record ever. For relaxation between the sessions some of us would play some tennis, Christian would go fishing in the lake just outside the studio and Sofia would probably get a nice massage.

How come you chose “Lower Case Letters” as your re-make song?
Actually the new rhythm feel of that song came out of a mistake during a rehearsal that Sofia and I where doing for a promotion tour a few years ago. So for the following tour we decided to stick with that new rhythm arrangement and we did on our last US tour with the band as well. Then, when I was asked to pick an old song for this recording I just thougt it would be nice to record it that way.

What was your biggest challenge as a producer?
Because I recorded a lot of the stuff myself, I’d say being the the producer and the musician at the same time.

Exactly how many guitar tracks can we expect on “E – Part Four of L.O.V.E” ? 😉
Billions!!!

What’s your best words of wisdom when producing an album?
Keep an open mind. It might be good to have a plan for how you want the songs to sound. But be open for new ideas during the process and let them inspire you.

Thanks Marcus! We look forward to hearing your awesome creation!

“E – Part Four of L.O.V.E” is being released November 1st.

August 9, 2007August 17, 2009

It has begun…

Today I met up with artist and producer Tobias Fröberg to start recording demos for my third album. I’m quite excited that Tobias might be producing it as I feel he can bring something new to my songs. And he’s got a microphone from the 30’s that looks like an exhaust pipe, how weird is that? but it does sound really nice. Tobias is also about to finish his third album and the material sounds terrific, check out his last album on www.myspace.com/tobiasfroberg

July 31, 2006April 26, 2018

Album ahead.

This technical stuff makes me a raging lunatic. This is the third time I´m writing this blog entry as this damn monzilla keeps deleting it when I press post. Well Ill just give it another go.

This is the blog about the recording of my forthcoming album Street of dreams.

Street of dreams is a song about the feeling of insecurity of not being good enough, but this album will not only be good enough, it will be a great album, full of emotion and thought. During the process I´ll post pics and sound samples from the new songs so that you can follow me from the beginning til the end. (and is all of you Swedish guys are wondering why this blog is in english, well, I´m just too lazy to write two separate blogs.)

As a first timer I booked myself into a studio and recorded the album by schedule in a week. It was efficent but stressful. This time I´m doing it in the comfort of my own home. This way I hope to get a different feeling to it, more intimate and soulful.

I´ve prepped my bedroom into a soundroof cave and rigged my little studio equipment by the bed. It´s a Mac Book, an Inspire sound card, a JJ labs microphone and me. I´m one week in recording and I´ve recorded about 6 songs so far. I´ve hired talanted Fredrik Strömberg to program my drums. He´s working with the EZ drummer kit from Toontrack which we both adore! My band is still on summer vacation but when they´re back I´ll put them to work, although I might have to abandon my cave when we record the contra bass (it´s so huge I doubt it will fit in here).

Here´s some photos from my “studio”.