David Myhr - Soundshine

David Myhr interview with Swedish Radio P4 Gothenburg

Posted: February 1st, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on David Myhr interview with Swedish Radio P4 Gothenburg

Please feel free to enjoy an interview (including an acoustic live performance) with Swedish Radio P4 Gothenburg discussing the release of Lucky Day.

Here’s a link to the video on Facebook:

David Myhr interview and live performance for Swedish Radio P4 Gothenburg

Stefan Livh at P4 Göteborg, Sveriges Radio asks me about both present and past. For instance he asks me about my background in The Merrymakers and our collaboration in the 90s with Jellyfish frontman Andy Sturmer and how he – to our delight – helped us finishing off our song ”April’s Fool”. I explain how big the whole thing was for us and that this event is now part of Brighter Day -A Jellyfish Story I talk about how we later started to write and produce for Japanese artists in our own studio. And the realisation, after The Merrymakers had gone separate ways, that all my songs "suddenly were approved". "By myself!". And how going solo opened up new possibilities including calling whoever I felt like, and recording in Nashville etc. We also talk about my Electric Light Orchestra pastiche ”Spellbound” from the Ulf Malmros and Jaana Fomin movie Flykten till framtiden and why film music composer Jimmy Lagnefors asked me to co-write with him.I get to talk about my general philosophy of recording and in particular about the making of ”The Perfect Place” and how Andreas Quincy Dahlbäck (who I refer to here as my ”George Martin”) helped me out in finding two songs that fitted into one, and how violinist Hanna Ekström had to double herself many times in making the strings sound like a full orchestra.We also discuss the difficulty in finding a balance between ”loss-making” artistic passion projects and my job as a senior lecturer at The School of Music in Piteå, far away from family and home in Stockholm. And how my annoying(?) commercial jingles like Ryds Bilglas and Insplanet are heard by more people than who get to hear my own music, and how they help me out in making ends meet. We also talk about the Lucky Day release party at Bar Brooklyn, Debaser, in Stockholm, and the incredible band I put together for the occasion including Peter Kvint, and Peter Morén from Peter Bjorn and John.The whole thing was done ”live” and was aired on P4 Gothenburg on May 4, 2018.Video edited by Todd Productions, Inc.

Posted by David Myhr on Sunday, February 2, 2020

 

(And here’s a link to the video on YouTube where English subtitles available by clicking the subtitles button.)

Swedish Radio P4 had been playing the first single from the album ”Jealous Sun” quite a lot in the previous weeks and at one point the radio personality Stefan Livh at P4 Gothenburg commented upon the song, spontaneously calling me ”The Jeff Lynne of Sweden”. He is a musician himself and it’s obvious that he has a soft spot for classic melodic pop. He invited me to come and sing the song live in the studio.

 

David Myhr and Stefan Livh



But there was also time for an conversation where we talk about both present and past. For instance he asks me about my background in The Merrymakers and our collaboration in the 90s with the Jellyfish frontman Andy Sturmer and how he – to our delight – helped us finishing off our song ”April’s Fool”. I explain how big the whole thing was for us and that this event is now part of Brighter Day… A Jellyfish Story (The Jellyfish biography).

I talk about how we later started to write and produce for Japanese artists in our own Monogram Recordings studio. And the realisation, after The Merrymakers had gone separate ways, that all my songs “suddenly were approved”. “By myself!”. And how going solo opened up new possibilities including calling whoever I felt like,  and recording in Nashville etc. We also talk about my Electric Light Orchestra pastiche ”Spellbound” from the Ulf Malmros and Jaana Fomin movie Flykten till Framtiden and why film music composer Jimmy Lagnefors asked me to co-write with him.

I get to talk about my general philosophy of recording and I talk in particular about the making of ”The Perfect Place” and how Andreas Dahlbäck (who I refer to here as my ”George Martin”) helped me out in finding two songs that fitted into one, and how violinist Hanna Ekström had to double herself many times in making the strings sound like a full orchestra.

We also discuss the difficulty in finding a balance between ”loss-making” artistic passion projects and my job as a senior lecturer at The School of Music in Piteå, far away from family and home in Stockholm. And how my annoying(?) commercial jingles like ”Ryds Bilglas” and ”Insplanet” (co-written with Dobedai) are heard by more people than who get to hear my own music, and how they help me out in making ends meet. We also talk about the Lucky Day release party at Brooklyn Bar, Debaser, in Stockholm, and the incredible band I put together for the occasion including Peter Kvint, and Peter Morén from Peter Bjorn and John.

The whole thing was done ”live” and was aired on P4 Gothenburg on May 4, 2018. This video was edited by Todd Productions.

 


Attending the world premiere for The Sessions at Royal Albert Hall

Posted: April 3rd, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Attending the world premiere for The Sessions at Royal Albert Hall

When I first saw something on-line about a thing called The Sessions – a live restaging of The Beatles at Abbey Road Studios I thought: “this is geeky beyond normal!”. And If I don’t go there…  who will go?

As you know from earlier posts about my (lifelong and obsessed) Beatles interest – not least The Day I met Paul McCartney and recording at Abbey Road myself – this seemed like an opportunity not to miss. And where better to see something Beatles related than at (“now they know how many holes it takes to fill the”) Albert Hall?

I soon found some incredibly expensive VIP tickets for the (already sold out) world premiere and somehow managed to convince my wife Paula  to celebrate her birthday there. (She does love the Beatles, but still…).

 

IMG_5513

And so, the day before yesterday, on April Fool’s Day (a day I once sang about here), it happened!

My expectations were realistic, not to mention even somewhat pessimistic. I certainly knew it wasn’t going to be like watching the Beatles themselves (or even a solo Beatle) in real life. And having been involved in many Beatles tributes myself, I’m fully aware of many of the challenges in making the illusion (even remotely) believable. But I was pretty soon relieved to see that they had captured the ambience of the inside of the Abbey Road studio really well. The John impersonation on “All You Need is Love” which kicked off the show wasn’t entirely believable though. It had something to do with the pronunciation, and also with the fact that John’s very distinctive voice has always been a tricky one to find sound-alikes for. But when they went back to the beginnings and kicked of a rockin’ “I Saw Her Standing There” it became clear that this was going to be a high-quality performance. Above all the Paul sound-alike offered quite a few “wow” moments. He sometimes sounded more like a twenty-something years old Paul McCartney than Paul McCartney himself does nowadays. So, songs like “Yesterday”, “Blackbird”, “She’s leaving home”, “Magical Mystery Tour”, and “Helter Skelter” became some of the evening’s finest. But in the end, all performers did a really great job. “George”, for instance, did a beautiful acoustic version of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. That was one of the many moments when I just leaned back, “enjoying the show”,  thinking about how much The Beatles mean to me and how big part they’ve played in my life. Which of course is nothing new. I’ve even come across on Swedish radio talking about how The Beatles are my religion.

So, to sum it up, the show was highly entertaining and if you’re a Beatles geek, make sure NOT to miss any of the upcoming shows on their tour. It was extremely well-done and accurate in detail. The George Martin character was spot-on (almost as good as this one). It was so good that I have no problem in disregarding the fact that they had gotten the order wrong in the solos of The End, which (as we all know, right?) should be Paul, George, John and not George, Paul, John.

 

IMG_5563

Anyway, just to be anonymous (although fake “VIP” through paying a ridiculous amount of money) and be a “regular” guest doesn’t really suit me. Having met the great Sir George Martin, and performed for Cynthia Lennon, taken selfies with James McCartney, Olivia Harrison (after a McCartney show in London in 2009), and with engineer Ken Scott in Abbey Road Studios (in conjunction with a lecture by the writers behind the incredible Recording the Beatles), it only felt natural and almost strangely “logical” that I would bump into the show’s supervisor Geoff Emerick himself in the corridors of Albert Hall. The sound engineer on Revolver (the best record ever made!) among many many others. A very important person in developing the sound of the Beatles. As concert producer and promoter Stig Edgren says: “Geoff is instrumental to the aspect of authenticity because nothing that you see or hear in the show is fabricated. We’re not fictionalising what it was like in the studio. For every song we have a schematic drawing on where the members of the Beatles were, where the vocal booths were, where the instruments were.”. So, as you can understand, Geoff Emerick is THE GUY. I can certainly recommend his book Here There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles. It’s an amazingly entertaing book who brings you inside the studio with the Beatles in a way that no other book that I can remember does. It doesn’t deal with family histories, groupies, business, tours, drugs, and all that other (also interesting) stuff. It focuses on the recording of the music in a unique way. And I don’t think you have to be a musician to enjoy it.

When I spotted Geoff, of course I asked (kindly, I hope) for the possibility of a selfie together with him. He was very nice, and willingly accepted to pose in a picture. I presented myself as a “musician from Sweden” (which is true, right?) and I handed him my flyer for my debut album Soundshine. He looked at it and jokingly said “–I will frame this!”. So I’m hoping that beside his multi-platinum discs for Revolver, Sgt Pepper, and Abbey Road he will now have on his living room wall, framed, the flyer of the Paul McCartney of Piteå, David Myhr.

IMG_5560

 

All in all, a Friday evening in my taste!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 


Thank you for everything Sir George Martin!

Posted: March 10th, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Thank you for everything Sir George Martin!

Another sad post today … Sir George Martin has left us at the respectable age of 90. It may have been more expected than when David Bowie passed away two months ago (see my tribute including my renditions of my favorite Bowie songs “Life on Mars” and “Starman” here). But still. Very sad indeed. We’re talking “the fifth Beatle” (Yes. Discussion over. He’s the one!).

You probably already know what an amazing impact he has had on popular music and if not, begin with checking out for instance these 10 moments. So for now, I will spare you my lecture about his life to some other time.

Also, you probably already know that The Beatles mean the world to me. If nothing else, I made it perfectly clear in my four thousand(!) word long blog post from last year about the day I met Paul McCartney. There you can read about my Beatles obsession including links to for instance when I recorded at Abbey Road. So I will spare you that too.

But just to make it clear: The Beatles mean the world to me (and to many more millions of people). And George Martin meant the world for the Beatles.  So in this post, I thought I’d share you my personal memories from my encounters with Sir George Martin.

Already back in 1992 after my band The Merrymakers had recorded our first EP “Andrew’s Store” on Ola Håkansson’s label Stockholm Records we were – like most bands who make their first recording – amazlingly proud of our achievement. So proud that we thought “we just HAVE to let George Martin and Paul McCartney hear this”. Wonderfully juvenile and naive if I may say so myself. We probably already knew when we put the two CD copies in the mailbox back home in Piteå with destination London that the more probable destination was the trash can in some secretary’s office. So you can only imagine our surprise when we got a letter back some time later from George Martin himself!!?

Today the letter was made public for the first time ever on the Merrymakers Facebook-page. Here it is:

George Martin Merrymakers

 

He replied!!! We couldn’t have been more honoured. A “no” from George Martin was one of the biggest moments in our career at that point. It’s true that Bob Dylan had passed on receiving our demo a few months earlier when I tried to hand it to him (another story for the future). His only words were “what is this?”. So with a “what is this?” from Bob Dylan and “I don’t have time to listen” from George Martin one could almost say that we were “dancing with the dinosaurs”. (It wasn’t until our hero Andy Sturmer of Jellyfish  – the second best band ever! – decided to work with us a few years later on our album Bubblegun that our luck turned for real, at least for a while, but that’s another story…)

On to the next episode:  In 1994, in my last year at the university, I played and sang the role of Paul McCartney in an insanely ambitious project – the world premiere of Sgt Pepper Live. We performed the whole album both in a choir version and in an original version featuring the three of us in The Merrymakers in the roles of John, Paul, and George. We ended up going on tour with an ensemble of more than 150 people from my hometown of Piteå, via Stockholm (with a show at Cirkus) to Liverpool’s Empire Theatre to perform for an audience including John Lennon’s first wife Cynthia and the mayor of Liverpool.

In the preparations for the project back in 1993, together with the other two members of the “Sgt Pepper Board” (who were also my teachers at the time), Mikael Långs and professor KG Johansson, I got the wonderful opportunity to actually meet George Martin at his then newly built Air Studios Lyndhurst Hall. I was twenty-three then. (Exactly half of my age right now by the way). And it was one of the biggest moments of my life that far. Already then I had spent thirteen years completely manic about everything Beatles. And here I was at a MEETING with the fifth Beatle himself.

In the written part of my last year’s project at The School of Music in Piteå (where I work nowadays – see my staff profile here) the full story about our dealings with George Martin can be found. But in short (or actually not so short, sorry… it’s for the grandkids!) this happened:

Mr Martin arrived slightly late for our meeting. He was extremly friendly and nice. A true gentleman. He took us on a tour around the premises. It was a surreal experience to have him show us around the newly constructed Air Studios. At the time, unfortunately, I wasn’t as interested in studio construction as I became later (when we built our own studio and became producers in the 00’s). At that moment I was much more fascinated about being so close to the man who was so close to the Beatles. So it was kind of difficult to concentrate on his demonstration of the studio doors and stuff like that.

Here’s the only existing picture of myself and George Martin:

George Martin och David Myhr

 

The studio was not yet quite finished, but very impressive nonetheless. After the tour we sat down to tell him all about our project and about the school. About our musicians and audio engineering program and about our “orchestral weeks”. How we were planning to put up the Sgt. Pepper Live project. That we were planning to direct a lot of teaching at the university around The Beatles and so on.

He noted that it was not an easy task we had taken upon ourselves and immediately got into the more tricky parts: “How are you going to do with a song like, say… Within You Without You?” he asked. (Harrison’s “Indian” track on the album). But of course we had a plan for that as well. KG responded that we planned to bring in musicians who mastered various Indian instruments (including players from Gothenburg and Umeå), and possibly use some samplers and synthesizers as well. (I later bought a tamboura in London only to use in that particular song. Turned out impossible to keep in tune but it looked great!).
He wondered what we wanted him to do if he would come and we explained that it was very much up to him. We told him that we intended to have seminars about the Beatles and that we would be absolutely delighted if he would like to conduct one of those. And that we would love to see him as a conductor at the concert as well. Possibly for some of the works that he himself had written (like for instance the Yellow Submarine suite). He,  just like us, did not think any conductor would be needed on the Sgt Pepper songs
He asked if we had seen the documentary about the recording of Sgt. Pepper, which of course we had. (Remember, kids, this was way before everything was available. Long before YouTube, leaked multi track masters, isolated tracks, and all that kind of stuff…).

In the documentary he sat and pulled the faders on a mixing desk and showed what was on the different channels of Sgt. Pepper. He said he would be able to do something like that “live”. For us it sounded like a dream. Talk about a distinguished  guest speaker for our sound engineer students!

In any case he would be able to help us with some sheet music, he said. But first he wanted us to send some more information about the school including a recording of the rock band and the orchestra. Before we left he promised to give us an answer before the end of April (this was mid-March). His exact quote was: “If I say yes, you will be happy and if I say no, I will give you a good reason why.” To us, it sounded like the perfect deal.

As if this wasn’t enough, he casually asked us if we were “busy” Saturday. Luckily we weren’t so he invited us to a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, where a string quartet performed works by George Martin (and a few other very famous, but also very dead composers). He had the tickets sent to our hotel by motor cycle courier. When the day arrived it turned out we were seated right next to George and his daughter (luckily we had limited our intake somewhat of pints at the pub earlier that day!). I remember running out to the bathroom just before the concert started and in the empty lobby George Martin himself arrived as one of the last guests. When he saw me, he recognized me from the meeting a couple of days earlier, so he greeted me happily with a smile and a little wave. A big little moment for me. It was like we were sort of “mates” (well… in my mind, that is…).

 

We had every reason to be pleased with our visit. I was very taken by the whole thing. After we came back we sent him more material as we had agreed upon so he could listen to both the school’s orchestra and a couple of Merrymakers tracks so he would get an idea about our vocal abilities. The following months we were eagerly awaiting his decision. Unfortunately, he didn’t keep his promise to respond in April. Here I will spare you a lot of details about how kept faxing his (very kind) secretary Shirley Burns, how she recommended us to make our way to Malmö in the fall to meet him in connection to a concert he was involved in with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra. (He still hadn’t given us his final decision but he had at one point, just after coming out of the mixing of Pete Townsend’s then recent staging of the  rock opera “Tommy”, sent a promising letter saying “he would like to be able to come”. Whatever that meant …).

The event in Malmö was overseen by Swedish Beatles expert Staffan Olander who kindly had invited us there. Unfortunately we got the feeling we were kept at arm-length’s distance (Olander probably wanted to let Martin rest between concerts…?). So we felt obliged, having spent some tax payer’s money to get there, to find a reason to  “run into him” in a hotel lobby only to hear (during the somewhat awkard encounter) that he was incredibly busy with upcoming shows in South America and Japan and that he wouldn’t be able to give an answer.  So we went home back north, still without knowing what to expect. The chase went on for another couple of months until finally (after many more twists and turns) were were told by Mrs Burns that he wasn’t going to be able to make it. The reason this time was a rather good one.  He was again (for the first time since the sixties) involved in recordings with no less than The Beatles … !!! It was Beatles Anthology time!

The good news, except the memory for a life-time that it became for me to have met this incredible man in person, was that he kept the promise to borrow us some sheet music. He offered us to use the original(!!!) sheet music for the Yellow Submarine suite (on Spotify here on the second half of the Beatles Yellow Submarine album). Mrs Burns wanted us to send someone over to London to pick them up. (We didn’t even dare to ask them to put them in the mail). It took couple of weeks before they she had them in her hand though because Mr Martin kept forgetting to bring them into town from his home outside of London. She told us it was the first time the sheet music were lent out without Mr Martin himself being present. I got the task to fly over to London to pick them up. (One of my shortest trip abroad ever). And so, only two days before the project started, I came home with the original score of the Yellow Submarine suite written with pencil by George Martin himself. We thought it was an event worth celebrating or at least made special. So I instead of being picked up by car from the neighboring city Piteå,  only a 40 minute ride by car, I was instead picked up at Luleå Airport in a private plane by the other board members (KG and Micke who has a private pilot license).

It was a memory that would last a lifetime for me. And a memory that would last a lunchtime for Georgre Martin (as The Rutles probably would have put it…).

Well, well… since then another twenty-three years have passed. And many other exciting things have happened. But I wanted to have this special memory written down (thanks for making it all the way down here!). I was daring the day would come when George Martin no longer would be with us. And today that day came. All I can say is thank you so much for putting so much incredible music down to tape! It will live on for many generations to come! R.I.P. Sir George Martin. Please say hello from all of us to John and George up in pop heaven!!!

 

Below you can find a couple of photos from the Sgt Pepper Live concerts. (The home-coming shows at a sold out sports arena in Piteå were recorded on multi-track and filmed by multi-camera. I am working since more than a year on finding a way to have it mixed but unfortunately I haven’t been able to find anyone willing to finance the project yet. An approximate amount of 30-50′ SEK would be needed. The board at the Department of Music And Education at Luleå University of Technology,  unfortunately said no when the Sgt Pepper Board applied for funds. And the Curt Boström foundation as well. But I guess if the world have waited more than twenty years for a decent mix it can probably wait a little longer…)

 

The Merrymakers Sgt Pepper Live

The full Sgt Pepper ensemble

 


Coming up soon: The Melody and Madness tour!

Posted: August 24th, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Coming up soon: The Melody and Madness tour!

In a few days I will be going on tour through three countries together with my friend, artist and songwriter colleague Linus of Hollywood! We call it the Melody and Madness tour 2015 (webpage here and Facebook-page here). It’s going to be an acoustic night of melodic pop where we play songs from our respective solo catalogues but also stuff from our former bands The Merrymakers and Size 14 as well as some carefully and lovingly selected cover songs. One of which is Badfinger’s “Come and Get it” (written by McCartney) that will be included on the very exclusive CD-single that we’ll be selling on the tour. (There will also be an exclusive T-shirt for sale – see photo below). On some of the nights we will have distinguished guests joining us on stage, like Peter Kvint (ex-Melony), Per Sunding (ex-Eggstone), Kurt Baker, and El Inquieto Roque.

Here’s Linus (and his dog Louie) explaining a little bit what it’s all about:

Followed by me explaining a little bit what it’s all about:

The tour schedule looks like this:

Aug 27 – Stockholm, Sweden – Waterfront Sunset (Loch & Quay) – feat. Peter Kvint (Melony) – FREE SHOW! (FB event here).

Aug 28 – Uppsala, Sweden – SOLD OUT living room concert

Aug 29 – Malmö, Sweden – Tambourine Studios – PRIVATE EVENT – email us at [email protected] if you would like to attend and we’ll see what we can do!

Aug 31 – London, U.K – The Green Note – TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE (FB event here).

Sep 1 – Loscoe, U.K – living Room concert TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE (FB event here).

(FB event for all Spain shows below here)

Sep 3 – Madrid, Spain – El Intruso – feat. Kurt Baker

Sep 4 – Valencia, Spain – El Loco – feat. El Inquieto Roque

Sep 6 – Madrid, Spain – living Room concert

Sep 7 – Bilbao, Spain – Colegio de Abogados (separate FB event here)

We hope to see you out there! It’ll be fun! Please help us spreading the word! Thanks!

Melody&MadnessInstagram

The exclusive Melody and Madness T-shirt:

11879283_10153199587948871_901435338433401837_o


Soundshine on LP!!!

Posted: July 23rd, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Soundshine on LP!!!

Good news vinyl fans! 

Just like that. Out of the blue! While you’re all out there lazing on all the sunny afternoons I am delighted to bring you a little surprise from the David Myhr record label head quarters at Lojinx, England. Soundshine is available as of TODAY on vinyl. Yes indeed! A real 33 13 rpm microgroove vinyl record. An LP (Long Play)! Get your copy now by clicking this link: http://ljx.cc/soundshine

Up until now I’ve been watching the whole vinyl revival thing from a distance. I’ve remained a digital guy, fascinated as I am with streaming services like Spotify. Having said that, there’s a particular magic about the old LP format that not even I can resist. It obviously has a lot to do with nostalgia. As a small kid in the late 70’s and early 80’s the LP was the medium on which I discovered music (alongside the cassette). I’ll never forget when my sister-in-law Agneta borrowed me her copies of The Beatles red and blue albums. Or how I went to the local record store and bought my own copy of Paul McCartney’s then brand new Tug of war. Not to mention browsing through my brother Niklas record collection discovering David Bowie, Neil Young, Cat Stevens, and other “hip and happening” artists (as you can see I was retro even as a twelve-year-old).
In a (very) old blog post I wrote about how I miss record stores and now the time has come to admit that I also miss the smell, the sound, and above all the look of the LP format. And finally, the longing after something “real” became so strong that I decided to put some hard-earned money into making a vinyl version of Soundshine in hope there’s at least a few people out there that just like me are looking forward to opening it up in the new format, to enjoy the artwork (now bigger than ever!), read the lyrics, the never-ending thank you list, the credits, and everything on the inner sleeve. (Stuff that seems to be completely forgotten these days but which for us music nerds is half the fun). And then to put down the needle and enjoy listening to something so old-fashioned as a “Side A”, flip it over, and then “Side B”.
The two last songs will differ from the digital version. The backwards mumbo jumbo at the end of “Icy Tracks” is gone and the never-ending outro of “Ride Along” is somewhat shortened. This is due to the physical limitations of the LP format. But funnily enough I think it (if possible?) actually may increase the listening experience.
Included with the album is a digital download in case you (just like me) don’t yet have your vinyl player set up. In other words you can still enjoy the packaging and hang it on the wall alongside your Nickelback, and Michael Bolton album covers (they’re the ones you’re supposed to mention when you’re being ironic, right?).
If you didn’t yet familiarize yourself with the album Soundshine from 2012 (see release blog post here) – please check out some quotes here.
I know you’re in the middle of your summer cocktail right now, but hey – a copy of this very exclusive edition is  just a click away at the Lojinx store for 15£ (including V.A.T.).
Peace and love!

Soundshine LP


David Myhr live in New York City

Posted: January 2nd, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , , , | Comments Off on David Myhr live in New York City

Remembering the highlights of 2013 and all the blog posts I never found the time to write. Like this previous one for example. Another fantastic memory is when I played for the first time live in The Big Apple, New York City. As a solo artist that is, because already in 1998 I played there a few times with my former band The Merrymakers. See photo from that occasion here.

Anyway, the background was that my wife Paula and I went to New York City for vacation,  staying at an East Village hotel but also for a few days staying at our great friends Tony (from The Mockers) and Vanessa’s place. I had previously been contacted by an American promoter named Dean Dedopoulos about doing a live show in New York and I thought that this could be the moment to meet the American auidence for the first time  since the release of Soundshine. If not with a full band, at least a solo acoustic performance. Here’s a video with some glimpses from the concert:

Dean (featured with me in the first photo below) is a passionate, enthusiastic and highly energetic guy and he got going. He booked a super cool venue called Stage 72 on West 72nd Street (guess what I was thinking?), and we also found a support act called The Whims who also backed me up on a few songs towards the end of the concert, including a couple of Merrymakers numbers, and of course, like any gathering of melodic pop should include, a Jellyfish song!

On April 5, the event took place. Obviously I was quite nervous. After all, I’m not really used to “headline” concerts in New York and I wasn’t sure if I could expect anyone to come or not. Well for sure, Paula, Dean and his wife, and our hosts Tony & Vanessa were going to come. As well as The Whims. But apart from that…? To my big relief the place became really crowded (after all it wasn’t The Madison Square Garden). And some other good friends showed up like Seth (also from the Mockers) and Kathy, Javier Piñol who made a guest appearance on bass, Todd Stanton (the man behind this video) and his family, singer/songwriter Eytan Mirsky, my friend from grammar school – now famous hair stylist guru in NYC, Krister Atle, record label owner Mark Hershberger (also responsible for the video above – thanks a lot Mark!!!), radio profile David THE Boogieman, Eric Kern from the group Vegas with Randolph (who helped out on the piano on a couple of songs including Merrymakers Japan -97 smash hit “Monument of Me”), his band mate John Ratts, and many other wonderful people who made the night a very memorable one for me. And I hope I didn’t make them regret spending their Friday evening with me and my music.

Here’s also some pictures from the event courtesy of Alex Wender, Mark Hershberger, Todd Stanton, Vanesssa Trost, and a few more (please let me know if you think you should be credited here). Please note the cool T-shirt made specially for the event by Andrew Stanton.

 

David & Dean David & The Whims Foto: Todd Stanton David Myhr live in NYC w The Whims Foto: Vegas with Randolph David Myhr live in NYC2 David Myhr live in NYC3 David Myhr live in NYC4 David, Seth and Javi Merry CDs for sale Set list NYC
Thanks a lot New York!  It was too long between the concerts in 1998 and this one in 2013. I hope to be back much sooner than 2028!

 

Skärmavbild 2014-01-02 kl. 13.06.22


David Myhr supporting Tim Christensen at Debaser Slussen (R.I.P.), Stockholm

Posted: December 31st, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , , , | Comments Off on David Myhr supporting Tim Christensen at Debaser Slussen (R.I.P.), Stockholm

Only now and then every few years I discover an artist that I really get to love. One of my absolute favorites from the last couple of years is the Danish artist Tim Christensen who I can’t stop talking about (for instance in this interview) how great he is and how for example his albums Honeyburst and Superior should be in everyone’s record collection. Since I’m not the shy kind of guy, obviously I “got to get him into my life” and it turns out (not surprisingly) that we share a mutual love for great music in general and The Beatles in particular. So, back in February, when the man was going to make his first apperance (ever!) in Sweden of course I volunteered as his support act. Also it became my first concert at the legendary venue Debaser Slussen in Stockholm.
David M och Tim C promobild
Unfortunately also, the last, since Debaser Slussen has closed down due to the renovations of the whole area Slussen.
Here’s a video clip from the concert where I’m playing “Wanderlust” from my album Soundshine with my backing band (to see who was in this great line-up, see the You Tube “About” field).


David och TimDavid och Tim efterfest

First Tim looks excited, then a few hours later I’m the one smiling while Tim’s thinking… this Swedish guy is really intense…
I had already met Tim Christensen once before at this UNBELIAVABLE McCartney tribute show  in Copenhagen that my wife and I went to where he, Mike Viola, and Tracy Bonham with full band were playing the full RAM album on Macca’s 70th birthday (what a great way to celebrate!). I can strongly recommend the DVD (just watch this trailer and you’ll understand). Here’s an Instagram picture with Mike Viola, Tim Christensen and myself, from the party afterwards where McCartney and Beatles songs were played in the speakers for hours and hours…

Mike, Tim, David

 

 


Three hour mix video and interview in Swedish music magazine “Studio” (4-2013)

Posted: March 26th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Three hour mix video and interview in Swedish music magazine “Studio” (4-2013)

Newsflash! It seems that Swedish media finally have “discovered” Soundshine! In the new issue of  “Studio” (4-2013) which is a music magazine specializing in recording and music production (and that I’m an avid reader of myself) you will find a three hour(!) long “mix video” featuring myself talking about the writing, recording, and production of my song “Never Mine” which as many of you know is the opening track of my solo debut album Soundshine. (Feel free to have a listen on the Spotify player to the right!).

The magazine says (kindly) that Soundshine is a “fantastic solo debut” and that it’s “sprängfyllt med gnistrande poppärlor” which would be something like “filled to the brim with glimmering pop pearls”. Don’t know if that works in English though… Should anyone (except for me) be on the look for nice praise over the album in “real” English  you can also check out Hooks and Harmony who named Soundshine the album of the year (followed by interview here).

Studio

In the STUDIO interview I talk about how the idea for the verse melody came to me already back in 2006 and how I reworked it over a two year to period until I finally was happy with it and how the song was put on hold while The Merrymakers were still active (or should we say inactive?) as a band but became an obvious choice for me to include on my album once I was a solo artist. By then it was up to no one but me to decide whether my songs were good enough or not – and guess if they were! (Insert laughter here…)

I also discuss at length about the choice of co-producer (and drummer) Andreas Dahlbäck, session musicians Anders Petterson, Rikard Lidhamn and more, and you will see unique video clips from the recording, how the drums were miked etc. Above all the mix video contains a detailed run-through on-screen insight into my Logic (recording software) project. There you will see which instruments are part of the arrangement and how they were recorded and treated from a production perspective.

Also, in the last part of video you get to meet Marcus Black who mixed the whole album where he discusses his approach to mixing in general and to the mix of “Never Mine” in detail (with an on-screen run-through of his Pro Tools project). At the very end we talk a little bit about the mastering at Abbey Road and you will be invited to see the mastering room of senior engineer Steve Rooke who apart from my album has worked with among many, many other artists Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Not to mention the recent re-mastering of The Beatles themselves.

The magazine also features an article about myself and the recording of Soundshine. So if you are in Sweden (or know Swedish) and you are interested in the above I hope you find your way to the magazine store this month. Or if you’re living the modern digital life you can buy it as a pdf here.

UPDATE: As en Easter egg STUDIO magazine is offering the video link for free! Just click the picture below to get access to the three hour video (in eight parts). Remember to click the HD symbol so it becomes grey (not white) in order to get high quality.

 

Skärmavbild 2013-03-28 kl. 16.07.31

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A million big humble thanks to chief editor Mats Stålbröst and business manager Andreas Hedberg at STUDIO for showing an interest in my music and sharing it with their readers.

Please let me know what you think about the article in the comment section below or at my Facebook Page.

 


“Never Mine (Abbey Road Version)” – Video premiere!

Posted: January 2nd, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on “Never Mine (Abbey Road Version)” – Video premiere!

What “a day in the life”! Recording at ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS!!!

I have always loved the Beatles. And I will surely do ’til the day I die. One of the biggest highlights in my “Beatles career” (update: THIS was bigger!!!!) was to be able to spend a day in legendary Studio 2 at Abbey Road to record an alternate version of my song “Never Mine” which is the opening track of my debut album Soundshine. Check out the video and continue reading below for full background story.

Since my first visit to London back in 1990 I have never missed the opportunity while in town to visit the famous crossing at Abbey Road. But until 2011 I had never been able to actually enter the building. It was in May when I did it for the first time since I (in a strike of megalomania) had chosen this legendary place for the mastering of Soundshine. Read more about this occasion in this blog post.

Little did I know then that the doors would open for me again only six months later, and this time to RECORD in frickin’ Studio 2!!! Yes, THAT studio…!

How that came about  – from out of the blue – is something you are more than welcome to read about in this blog post from Nov 2011.

I wrote then; “today we’re not here to try to change music history but more to study the process of how music history was made from within the actual room were a big part of it was created. I hope to be able to share the result with you sometime in a not too distant future”. That distant future is NOW! Almost fourteen months later…! The reasons for the delay are many. One being that Thomas Juth who took the initiative (which I will be forever grateful for!) is a highly demanded sound engineer in London and therefore hasn’t been able to find the time to work on the mix from this little “hobby project” (although very close to his heart). Thomas is a really sweet (and also cool) guy who has worked with many great names and I mean GREAT(!). Read more about his impressive track record on his own home page.

Also I have been quite busy myself with the activities surrounding the release of Soundshine as well as the post production of my live show at PDOL And like so many others, I also happen to have a “real job” to take care of. (What I do for a living is something I talk about in this interview from Hooks and Harmony).

However, when I was asked to be part of a free download sampler (yes that’s where you’ll find the song I’m talking about here!) released by the music blog Real Gone  (who by the way made a really nice review of Soundshine here) I decided it was time to have a proper mix made. The mix is a combination of Thomas Juths ground work and Soundshine engineer Marcus Black’s fine adjustments.

I really wanted to be able to offer a video clip as well but there was no time and no money (as always…). But then Christmas came I and went to Spain with my wife to spend time with her family. And in between tapas, dinners, family life, and a gig at Festival Alta Fidelidad in Madrid, I finally found some time to take my first, stumbling steps as a video editor using Final Cut Pro X. And with the very little rough material I had from my iPhone standing on a tripod (and a couple of other cell phones in the room) I’ve tried to make a little video documenting this very special moment.

It was really a day in paradise for us Beatle geeks and we spent more than half of the precious ten hours staring at Beatles microphones and Beatles compressor and that kind of stuff. The recording became kind of secondary and something we really did “just for fun”. Considering all this I’m really happy with the final result. It’s obvious that we do not hide our love for the Beatles in the way it’s produced and played. And that’s also my reason for not releasing it on Spotify or iTunes or on CD. As much as I love the Beatles, and to play their songs, I don’t want my own stuff to be TOO Beatlesque and end up being categorized next to The Rutles.

To put even more weight into this occasion I decided to write a little piece of lyrics for this world premiere:

It was fourteen months ago today

Thomas Juth invited me to play

To try to recreate the Beatles style

was guaranteed to raise a smile

So may I introduce to you

The song you’ve known for just a year

David Myhr’s “Never Mine” in Abbey Roooooooooooaddd….

Hope you enjoy the video and the free download of the song! I look very much forward to your comments both here on the blog, on my YouTube Channel, and on my Facebook Page.

A splendid time is guaranteed for all!

Abbey Road photo

Special thanks to Thomas Juth and his brother Fredrik Juth (who played bass and drums) for inviting me to this very special occasion. Thanks also to Michael Bianco, Dyre Gormensen who were part of the recording process. And to Andrew Campbell at Lojinx who co-ordinated the Real Gone release. To Amy Campbell for shooting some nice photos (including the one above) at Abbey Road. And to Henrik Irgens and my wife Paula who also made the day even more pleasant through their sheer presence.


“Live at PDOL” – concert video premiere!

Posted: September 27th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on “Live at PDOL” – concert video premiere!
Six months before the Japanese release of Soundshine and nine months before the European release I entered the main stage at PDOL (an abbreviation for “Piteå Dansar och Ler”
which is Swedish for “Piteå dances and smiles”). It’s an annual street festival in my former home town Piteåway up north in Sweden which usually gather at least some 25,000 visitors.

For the occasion I used the same backing band as I did on my premiere show in Piteå earlier the same year. Andreas Dahlbäck on drums who also played drums on the album and acted as my sounding board in the recording process which led to me entitling him “co-producer” of the album. Robert van der Zwan (Poplabbet) and Krille Eriksson played guitars, Erik Jonsson (The Fix) played bass, and Joel Sjödin (Mankind) played keyboards. An amazing backing group if you ask me. Furthermore we were joined on two songs by the horn section Horny Minds from local blues heroes Ramblin’ Minds, and last but not least we were honored to have one of the finest Swedish current female pop artists around… Edith Backlund!

I have played at this festival a few times before over the last twenty years, both with the Merrymakers in the 90’s, not to mention our short “revival” in 2007, and also at reunions of my early bands from my youth (Ant-Mansson and 2nd Hand B band). I’ve also played there with the ABBA tribute band Super Trouper in which I play the part of Benny Andersson. However, this was the first time that I entered the main stage of the festival, and what’s more as a solo artist. In that sense it was kind of a big moment for me so I decided to document it properly which included renting a multi-track recorder and hire a film crew.
Time has proved it difficult to come out to meet audiences in other countries with a full backing band. Instead I’ve made solo acoustic gigs – like for instance in Spain in March. It’s true, there are rare exceptions like when I played in Tokyo with local backing musicians or in London on the Lojinx release party where I had a full band. But as the situation is right now it doesn’t look like a proper world tour with a full backing group is happening…
Therefore, I am now very pleased to  be able to share this live experience  and fond memory with anyone, anywhere, who might be interested. The 47 minute film documents not only the entire show including all the talk between the songs (subtitled in English – only for you!), but also a little bit of life back stage including the nervous artist only seconds before going on stage and the after show hugs while the credits are running to the soundtrack of the re-mix of Looking for a life.
Put on your best headphones, get your beverage, sit back, and enjoy! A splendid time is guaranteed for all! I really hope you like what you see and hear and if you do, please feel free to comment, and of course to share. For those of you who want to have a high quality, hi res experience, I am open for burning DVD’s of the occasion. Don’t hesitate to contact me  in order to discuss the practicalities…
And hopefully one day I’ll be able to bring the band, come to YOUR town and play IRL!
Have a nice weekend!