Drivin’ & Dreaming Tour!

Sofia Talvik 2011

Thanks to all of you wonderful people who contributed with clever, creative and crazy name suggestions for my tour. With a twenty something suggestions on his list it’s no wonder that Paul Rosenberg rode home the winning name with “Drivin’ & Dreaming”. I love the name because it referrers to the vast distances I will be driving across America to play for all of you, and the fact that I also follow my dream by doing so. It also reminds me of a favorite song that’s called “Falling and Flying” from the movie “Crazy Heart”. Paul, a CD and T-shirt are on their way in the mail to you!

On a close second place was Nikolas Huffman with his “Interstate Hootenanny Tour”. It’s quirky and yet bears a lot of meaning in it. Nikolas, you get a free download of one of my albums.

Thanks to everyone who contributed I had so much fun reading all of your suggestions!

Thoughts about booking a tour

Sofia Talvik

I’ve just started booking my US tour, starting in Florida in December, and first of all I have to say how amazed I am by these quadrillion of music venues. It seems like every café, restaurant, library and music lover hosts concerts. I’m also amazed how many of them are folk venues, or at least host folk music as well as other genres.

Sofia Talvik
My folky me in a backyard in San Francisco. Photo by Shelby Duncan

In Sweden nobody even knows what folk music is, here it’s fiddles and Orsa spelmän (if you all want to know what happened to ABBA after the 80’s). (I guess I’m not being totally fair because people here have heard Fleet Foxes and mostly the folk genre is called singer/songwriter here though I don’t think it’s totally right.)

Once in an interview the reporter asked me how I would define my music, and I answered “americana/folk”. When I read the published interview my answer was American funk. That says something about Sweden and folk music. But in the US, folk music almost seems like a cult. And here I am ordering feather hair extensions tuning my Luna guitar. I will probably fit right in!

Luna guitar
My folky guitar

So anyways, coming from a country that may be small but is really big when it comes to music export (again with the ABBA) I must say that Sweden is a puny country when it comes to live music. I was wondering the other day how many people would actually be confident enough to host a house concert here in Sweden. To actually let musicians and other people into their homes.. I mean what would the neighbors say???

So it’s really uplifting to see how many venues there are to chose from in the US. Unfortunately I’m not alone with this knowledge and I’m competing with so many bands. I just have to pray that I stand out in the crowd and that all these people will find it in their hearts to invite me to their homes, their cafés, libraries, galleries and what not.

And if you live in the US and want to host a house concert with yours truly, get in touch here http://book.sofiatalvik.com!

Concert in your home!

Have you ever dreamed of having your favorite independent artist perform a private concert just for you and your guests?

Starting in October 2011 I will do an extensive tour in the US. I’m now looking for people who would like to host a concert in their home.

Simply put, a House Concert is a private party, employing live original music, held in a private home, garden, civic center, church or other space under your exclusive control. There would need to be enough parking nearby and your neighbors should be cool. It would be a huge bummer if someone called the cops because of all the extra cars and people coming to your house. You should probably not do this if you live in a small apartment with a bunch of uptight neighbors, room mates or a cranky landlord.

You should be able to host a minimum of 10-15 people. It’s up to you to invite people and spread the word about the concert. You can choose for yourself if you just want to invite friends or if you want to advertise the concert publicly. You have to guarantee the artist a minimum of 10 paying guests. A $10-20 donation per guest should be paid to the performer and it’s also customary, but not required, to offer the artist a home cooked meal and a room for the night. A stage isn’t required, and the PA system will be provided by the artist.

Your home address will not be published on the web and we will negotiate from concert to concert if you would like to publish any contact information to you about the concert or if you wish assistance with promotion.

Contact us if you would be interested in hosting a concert or would like more information.

Here’s a preliminary tour route so you’ll know when we’ll be in your state.
If your state is not on the list and you want to host a concert please throw us an email anyway and we’ll consider your offer.

2011
December: Florida

2012
January: South Carolina, Georgia,
February: Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee

New video released

So you thought my last music video was retro with its 50’s theme? Well you aint seen nothing yet! This is the new video for my single “Clown” and this time I decided I would do it all by myself. So I did all the make-up and styling and filmed it (yes I used a camera stand). Then I cut it and edited it. But I’m not ready to throw away Jonas’ fabulous producer skills just yet, I did have him help me creating the “burn-out” effect on the last few frames of the vid 😉

This is the first music video I’ve ever made and the second video I’ve made..ever (you’ve probably seen the behind the scenes video to “My James Dean”). I was inspired by old pictures and the creepy sense of the circus that the TV series “Carnivale” captured so well. The entire video was shot in my bedroom (but I won’t do a Pamela just yet), and the fab hat and stick was borrowed from my friend Theresia, they used to belong to her grandpa..