record label Archives - Sofia Talvik - Americana / Folk with Swedish Roots

December 7, 2011December 7, 2011

Dreamin’ in Lakeland and Tampa

The tour has finally begun for real, meaning that we’ve started touring in the RV. The maiden voyage went to Lakeland where I did a gig at the awesome Evolution Records along with Brian Clark Miller. Me and Jonas then headed up to Bartow where we very graciously were allowed to boondock in Arlenas yard.

We then headed to Publix supermarket to get a lot of basic stuff that we needed in the RV kitchen, like ketchup, spices and stuff like that. We spent way too much time shopping and then had to speed our way to the Tampa radio station WNMF 88.5 where I played some songs and had a chat with DJ John Palmer.

In the evening we played at The Independent in Tampa, or Seminole Heights to be exact. We had a great time and met some awesome people.

Thanks to Evolution Records, WNMF and the Independent as well as everyone who came to see me!

Don’t miss out on downloading me free Christmas single and support ActionAid in their fight against poverty here:

December 5, 2011

Natura Coffee and Tea

Last night I played a gig at Natura Coffee and Tea in Orlando. I had a lot of friends coming to the gig as we’ve stayed in Orlando, both two years ago and now while we’re fixing up the RV. It was a fun gig and I had a great time! Today, we’ve almost finished the RV and tomorrow we’re taking it to Lakeland for a gig at Evolution Records.

October 13, 2010August 27, 2011

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.

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!

September 14, 2010

Florida to be released in Japan!

Japanese record company Coco Hearts is releasing my album “Florida” December 22nd.

“The album will be designed as a Christmas present from Cocoheart to Japanese music lovers. The best gift, isn’t it!” says Coco Hearts.

The album will be released as a special Japan release with additional bonus tracks. I’m really looking forward to our new collaboration. I want to celebrate this especially by reminding all of you to download my free remix album “Street of Dreamix” where Japanese artists Himawarii contributed with a remix. Download it here!

October 22, 2009October 2, 2009

This week I’m singing with Karin Ström

Worldwide release!

In the end of October 2009 I’m releasing my third album “Jonestown” in the USA and later on in Japan. To give you a preview of the songs from the album I have gathered 12 of my favorite Swedish artists who will each perform one song from the album live with me on tape. Every week a new video is released, with a new song and a new guest artist.

Way back in the 90’s I read a book called “Bensin”. The author was a girl my age, Karin Ström, and she wrote about her life in London, as an aspiring artist. Now, years later, Karin has not only released a critically acclaimed album, she’s got another one on the way.’

I’m happy to present this week’s guest artist: Karin Ström
www.myspace.com/datadamen

Sofia Talvik / Karin Ström – Lower case letters

Song: Lower case letters (Jonestown 2008)
Guest artist: Karin Ström
www.myspace.com/datadamen
www.karinstrom.se

Karin Ström was born in Kristianstad, a small town in the south of Sweden. She always wanted to be a singer. At the age of 13 she started writing her first songs.Â 20 years old she moved to London, where she got signed to the Canadian record label Nettwerk which led her to relocate to Los Angeles. Here, she released a self titled five track EP (US, Canada, UK and Sweden) with lyrics in English.

Back in Stockholm she wrote, produced and recorded the EP “Sneda Ögons EP” in the autumn of 2005, and released it on her own label Datadamen Records. Datadamen (originally Karin’s DJ name) means Computer Lady, and this marked a change of Karin’s sound from organic and guitarbased to electronic and computerized. She also switched languages and now sings in Swedish. The 24th of January 2007 Karin released her first full length album “En saga om en sten”.