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.
Sometimes I wish I had a band. Well I do have a band and I love them to bits, but we are not a band. They are my boys and I am their artist. They are my friends but they are not my confidants. Sometimes, when I see things like this lovely pledge by My Bubba and Mi, I wish I had a band, where everyone were equals. Where we planned together and fought together. Where we were annoyed at critics and happy for our music together. Sometimes I feel like it’s just me, and they are just tagging along for the ride.
I’ve tried a couple of times making my band into my band. At first I gave them a name, The Tallboys, so that they would feel like a band and not just musicians backing up a singer/songwriter. It didn’t really work, but it doesn’t matter because now, 6 years down the road, they’re still with me and I don’t think any of them feel like just a back up musician anymore. It’s probably for the best, as I can be quite bossy and stubborn and tend to decide everything but sometimes I feel I’m struggling all alone. Like last year when we were on tour and there were just so many things that were going wrong, and I felt like I couldn’t tell them and had to pretend that everything was alright so we wouldn’t all be depressed and worried.
This year my guys are showing their skills as more than musicians playing behind me. They are each producing an EP for me in my 4 piece L.O.V.E saga. I wonder if they will feel as protective about their EPs as I do when I release an album. I wonder if they know just how much I appreciate and love them. Even if they’ll never be my band.
I’m always trying out new ways to promote my music and interact with my fans, and as you know I had a pledge at pledgemusic.com for my new EP. So i figured I should ask some of the pledgers how they thought the pledge went and why they decided to participate. Here’s a little interview with Henrik Wannheden from Sweden and Dane Wachs from the USA who both decided to pledge.
Dane Wachs
Henrik Wannheden
Hi guys! You pledged for “L – part one of L.O.V.E”, how did you first hear about the project and what was your first reaction to it?
H – I’m subscribing to Sofia’s Twitter feed so when the proposition came up that I could participate I jumped on it. I think this is the whole point of social media; for me to be more involved in issues close to my heart, and for artists to connect to their fans. This was a golden opportunity. D – I learned about the project through Sofia’s Facebook fan page, and it sounded interesting. My first reaction was check out her Pledge Music page to see how I might be able to get involved.
The idea of the pledge was to make the fans more updated and involved in the actual process of making the EP, did this make a difference to you as opposed to a regular release?
D – I think it made a huge difference. I watched the introduction video Sofia created and thought what she was doing for the pledges was awesome. I can’t think of too many songwriters, musicians, or artists that actually involve their fans into process of the project they are creating. The approach she took was very ambitious, and above and beyond anything I’ve ever seen — without a doubt she’s got some very lucky fans.
How do you feel that this is different from the way Sofia’s released albums before?
H – It’s much more personal, and I like the way I get to show really how much this music is worth for me. I get a continuous contact with Sofia during the process and in the end, I’ve received value far beyond a plastic disc.
Why did you decide to pledge, and did you think it was easy enough? D – Sofias music should be heard, and I want to help. It was super simple to make a pledge.
Sofia is declaring the era of plastic discs over, and that her fans are now her record label, pr company and financiers. How do you feel about all the new responsibility?
H – I’m up for it! As a technocrat pouncing on every new technology I can get my paws on I feel that the music industry as a whole been at least ten years behind me. I’ve often been forced to piracy as the only way to enjoy the music I love, and it has not been by my design. And it sucks!
Sofia has always been very accessible in that regard, and now she takes another step closer to me and my way of consuming music. And I love it!
It really isn’t the piece of plastic I’m after, it’s the music printed on it I’m enjoying.
Knowing that just a small fraction of the money I spend on a regular music CD actually reaches the pockets of the artist I’m not very keen on spending my money that way anymore when there’s alternative ways for me to getting the music. It’m not being served by a long supply chain, so why pay for it? I’ve been looking for ways that seems better for me and the artist alike and a pure digital digital delivery method seems like the way to go. iTunes, Piratebay and Spotify is my cup of tea.
The problem with the latter two is that I don’t pay nearly as much as I’d like and It’s been very hard for med to make it right.
Sofia’s pledge fit my aching conscience perfectly! At last I get to show my appreciation. And I know that she got the message directly. Awesome!
In May “O – part two of L.O.V.E” is being released, what would you like to see on the next list of pledge items?
H – I’m looking forward to complete the whole series, so t-shirts and a posters are on my list. I’m not the artist so I’m just curious what Sofia may come up with. I’m sure it’ll be awesome whatever it is!
What items did you pledge for and did they meet your expectations?
D –Technically I pledged for the personalized Postcard, although my true intention was a pledge to/for Sofia. I would have pledged for nothing if it was an option. I would definitely do it again.
H – I pledged $70 for a signed EP, a poster and a t-shirt and the items more than lived up to my expectations. I’ve already got several compliments for the t-shirt and it felt very good to tell the story behind it. Now I’m looking forward to framing the poster, but I might wait until I get the O, V and E posters too 🙂
I hope you guys have all listened to my new EP “L – part one of L.O.V.E”. “L” is my 5th album, not counting remixes and acoustic albums. I started out playing live when I was 23 years old just playing at every little bar I could find. I built me a backing band and an audience and at 25 I was finally ready to release my first studio album “Blue Moon”. “Blue Moon” was recorded to reflect the way I sounded live back then, and is actually recorded live, all musicians together.
So although I’m looking forward and release new stuff, I think it’s important not to forget about your past accomplishes so I decided to re-release “Blue Moon” in a whole new way. So what I did was to make a YouTube album with all the songs from the album, including cover art and lyrics.
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!
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.
I just got this lovely review from Ninthspace! Thank you so much! 🙂
“I guess, by the time a musician gets to their third album they know whether it’s going to work out for them. Not writing, recording and touring as a hobby, but embracing their talents and working with something that’s turned out to be innate to their existence. There are perhaps a handful of musicians that I could categorise in such a way.
With the release of Jonestown, Sofia Talvik easily gets over the idea of the difficult third album (younger sibling of the difficult second album) and turns out a collection that eclipses her first two. Opening track and lead single As Summers Pass recalls the past with its acoustic progressions, but the subsequent song My James Dean is astonishing.
Because it’s not what you’re expecting. Sure it has these synth pads that appear to hang over from its predecessor, but the guitar loops lower, more geared towards grooving. The best way I can describe it is the merging of the droning synth-rock of Stereolab and the sub-Spektor inclinations of El Perro del Mar with piano too.
Over the top of this comes Sofia’s outstanding vocals and a plaintiff declaration that I’m not that special. But she is.
