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.
You know the rat in the pizza myth. So there’s a couple of misperceptions about our tour and the RV, and some of them are so reaccuring that I felt I had to write a little post about it. Everyone’s been really sweet and I know they all mean well and just don’t know better but here’s the most common things people think/ask/tell us about our tour and the RV. It always makes me smile 🙂
“You can stay in our guest room and have a good night’s sleep in a REAL bed” Well, we actually have a brand new IKEA Sultan Queen Size mattress with a real feather duvet in our bedroom in the RV, but thanks 😉
“You should come over for dinner, when was the last time you had a home cooked meal?” Probably for lunch, or dinner yesterday… Actually most of the food we eat is home cooked, in the RV. I actually wish we would have more money to spend on eating out. But we ALWAYS appreciate being invited for dinner, so please keep inviting us!
“It must be nice to have a two year vacation, just cruising around the US! Seriously, that would be a dream come true. But we have to work every day with booking shows, doing promotion, driving to the next gig, performing etc. We work more and harder than we ever had before. And it’s worth it for sure, but it’s NO vacation.
To check out the before and after pictures of our RV redesign go here!
Here’s a little list of weird thing that happen when you are full timing in an RV:
1. You start looking for power outlets everywhere you go and sometimes go through great lengths to get to them
2. You learn how to use a minimal amount of toilet paper
3. You start “pre-washing” your dishes with paper towels
4. You don’t think it’s weird that you haven’t had a proper shower in three days
5. You don’t change clothes because you care what people at the office will think but because you wore them so long they started smelling
6. You sometimes wear a hat to bed…
7. …Or a blanket around your head
8. You sleep in parking lots
9. You download apps that tell you where to find the cheapest gas prices
10. You get obsessed with led lights
We’ve been touring for little over a month now and gone from sunny Florida to cold North Carolina. I’ve overcome my fear of driving the RV and since Jonas fixed the cruise control I don’t mind driving at all. But there’s still one thing that scares me. What if the RV falls over. Every time we’re on a sharp curve on a highway exit I dread this. Even though Jonas says there’s no chance of that happening I still feel like it could happen.
Me and Jonas in our hoodies in the RV
After spending a few days in Savannah, GA (what a wonderful city!) I decided we had to buy bikes so we could bike whenever we came to a city like that. So we got one off Craig’s list and one from Walmart. For a few days the bikes were parked inside the RV and were taking up all the space we had. Because even if a bike is only $50 at Walmart, a bike rack for the RV is way more expensive. It doesn’t make sense at all, but we had to get one so we did. Only if we were to mount the bike rack we had to dismount the spare tire. So now instead of bikes we’ve had a hundred year old spare tire in the RV. No it didn’t fit into any of the storage compartments. Someone said we should put it under the bed but it’s old and smelly and had dead frogs and moss on it. So I don’t really think it’s going to be useful if we ever come to need a spare tire in the future.
The day after we got the bike rack and put the bikes on it we stayed in the parking lot behind the bar where I played in Charleston, SC and in the middle of the night I woke up of sounds and the RV rocking (you’d think it’s steady but it’s like a boat really). I looked out through the bedroom window and there was a guy trying to do something to the bikes, probably steal them. That’s not really something you want to wake up to. As soon as he saw my face in the window though he took off, but I couldn’t go back to sleep for hours and then I had nightmares the rest of the night.
Me on my bike in Winston-Salem
Everything got better once we came to Wilmington, NC and stayed a night with our friend Majsan. Wilmington is such a beautiful town. Actually all the towns we’ve been to since Savannah has been pretty great. We’re in in Winston-Salem, NC now and it’s beautiful. We’ve biked around the city which doesn’t have much of a city center but lots of beautiful houses. The gigs have all been great too. Sometimes one would wish for a larger audience, but at least the people who’ve shown up have been there to listen to me and that’s what’s important after all. I was pretty disappointed that SxSW didn’t come through with an official invite this year. I’ve been incited the last three years of which I’ve played two. And every time I’ve had to pay for expensive plane tickets and hotels for me and the band. So when I’m finally here, doing a great tour, having a new CD out January 31st, they don’t invite me. But I still have a few unofficial SxSW shows so if you’re going to be there you can still see me play.
The last three days I have fallen asleep in the couch right after dinner. Now, watching Ancient Aliens from the History Channel didn’t really help me stay awake. In a way it’s nice to be able to get some sleep, but I usually never sleep during daytime unless I’m ill. So maybe the ancient aliens helped me fall asleep but I think this unusual tiredness more probably is a product of too much work this past year.
Since November I’ve barley had a break to talk about. I did the Christmas Calendar, the Christmas Concerts then dove right into recording a new album, worked with that day and night, went on tour to the US for three weeks and then started promoting the album which is now finally released. So, does that mean I can take a break now and there’s nothing more to do? Not really. I’m already planning for an EP, working on videos and promo for the acoustic version of Florida which will be released soon, and on a couple of collaborations.
But I really like to be busy. Having nothing to do makes me lazy and uninspired. But sometimes you need to take a little break. Good thing I’m going to Rimini for a weekend soon. And maybe I should stop wr..
So I’ve spent my first night here in LA. Me and Warren met up with his lovely friend Kristin and she took us to the Hotel Café where a bunch of people played live. It was awsome but I was a partypooper and wanted to get some sleep. Anyway, when we were about to leave I spotted Aqualung in the audience. I managed to work up some nerves to speak to him, and he seemed to think I was some annoying fan (which I am). But there were like a couple of showcases at SXSW that I didn’t want to miss and one of them was Aqualung’s. I only managed to stay for a few songs but he was really good. I joked to my cellist Christian that Aqualung could be his gay little brother (I don’t even know if he’s gay, and if he would read this he would probably hate me) they do look a little bit alike.. just check this out:
