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!

I’m supporting – are you?

Sofia Talvik Florida tank top
Sofia Talvik Florida tank top

Today I’m supporting myself by wearing one of the nice Sofia Talvik tanks that are available in my shop. It’s quite a nice day in Stockholm today so I’m wearing it with a high waisted jeans and tulle skirt from one of my favourite brands – Forever21 and a jacket from silence + noice, bought at Urban Outfitters. As you can see I’m also sporting the white Sofia Talvik iPhone skin.

Come on guys!

Support me too by visiting my shop today!

New album released today. Get Florida here!

Florida Album Cover

I’m excited to announce that my new album “Florida” was released worldwide today.

Florida Album Cover
Get your copy of the album today!

I’ve worked hard with the album for such a long time and it feels good to finally see it come online on all major music stores. Do you want to listen to it today?
You can stream and listen to the album from my official homepage.

I also have personally signed copies of the album and other great stuff like t-shirts, bags, lyrics and much more in the Sofia Talvik Music Shop.

You can download the album from my own private shop or these providers:

iTunes
Amazon
Rhapsody
Napster
EMusic
7Digital

or buy a CD from these providers:

Sofia Talvik Music Shop
Bengans
CDON
Megastore

Worldwide Pre Order + Bonus

Pre order "Florida" from Bengans.se

As you know I got three different Limited Edition Boxes on my private shop that include some really nice stuff. But since all of you don’t want the exclusive stuff I got another way for you to pre order the new album.

Worldwide pre order of the new album!

You can now pre order unsigned CD’s directly from one of Sweden’s largest online retail stores Bengans.se.

Pre order "Florida" from Bengans.se
Pre order "Florida" from Bengans.se

They ship worldwide and you will get the album on the release day 12:th of May. I will also reward those that pre order from Bengans.se by giving you a download code to the acoustic version of the album.

Just contact me with the order confirmation at info(at)makakimusic.se and I will send you the code to the download on the release day.

Sofia Talvik’s Xmas Calendar: #5

Have you bought all your Christmas gifts yet?

I sure haven’t, so I thought I’d challenge “the Christmas present of the year”, the Shakti Mat, and give you a somewhat less painful alternative! I’ve put together a Christmas Package in my shop where you can buy all the albums signed for a special price.

I’ve also made a limited edition Christmas T-shirt with a drawing by me. It’s so limited I only have 6 for sale, and they’re dirt cheap too so hurry if you want one!