Sofia Talvik – Americana / Folk with Swedish Roots
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.
I guess you’ve all figured out by now that this Christmas Calendar is all about Christmas and music. So for this window I’ve made a Spotify list with some of my favourite Christmas songs that I’m sharing with you. If you don’t have Spotify, I’ve also made a list of the songs so you can find them on iTunes or in your local record store. Go to the Spotify playlist here!
I’m proud to say that me and Sophie Rimheden is somewhat of a power duo. We wrote our first Christmas song together, a disco dance hit called “Xmas on the Dancefloor” and Sophie has made several remixes of my songs. She’s known as Sweden’s electronica Princess and she’s just released a new Christmas single that she’s sharing with you in today’s episode of Sofia Talvik’s Xmas Calendar! You can download Sophie Rimheden’s Christmas single, called “Xmas time” and is part of the compilation “Jul på Techno” here.
If you’re in Stockholm you can also swing by the release party for “Jul på Techno” today at Debaser Medis, Coctailbaren 7-9 pm.
Today it’s December 1st and the first window of my Christmas Calendar.
An Christmas Calendar or Advent calendar is a special calendar which is used to count or celebrate the days of Advent in anticipation of Christmas. Today, most advent calendars are made for children. In Europe you can find the cardboard ones in stores and usually see a them as a television show for children, starting on the first of December, and ending on Christmas Eve.
Sofia Talvik’s Advent Calendar however, is not made for children but for music lovers. Through December you’ll be able to watch 24 episodes where I celebrate Christmas in different ways up till Christmas eve.
I also have the tradition of giving away a free Christmas single each year and this year I’m releasing the single “Snowy White River” in collaboration with Music Teachers Without Borders and Gehrmans Publishing. Gehrmans Publishing is issuing a sheet music for “Snowy White River” and all proceeds will go to Music Teachers Without Borders, who works through and with music to give a meaningful life for children living in an otherwise tough environment.
So not only will you be able to learn how to play a Sofia Talvik song, but you’ll also do something good for children who need it. Gehrman’s publishing will also have a Christmas Calendar, to check it out on www.gehrmans.se where you also can download the sheet music for “Snowy White River”.
You can download the single here: www.sofiatalvik.com/snowy and check out me and my cello player perform it live in my livingroom.
Stay tuned for the next episode!
You can also follow this calendar in Swedish on blogg.aftonbladet.se/sofiatalvik
As we were shooting the video for my single ‘My James Dean’ I was also busy shooting a ‘behind the scenes video’. You get to follow me around all day, from early morning getting ready with hair and make up ’til late night driving home. I would like to thank Åsa Östergren for the fab hairdo and make up, Swing i Swaben for letting us shoot the video there and ‘Sweet Emma and the Mood Swingers’ for looking awsome in the video. Do check out their own web site: http://www.sweetemma.se
I’ve tried to be extra nice to all of you who don’t understand Swedish so the second video is equipped with english subtitles. And when you’ve seen the ‘behind-video’ scroll down and to see how the video turned out!
Behind the scenes – Swedish version
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Behind the scenes – English subtitles
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Music video – My James Dean (produced by Jonas Westin)
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Everytime I need to do something, like recordings for a new album or something. I get this urge to do something else, something that I don’t need to do. That’s how I started doing the Christmas singles and all the other stuff that I do, just me, just by myself. So I guess it was no surprise that instead of going through the recorded files last week, I picked up the guitar and learned the old classic “Wichita Lineman”. Years back I had a brief collaboration with Swedish artist Niclas Frisk (Atomic Swing, A Camp). He was the one who first played me this song and I still love it. So thank you Niclas! And here’s how it turned out sounding in my kitchen…
Don’t bother with the video? Listen to the mp3.