David Myhr - Soundshine

Concert movie and live album from David Myhr: “Made in Piteå”

Posted: October 23rd, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Concert movie and live album from David Myhr: “Made in Piteå”


Today I’m happy to present the concert movie (and live album!) titled “Made in Piteå”!!!

Please feel free to share the video on YouTube using this link:

bit.ly/madeinpiteayoutube

After the release of my Nashville-recorded album Lucky Day in 2018 I played a couple of shows in my hometown Stockholm (including the release party at Debaser Strand). But also at such widely different places in the world such as Sundsvall, Madrid, Burgos, San Diego, Los Angeles (live video here), San Francisco, Tokyo, and Osaka(!). But none of the shows were as grandiose and magnificent as the one in my former hometown Piteå on November 21, 2018, at Black Box, Studio Acusticum. There I was backed up by a fabulous backing band with some of the country’s foremost musicians consisting of the album’s co-producer Andreas Dahlbäck on drums, the songwriter/producer Peter Kvint on guitar, Jerker Odelholm on bass, Mikaela Hansson on keyboards, and Robert van der Zwan on guitar.

Finally, today, the concert movie and the live album from this unique live concert are being released. Both with the title Made in Piteå. Apart from songs from my solo debut Soundshine (2012) and my latest album Lucky Day (including Swedish national radio P4 favourites ”Jealous Sun” and ”The Perfect Place”), the set list also includes the movie song and ELO pastiche ”Spellbound” known from the Ulf Malmros movie Flykten till Framtiden, the Myhr/Kvint song ”Record Collection”. As well as ”April’s Fool” from my former power pop band The Merrymakers that was written together with Jellyfish frontman Andy Sturmer. On top of that we play my version of the Costello/McCartney classic ”Veronica”. In short – a night full of pop candy of highest caliber!

About the title Made in Piteå, it’s a declaration of love to my former hometown where I grew up. Both the concert and myself are actually made in Piteå. And Deep Purple had already taken the title Made in Japan for their live album…

The love for my hometown may at least to some extent be answered. Only days after the concert it stood clear that I could round off the year titled the winner of the 2018 Municipality of Piteå Culture Prize.

Artwork for the live album Made in Piteå by David Myhr (Photo by Jonas Nordqvist)

My day job is as a senior lecturer at the The School of Music at Luleå University of Technology. In Piteå. (It takes me some five hours door to door to commute to work including an hour and twenty minutes by plane. And that’s one-way…). And the concert itself was part of an initiative called ”The University Presents” where the university’s artistic production is displayed. The majority of the songs on Lucky Day were written during a co-writing trip to Los Angles, Nashville, and New York and those also constitute the sounding, artistic output of a licentiate thesis that I’m hoping to finish ”any year soon”. However, the concert movie and the live album are done at my own initiative and expense. I even went as far as renting oriental rugs as stage decoration from the neighbouring city Luleå in my eagerness to create a “Tom Petty-vibe”. Any voluntary financial contribution for a virtual concert ticket to paypal.me/davidmyhr (or for Swedes to Swish 123 546 84 26) for the production would be very welcome. Only in case that you enjoy it of course! But it’s nothing I’m counting on. It just had to be done anyway. I felt this would be “the definitive David Myhr-concert”. And it was exactly what it became! So I felt it was of outmost importance to preserve this moment in time for the grandkids! (Although grandkids might be a few years away given that I became a first-time father earlier this year a few days after my fiftieth birthday.)

Please note that the movie has English subtitles if you turn on captions on YouTube. It will certainly help you understand what i’m saying between the songs!

Here’s an interview about the release for Sveriges Radio P4 Norrbotten:

And here are some pictures of the fine people in my backing band taken from my mysterious “campaign” the days before the release on my Instagram Page.

The concert is mixed by Andreas Quincy Dahlbäck at Durango Recording and the video is edited by Niklas Karlsson.

Here’s the complete setlist:

1 Wait Until The Moment (Myhr/Jones)
2 Never Mine (Myhr)
3 Looking For A Life (Myhr/Mattsson/Eskelin)
4 Room To Grow (Myhr/DeMain)
5 Lucky Day (Myhr/Jones)
6 Record Collection (Myhr/Kvint)
7 My Negative Friend (Myhr/Hines)
8 The Only Thing I Really Need Is You (Myhr)
9 April’s Fool (The Merrymakers/Sturmer)
10 I Love The Feeling (Myhr)
11 Lovebug (Myhr/Dotson)
12 The Perfect Place (Myhr)
13 Jealous Sun (Myhr/Bleu)
14 Spellbound (Lagnefors/Myhr)
15 Veronica (Costello/McCartney)
16 Got You Where He Wanted (Myhr)

Please enjoy! Peace and love!

 

Andreas Quincy Dahlbäck, Peter Kvint, Mikaela Hansson, David Myhr, Jerker Odelholm, Robert van der Zwan (Photo by Jonas Nordqvist)


“The Perfect Place” – the fourth track from Lucky Day released!

Posted: April 6th, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , | Comments Off on “The Perfect Place” – the fourth track from Lucky Day released!

And so it’s time to present for the fourth track from my album Lucky Day! It’s also the second single that goes out to radio here in Sweden.

The song is called “The Perfect Place” and was actually the first track that was recorded, before the whole project became an American adventure. This was before the co-writing trip and before the decision that Andreas Dahlbäck and I would go over to Nashville to record with Brad Jones.

 

You can also find it on your favorite streaming/download service, for instance on Spotify, in this ever-growing Lucky Day playlist:

The recording took place at Durango Recording with Andreas Dahlbäck as producer. It was Andreas’ idea to take two of my different melodic ideas that both had descending bass lines, and putting them together into one song. I only had to try to find a “magic chord” to put in between them to make it work. I am very thankful to Andreas for suggesting this! No wonder I keep coming back to working with him!

Here’s a nice group picture from the recording of the basic tracks:

(David Myhr, Andreas Dahlbäck, Joel Löf, Olov Domeij, Elias Ortiz, Alicia Carlestam, Andrei Amartinesei)

Hanna Ekström beautifully performing our string arrangement on “The Perfect Place”.

Now, don’t forget to pre-order Lucky Day here! It’s the only way to get hold of the limited edition of the Lucky Day T-shirt!). Please note that the CD version has four bonus tracks (including “Spellbound”!!!)  that you won’t be able to get anywhere else!

 


“Wait Until The Moment” – the third track from Lucky Day released!

Posted: March 19th, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , , | Comments Off on “Wait Until The Moment” – the third track from Lucky Day released!



And then they were three! While we’re all(?) awaiting the release of my second solo album Lucky Day, by now there are three “instant grat” tracks available for download for those who pre-order the album, no matter if you order a physical copy on CD or vinyl (and T-shirt?) at Lojinx, or if you’ve pre-order the album through iTunes. The first one was “Jealous Sun” (which by the way has been added to Swedish Radio P4’s playlist!!!), the second one “Room To Grow”, and now “Wait Until The Moment”. It will be followed by more surprises along the way!

While awaiting your vinyl or CD you can also enjoy the instant grat tracks on this growing Lucky Day playlist on Spotify:

I’m also very proud that it has been added by Spotify themselves to this playlist with current (mainly Swedish) releases.

In the future you will be able to see and hear the full story about how “Wait Until The Moment” came about, but for now all I can say is that I wrote it together with producer Brad Jones who took my stomping uptempo piano based melodic idea and turned it into something that, to me, sounded very beautiful in its laid back, bossa nova-ish vibe. It went from power pop to… well what is it? Is it Yacht Rock? You decide for yourself!

The song features one of my favourite lyric lines on the (coming) album; ”Break my heart a little and I’ll do the same for you” which was a little ”couplet” that Brad had lying around for years that he finally found use for.

Let me also be a bit nostalgic and take you back to my co-writing trip in 2015 when we put the song together. This is a clip from the control room at Alex The Great Recording in Nashville, just after Brad had constructed a percussive loop from his own sample library, trying it out with the Spanish guitar that he later added to the recording:

Stuck in Brazil…

Posted by David Myhr on Monday, February 9, 2015

And, here’s a clip from my late night vocal overdub session. Brad had instructed me so well on how he wanted me to sing it, so I thought I’d have a go at it right away. It turned out 18 months later that Brad was very happy with the result of that night’s vocal takes, so we decided not to re-record it:

 

Lastly, please feel free to enjoy a live version of the song, from Andreas Dahlbäck’s Durango Recording, where I had the incredible opportunity to put both my dear co-producers in the same room, together with brilliant young Theo Stocks on pedal steel, a former student at The School of Music at Luleå University of Technology, where I work, who happened to be in Nashville with his class-mates only a couple of weeks after the album recording in 2016. I got the idea to ask Brad to have him play some pedal steel on a couple of tracks on the record (“Lucky Day” and “The Only Thing I Really Need Is You”). He did a fantastic job both at the recording and in this live clip. Please enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 


The day I met Benny Andersson

Posted: December 8th, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The day I met Benny Andersson

Alright folks… breaking news… I met Benny!!!

Please let me begin by apologising for the radio silence here on my news blog since the release of my ELO flavoured film song “Spellbound” which by the way turned into my career-peak (so far!) on Swedish radio. I can assure you that exciting things are in the pipeline for 2018 given that I have now finished the recordings of my second solo album (more about the recordings here). It’s about time considering my solo debut album Soundshine came out in 2012. Please register to the news-letter here on the side to stay updated! (Very few e-mails per year, I promise!).

What now causes me to break the silence (except for the fact that I’ve recently mostly been posting updates on my Facebook artist page) is the fact that I finally got to meet my life-long hero Benny Andersson of ABBA fame! It happened exactly a week ago, on Dec 1, 2017, at the12th Art of Record Production Conference, hosted by the Royal College of Music, Stockholm, Sweden.

 

 

A little over three years ago I experienced the handshake of my life. (Feel free to read my 4000 words long post about the day I met Paul McCartney). Even though it’s obviously impossible to beat, there are still a few hands I would really like to shake before I (or they) die. Now that both Tom Petty and David Bowie very sadly are out of the question (see my Petty tribute here, my Bowie tribute here) I can only wish for Jeff Lynne (read about my near-Jeff experience here). But also, of course, my Swedish heroes from the world phenomenon that is ABBA!

Whenever a Swede goes abroad we talk (proudly) of IKEA and of course ABBA. After all, they are indisputable true legends of music history in the BIG league. Loved by (almost) everybody! They sold over (unbelievable!) 400 million records worldwide and were the beginning of the Swedish music export phenomenon. As for me personally, not only did I grow up with ABBA, but they have always been present in my life one way or another. I remember hearing Waterloo on the radio as a child in the 70’s. I loved the piano outro of Chiquitita already before I became obsessed by the Beatles.  With the help of Andy Sturmer of Jellyfish as a producer, when I was in the Merrymakers, we borrowed inspiration from ABBA’s “Money Money Money” for the intro of “April’s Fool”. And through the years in the music business the ABBA stories have always been around. But most of all, ABBA has been a part of my professional life as a musician for the last 16 years. As a sideline I’m a Benny impersonator in the Swedish tribute (eight-piece) band Super Trouper which has offered hundreds of shows in Sweden and the Nordic countries. See below for a picture with me (and the other three “ABBAs”) in my wig and my platform shoes.

But years ago, I have also at a few occasions been a “Benny” stand-in in the internationally successful production ABBA The Music (later divided into The Show and The Visitors) playing together with members of the original ABBA band like Janne Schaffer, Lasse Wellander, Uffe Andersson, and Roger Palm. In this context I have toured the US (including shows at the legendary Hollywood Bowl in front of 16,000 people), Spain (World Expo in Zaragoza 2008), Cyprus, Holland, Belgium etc.

So the thought of meeting Benny has always been somewhat of a fantasy of mine. It hasn’t seem completely unlikely that it could happen one day considering we live in the same city and he’s out and about, I visit his studio every now and then, and that I know quite a few people who work with, or has worked with, him.

The first time I spotted Benny and his wife was at Malmö airport as a kid back in 1979. But I’ve also more or less bumped into him at a restaurant in Stockholm, at the Swedish Grammy awards, outside of his studio (where I’ve brought students through the years, see below). I’ve visited one of his summer houses at a party hosted by Tommy Körberg and so on. I also saw Björn and Benny salute an enormous crowd in Hyde Park in 2009. But again,  I have never got the chance to exchange a few words and shake his hand until a week ago!

It  happened on the day I was about to present a paper (“Observing melody in solo songwriting”) at the ARP conference (mentioned above) talking about methodologies from my on-going research project in the melody writing process. Benny was invited as a secret guest for a “celebrity interview”. Word got out (thanks to my assistant supervisor, friend and academic role-model Joe Bennett!) that “Benny is in the building” and I searched my way to the lobby of the Royal College of Music in Stockholm where the conference was taking place. It turned out Benny had come an hour too early and was told to come back in a while. So I thought I’d better stick around. And suddenly, the God of melodies himself walks into the building!

I recently had the honour of exchanging a couple of e-mails with Benny from my position as a senior lecturer at The School of Music at Luleå University of Technology (LTU) (see my staff profile here). LTU awarded Benny an honorary doctorate in 2012, Philosophical Faculty. So I could refer to that as my “ice breaker”, presenting myself briefly, and greeted him with a hand shake. Selfie-obsessed as I am, obviously it would be great to have a picture of this moment as well, so I asked him if he was okay with me taking a photo. He said it was no problem and jokingly asked “Shall I comb my hair?”. I answered that we looked great and took the picture. See my Facebook post here and Instagram post here.

A little later I put myself in the centre of the first row (where else?) when the “celebrity interview” took place. The interview was conducted by music researcher and former artist in his own right Göran Folkestad (who I got to know personally over a piano later in the evening singing “Oh Darling!” together after a couple of beers).
After so many years of reading about it, like for instance in this fine interview from Dagens Nyheter, or seeing it on TV (for instance in the talk show Skavlan not long ago), finally I was about to hear about melody making from Benny Andersson himself. An incredible opportunity that I feel very blessed to have experienced with my own eyes!
In the interview Benny talked about how it all began for him. How music came into his life since his father and grandfather were playing the accordion (with him playing along). His grandfather never complained about Benny’s playing and partly thanks to that eventually he got really good at it.  He also talked about how his wise mother got a piano for him and his sister back in 1956. He said: “–Once that piano came into the house. I started playing. Tried to… And since that first day I’ve been sitting at the piano, I could say, nearly every day. For 60 years. Because I like it. You know… It’s like… I have a connection… or maybe music has the connection with me.”
Folkestad started to ask very interesting questions about his compositional process. Considering my own interest in the subject, and how many times I’ve talked in my songwriting classes about Benny’s work methods (sit by the piano and work, work, work, until the ideas show up), it was almost unreal that he now not only sat there in front of me talking about just that. But also offered a demonstration on the piano!
He was saying: “–Because when I play something that I don’t ’know what it is, like in the composing process, it’s like… mostly rubbish. I can’t explain why that is. I can give you an example of how it is, but…”
Fokestad (and the audience): “–Yeah, please do!”
Benny: “–Yeah, well… Shall I?”
And since you made your way all down here in this blog post I am now very happy to be able to offer you to see exactly what I saw! Enjoy!

Filmed from the first row by myself. His highly fascinated disciple. It was kind of silly really. On the very day I’m supposed to talk about the process of melody writing Benny shows up! Talk about a humbling experience. He summed up the process in nine words: “–You have to get rid of all the rubbish!”.
And who do you think asked the first question from the audience once the interview was over? Good guess!
David Myhr: ”–OK, can I go? First row… sorry for taking the spot… First of all I want to thank you for coming and I can testify that I think you’re wrong saying you’re not an artist* because I’ve been a Benny impersonator for twenty years as a sideline and there’s a lot of head-shaking going on.”
Benny: ”–Yeah, yeah, but that was in the 60’s! I was an artist then!”**
DM: ”–But my question is, being a Beatles fan, I always read about what John did, what Paul did. They both spoke about it in separate interviews. And I’m very curious about , having read your interview in Dagens Nyheter, that you always when you compose melodies, there are never lyrics included in the process. So,  I was wondering – how did you work together in general? And if there’s a specific example it would be fantastic.”
Benny: ”–Well, do you mean during the days with ABBA?”
David: ”–Yeah, exactly”
Benny:
”–We were sitting together. I was hammering along on the piano and Björn on the guitar. And we kept on doing that until something came up. You know.  And sometimes there would be a lyric line like ”Money Money Money ” because it sits with (humming the main theme). That we tried to get rid of that actually! He wrote like three lyrics. And I said no, it’s not good. Money money… But the thing… there was a song called ”Money’, and there was a song called ‘Money Money’.  So we had to call it ‘Money Money Money’.
Yeah but we worked tightly together. Then at the time. Then that changed a bit. It actually started with ’Chess’ I think.
Since then I’ve been doing the music on my own. He always writes the lyrics. If he wants to. I always ask him first. Yeah…”
David: ”–Thank you!”
*) he actually suggested during the interview he’s just a songwriter/arranger/producer and together with ABBA live a ”backing musician” and not an ”artist”
**) In the 60’s Benny was in the biggest group of Scandinavia: Hep Stars! (see Benny behind the organ here)
In the pictures below you see me with Benny’s sound engineer and “right hand” since back in the 80’s, the sound engineer wizard Bernard Löhr (who by the way we once hired to mix The Merrymakers “Spinning My Mind Away”). He made a very interesting keynote speech the same morning. You will also find a couple of pictures from Benny’s studio Rixmixningsverket , a studio which house engineer Linn Fijal has been kind enough to show me and my students from The School of Music at Luleå University of Technology a number of times. In the small picture we see how the grand piano was miked during the recording of Benny’s new (beautiful!) album Piano.
It’s a worn-out cliché to say it. But what else is there to say, so here I go: Thank you for the music, Benny!
p.s. Feel free to check out my simple and very stripped-down version of one of ABBA’s many genius melodies: “Happy New Year” 

 

 

 


 


”Spellbound” – new ELO-flavoured single by David Myhr from the soundtrack for “Flykten till Framtiden” (“My Future Love”) directed by Ulf Malmros

Posted: October 14th, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on ”Spellbound” – new ELO-flavoured single by David Myhr from the soundtrack for “Flykten till Framtiden” (“My Future Love”) directed by Ulf Malmros

It’s been an unusally busy week here on the blog with the news of the recent Nasvhille recordings of David Myhr’s future second album (and the US co-writing trip that preceeded it). But now on to something completely different… a brand new single from an upcoming movie and an accompanying lyric video!!!

On the 11th of November Flykten till Framtiden (English title: My Future Love) hits cinemas in Sweden. The feature-length film is directed by Ulf Malmros and Jaana Fomin and stars Henrik Dorsin, Elias Palin, Victoria Dyrstad and Johan Ulveson.

The time-travel themed narrative is partially set in 1973 and for this composer Jimmy Lagnefors was hired to create a soundtrack authentic to the period. When the director specifically requested a song that “sounds like Electric Light Orchestra” Lagnefors brought in songwriter/artist David Myhr to collaborate.

Myhr, with his background in the 90’s power pop combo The Merrymakers and, in particular, his 2012 album Soundshine (Lojinx), has demonstrated a knack for creating fresh, modern, pop music with roots firmly in the classic tradition of McCartney & Lynne. It was no surprise that Myhr jumped at the chance. (Read more about David’s relation to Jeff Lynne here).

Lagnefors and Myhr were also behind the song “Vänta inte på mig” (“Don’t wait for me”) in last year’s Swedish box office smash Micke & Veronica. With the new song ”Spellbound” the songwriting duo has managed to create “”the song that E.L.O. never made”. It features heavily in the film and plays when the credits roll.

The first interviews with David Myhr about “Spellbound” are expected soon. Follow David Myhr’s Facebook page for updates.

Elias Palin (som Svante), Victoria Dyrstad (som Elsa), Henrik Dorsin (som Bengan) Stillbildsfoto: Johan Bergmark

Elias Palin (som Svante), Victoria Dyrstad (som Elsa), Henrik Dorsin (som Bengan)
Stillbildsfoto: Johan Bergmark

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Here is the official video for “Spellbound”:

Lyric video for “Spellbound”.

 

 

The single “Spellbound” is released in Sweden, and the rest of Europe, on 14th of October on British indie label Lojinx. (See Lojinx own relase page here).

You can find it on Spotify and iTunes and the lyric video here (and the official video here). It is also available in the USA and the rest of the world on the same day on all digital platforms through Myhr’s self-owned label Monogram Recordings.

“Spellbound” is the first David Myhr since last year’s cover single with Elvis Costello’s “Veronica” and Secret Service’s “Oh Susie”.

If you want to get a glimpse of the movie Flykten till Framtiden, check out this trailer:

 

David Myhr (2016)

David Myhr in Nasvhille, September 2016. Photo: Andreas Dahlbäck


Co-writing research trip to Los Angeles, Nasvhille, New York

Posted: October 10th, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , | Comments Off on Co-writing research trip to Los Angeles, Nasvhille, New York

On the days when I’m not active as an aspiring pop star (which are many!) I attend my day job as a senior lecturer at Musikhögskolan i Piteå (The School of Music in Piteå) under LTU (Luleå University of Technology). (See my staff profile here). It’s a job where I get the opportunity to coach young and talented songwriters, teach music business knowledge, and try to build ”bridges” between the students and professionals within the music industry. As a part of my job, I also conduct artistic research as a doctoral student where I deal with a great passion of mine – the process of making melodies.

My project is called Pop into my head – The making and shaping of melodies in popular music. To be able to take a closer look at the process I’ve documented (on video and audio) the actual moment of the making of a bunch of melodies. For this purpose, last year (February 3-18, 2015), I made a research trip to Los Angeles, Nashville, and New York where I had the great pleasure of working with some of the writers that have inspired me with their work. In L.A. I worked with Linus of Hollywood (known from the Melody & Madness tour) and Lojinx stable mate Blue. (See Facebook video blogs: Hello from L.A on a sunshiny day… and Video blogging from the car…).

 

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After that I came to Nasvhille where I wrote with Daniel Tashian (The Silver Seas), Bill DeMain (Swan Dive), and most of all most of all with an old musical hero of mine, producer/songwriter Brad Jones. With him I co-wrote no less than four songs. We even started to record three of them in his studio Alex the great recording. (Check Facebook video blogs: Video blog update from Brad Jones’ Alex the Great…, Stuck in Brazil…, At Alex the great recording and the YouTube-clip Late night session).

 

After Nashville I finished the trip in New York where I wrote with Scott Klass (The Davenports), Danny Weinkauf (They Might Be Giants) (which, surprisingly, resulted in this kids song), Steve Schiltz (Long Wave, Hurricane Bells) and Young Hines (although in his case it was an on-line collaboration). (See Facebook video blogs From the streets of New York, From the SKAP apartment in New York).

The great news is that from these session a bunch of new songs for my FUTURE SECOND ALBUM was written!!! More about this (including yet another bunch of link video blogs)  in a blog post coming soon!

Here’s a few pictures from the co-writing trip (including one of me and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith fame at Nashville airport, who I unfortunately didn’t get the chance to co-write with…)

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Welcome to Stockholm Graham Nash

Posted: June 18th, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , | Comments Off on Welcome to Stockholm Graham Nash

Graham Nash is one of my all time favorite artists. I love his amazing (often high) vocal harmonies in the Hollies, and then later in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. But also his wonderful songs! “Our House” just to name one classic that easily can move me to tears. But what I love most about Graham Nash is his solo debut album “Songs for beginners” from 1971. My brother Niklas had it on vinyl and when The Merrymakers used to start coming to Stockholm in the early 90’s we always (always!) played it at every after party we ever had. And since then I’ve always come back to the record. We also included it in the booklet of “No Sleep’ til famous” as one of the ten “other compact discs that will give you guaranteed listening pleasure”. Make sure though, if you check it out on Spotify for instance that you avoid the 2008 Stereo mix. It sounds terrible to my ears. (Almost as bad as when they remixed the great albums by ZZ Top from the seventies). So just follow this link and you’ll be fine.

Anyway – I’m very excited that tonight (on Paul McCartney’s 74th birthday – my friend you know) I will get to see him live for the first time in my life. So excited that I’m preparing a pre-party at Noel’s and made a little clip of myself singing his wonderful tune “Wounded bird”. Enjoy!

So again – welcome to Stockholm Graham Nash!!! Be yourself!

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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:

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New video for “Oh Susie” (Secret Service cover)

Posted: April 18th, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , | Comments Off on New video for “Oh Susie” (Secret Service cover)

Less than a month after the video premiere of the Elvis Costello cover “Veronica”, it’s now time for yet another video premiere. This time it’s the recent singles B-side “Oh Susie” that has been honored with a video clip.

Read the full background story on the “Veronica” / “Oh Susie” single in this blog post or at this release page over at my label Lojinx.

“Oh Susie” can be found both on iTunes and Spotify.

In the video you will find the three performers on the track which are:

David Myhr – vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, harpsichord
Hanna Ekström – strings
Andreas Dahlbäck – drums, percussion

The video editing and post production is made by Todd Productions, Inc.

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The day I met Paul McCartney

Posted: August 2nd, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The day I met Paul McCartney

“A day in the life” I will never forget.

 

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Maybe I’m amazed? No, forget maybe. I’m amazed! Here’s my story. I want to share it with you in case you just like me have had this dream for some time. I’ve been very thankful over the years for being able to listen to or read about any story about meetings with Paul McCartney (whether it has been one of my lucky friends or some famous person like Dave Grohl, Ozzy Osbourne, president Obama or whoever…). So this is my little contribution to the mythology of meeting a true legend. I met Bob Dylan in 1992 (which I will blog about some other time). And that was as high in the world of popular music as you can get. At least in theory, since he was the only person (except for Elvis Presley) that The Beatles themselves were dying to meet when they came to America back in 1964. But still – for me, and millions of other people around the globe, nothing beats meeting a Beatle! (As comedian Dana Carvey so well describes here. Not to mention comedian Bill Bailey here [2021 update]). It will take a while to read so enjoy your favorite beverage and put on your choice of music on Spotify. You can for instance, just as a suggested starting point, choose between my solo debut album Soundshine or Paul McCartney’s second solo album RAM.

As everyone who knows me know very well… I breathe The Beatles. They are my religion. I was born in 1970, only some forty days before the Beatles officially broke up. My fascination with the band, however, began after the tragic death of John Lennon when I was only 10 years old. Already a month later I held my first “lecture” about the Beatles in school, and when I was eighteen, I went on national television in a quiz show on the subject. In 1994, my last year in 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 I got to meet Beatles’ legendary producer Sir George Martin. We also did the whole Beatles tourist trip including visits to the barber shop at Penny Lane and Strawberry Field. I also got the opportunity to chat with Cynthia Lennon at the after-party, and I even signed autographs in the street the next day AS Paul McCartney. My little “hobby” had kind of gotten out of hand. (More about this Sgt Pepper Live project later in the fall since ”it was twenty years ago today”…)

 

Singing “Lovely Rita” at the Liverpool Empire Theatre in Liverpool, 1994.

Anyway, after all this I thought that it was time to prioritize our own music and so we did with The Merrymakers in the 90’s. (see me singing “April’s Fool” with the Merrymakers here). But as much as I tried to tone it down… the Beatles stayed with me and almost increasingly so. Apart from the enormous influence they’ve had on my own songwriting, musicianship, production and general attitude in life, little Beatle-related things always seemed to happen. I sang (again with The Merrymakers) ”No More Lonely Nights” on an American McCartney tribute album (check it out here), I give lectures every year about the Beatles at various institutions, I’m regularly making performances performing Beatles music in Sweden, Finland, and in Spain, from my one-man act ”The Living Beatles Jukebox” to being a part of bigger productions… and a couple of years ago it even led to me recording in the Abbey Road Studio! For full report and video from that exciting day see this old blog post. So… as you can see… I’m in full agreement with one of my other heroes, Tom Petty, on whom, like for so many others, The Beatles have had a ”great profound effect on my life” and the following words from him ring true for me as well:”I still think the Beatles [made] the best music ever, and I’m sure I’ll go to my grave thinking the same thing.”

So I met Sir George Martin, I met Cynthia Lennon, I even bothered James McCartney and Olivia Harrison to pose for “selfies” with me. And of course I have seen Paul McCartney live many times. Beginning in 1989 when I saw him twice in Stockholm (and once in London –I just couldn’t get enough!). And every tour since then that passed by Stockholm. And again in London a couple of times in later years. Every time it has been just as emotional and every time I have been so thankful that I have been able to see him in concert. And hey! Not to forget… I saw Ringo in concert too (at Gröna Lund in Stockholm)!!!

But yet… there was one piece of the puzzle still missing. I never got to meet a Beatle in person… I’ve been kind of “close”. And sometimes not so close. I remember for instance how frustrated I was when he was in my quarters on the island of Kungsholmen in Stockholm in the late 90’s when he wanted to get his mind off the loss of his very very loved “long-haired lady” Linda. Lovely Linda! So he came over to ”hang out” with some very loosely selected current songwriters and I thought, ”that should have been me! Or if not – at least someone really important like Benny Andersson of ABBA!” And then at  The Royal Albert Hall in 2012 (where I bumped into Ron Wood!) I was kind of close to be able to attend a “meet and greet” afterwards through the help of a good musician friend of mine with some very important Paul-related connections. But it ended up with me circling around outside the arena for a couple of hours in the cold and finally not even seeing Paul’s exit from the building. I’m not saying it wasn’t worth the effort. But still… it didn’t happen then. And I kept dreaming (and I mean for real – and regularly – just ask my wife…). Until on the 31st of July, 2014, when it finally happened!

Through my work and my position as a senior lecturer in song writing and music production the School of Music in Piteå (my staff profile here), I had the wonderful opportunity earlier this year to go and see how they work over at the music department at LIPA (Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts) – the school that Paul McCartney is the Lead Patron for. Housed in the building that Paul himself attended as a young boy in the fifties. I was told that Paul traditionally attends graduation every year and I, being the open and straight-forward person I am, didn’t make any great attempts to hide the fact that I am a life-long, highly devoted Beatles fan, with one of my biggest dreams (well that’s a lie… it should be THE biggest dream) being to one day meet Paul McCartney in person. And to my great luck, it turned out they welcomed me as a guest to the event alongside people like Billy Ocean, and other leading figures in the entertainment industry.

So as if on auto-pilot I flew over to Liverpool, took in at the fab gear Hard Day’s Night Hotel (with John and George watching over my bed as you can see in picture below). I did my regular visit to Matthew Street, to the Cavern, and I even went to one of the pubs John, Stuart, Cynthia and other art school people used to hang out at, the legendary Ye Cracke. But again… this is just the ”normal” touristy Beatles-nerdy stuff that anyone of the 600,000(!) people coming every year to Liverpool can do while walking in the footsteps of The Fab Four. (As Howard Sounes points out in his book FAB; “it’s a fact that, alongside that of Elvis Presley, the Beatles are now the object of the most obsessive cult in popular music”). All these things are really worthwhile (for true fans) and great fun and very emotional… but still…. nothing beats meeting Beatle Paul himself… so here’s my recollection of what actually happened:

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The two Beatles that sadly no longer are with us are watching over my bed at Hard Day’s Night Hotel.

I attended the graduation ceremony which turned out to be an enormously well executed event by LIPA. The 280 students nicely lined up on stage sporting their traditional academic regalia and a whole auditorium filled with parents, family and friends from all over the world. And suddenly, accompanied by pompous music, in comes a procession with Paul in the lead together with Mark Heather-Featherstone-Witty OBE, Founding Principal and Chief Executive of LIPA. And after them, all of those who were to become LIPA Companions including (most importantly to me) the ”not the son of Phil Spector” (as he puts it himself in his Twitter bio), but rather the son of Sir George Martin, the very talented and highly successful Giles Martin.  Paul was in the building! And he looked fresh, fit, smart, stylish and as much of a superstar as he always has been. Such an exciting moment! He was kind of half-dancing his way through the audience as he passed me by only a few metres away from where I was sitting on row 4. Once he reached the stage, he was put in the center where he remained for another three hours. Yes, three hours. It might sound long for a ceremony but it was highly entertaining to see when Paul shook hands and posed for pictures with each and everyone of the graduating students as they got their diplomas. All of the LIPA Companions also held very inspirational and funny speeches to the graduates giving them advice about how to make it in the tough business of performing arts. Sir Paul himself offered his own guidance in his speech at the very end. He joked students should ignore what they had learned from tutors and said his advice was to “be yourself”. As Liverpool Echo reported in this article he said: “I just love to come here and see this amount of talent, this amount of hopefulness, the spirit, about to be launched into the world. Just go out there, be wonderful and be yourself.”.

 

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After the wonderful graduation ceremony at LIPA.

What was even better was that I, as LIPA’s guest, was invited to a private reception after the official ceremony. This was an unbelievable honor, and something that I will be forever grateful to LIPA for. I didn’t really know what exactly to expect from this occasion. A ”meet and greet” that maybe, maybe… maybe… would include Sir Paul himself… and lo and behold, only minutes after I arrived myself and was served a glass of champagne, there he was! In the same room. Starting to mingle around and greet people and exchange a few words here and there. Basically doing the same thing as everybody else. Very early on I realized that Paul has a LOT of other VERY important people to say ”hi” to so I kept a low profile enjoying my vegetarian (what else?) egg and mayonnaise sandwich while at the same time enjoying the beautiful view of the river Mersey. All the time thinking to myself: Well… here I am. Little David from Piteå, Sweden, with my little career in pop music… and over there… there’s this other guy. Big Paul from Liverpool, England, with the biggest career ever in the history of show business. The most successful songwriter of all times. But we were both there. Just mingling.

Collage by http://jlghrspm6470.deviantart.com

 

And then… suddenly…. before I knew it… a woman took Paul aside and they started to walk right in my direction. Towards me!? It took a split second to realize that they were actually heading towards an older couple that was standing right behind me. And on his way over… (this is where my memory is starting to ”black out”) Paul ”saw me standing there”. Alone. With a dumbfounded look on my face. (My champagne glass strategically put on the table beside me in order to keep my hands free for any eventuality). I was obviously not able to look elsewhere as he approached me. And on his way to the people just behind me he suddenly reaches out his hand to me saying “-Hey! How are you, man…?” (or something similar) as he might be thinking ”well this guy here doesn’t seem to have anyone to talk to – and since he’s here in the first place, he probably wouldn’t mind shaking hands with me so why not….”. Or something like that.Who knows what he thought…. anyway, he did reach out his hand. To me! And the realization that Paul McCartney was coming towards me with his hand reached out kind of freaked me out. (I remember reading a funny story when Meg Ryan’s sister was introduced to Paul in the 90’s and puked from her nervousness. So it could have been worse.) People who know me can attest that I am usually not a shy guy. Not at all. And if someone “important” is supposed to be approached, I always seem to have been the one who’s had to do it. But this… this was different. To me, it was like Superman himself would come out of the movie, or Napoleon from the history books, or something… reaching out his hand. It was JUST surreal.

I took him up on the invitation and shook his hand. That hand! The “I want to hold your hand” hand… the hand that invented the intricate fingering on the guitar for “Blackbird”. That performed the wonderful bass line on “Something”. That played ”Live and Let Die”…  the list is endless. Mindblowing!

OK, so NOW was the time for my very well thought-through once-in-a-lifetime ”elevator pitch.” How many times during the last thirty years haven’t I been asked ”–What would you say if you ever were to meet Paul McCartney?” I remember for instance an after-show talk over beers almost ten years ago with some of my students. I made an impromptu dramatization of such a fictitious moment that lasted over five minutes including how I got nervous, things I said wrong, and so on… my students, laughed and we all concluded maybe it’s better if it doesn’t happen.

So, in the middle of the hand-shake my mouth started making moves intended to formulate something articulate, wise, tongue-in-cheek, and with a certain level of sophistication and catchiness at the same time in order to make Sir Paul interested in me, my life, my music ”career”, and what I had to say….

On my way over to England, I had not managed to decide on anything specific to say. The same way as when I teach or give lectures, or even go on stage. I very rarely know exactly what to say. Even though my intention always is to have it planned beforehand. Just like my brother Niklas Myhr on his way to his classes as a marketing professor in California I have a tendency to think: ”-It is going to be interesting to hear what I am going to say today”. Scary. But I’ve come to know myself and trust my instincts.

But this day… well… I can say it already. It didn’t work! In the back of my head, I’ve been thinking ever since the day I ”was Paul” in Liverpool in 1994 I’ve been considering saying something along the lines of: ”-Hey Paul! Incredibly great to meet you!!! You know, you really did change my life. For real! I know thousands of people have said that you over the years. But again, it’s really true! And you made me become a musician! And I’m very happy for that. It’s not that I’m very well-known or anything but back in the 90’s I had a band called The Merrymakers and we had quite a bit of success in Japan. I’ve gone solo now and have an album out on an English label called Lojinx. And another high point as a musician was when we did your masterpiece Sgt Pepper… live! From beginning to end. As close to the original as possible. With a full symphony orchestra. I sang your songs, man! It was fantastic to sing”She’s leaving home” with a string section. Loved singing”Getting Better”, ”Fixing a hole,” and ”When I’m sixty-four”…. the whole lot! And it was wonderful to be there! At the Liverpool Empire!!! It was where you played your last show ever in Liverpool with the Beatles in 1965, wasn’t it? And it was certainly a thrill! A memory for life! And here I am with you now! It’s crazy! By the way I was once called the ’Paul McCartney’ of Piteå (that’s where I grew up) in the local paper. And they even called me to ask for my “view” when you released ”Free as a bird”. Man, Jeff Lynne did a great job there, didn’t he? I really love Jeff! And… also, we once covered ‘No More Lonely Nights’ for a tribute record to the memory of Linda. Did you ever get to listen to that record? It was great. Neil Finn was on it! But whereas all the others chose your predictable 70’s hits, we chose your underestimated 80’s song. You know it really does have  a wonderful melody…. uhmm… you should play it live yourself sometime… but anyway, man… thank you thank you thank you… for everything you have done… I love RAM… I love your first album McCartney… I love the Beatles. I love Wings. love all your stuff… thank you Paul!!!!”

Something like that was what I would have wanted to say (in lack of some wise comment that really could evoke his interest, whatever that would be… vegetarianism…. “Meat Free Monday”…. the pubs in Liverpool…?). But instead this came out (recollections from a black-out): ”–Hi…! Wonderful pleasure… to meet you…. I once did… Sgt Pepper Live…. twenty years…. here in Liverpool….. uhmmm…..”.

By which time. Paul was already heading past me. Towards the people he was actually going to say hello to (I later figured out that the woman who had taken Paul aside most likely had said: ”-You should meet my parents!”). He heard me fumbling with the words… and noticed that I wanted to express something… but being the professional he is… he had to prioritize… and in the end…. I think I heard him saying, as he turned his head against me one last time, something like ”cheers, mate!” And it was kind of a relief for me. Because I could stop looking for words. And instead just take a step back. Trying to realize what just had happened. I started to grab for my iPhone in order to maybe get some kind of discrete photo of him. (We had been kindly informed, since it was a private occasion, to not ask Paul to pose for photographs or ask for autographs, which itself was kind of a relief, instead of having to worry about selfies at the same time of a potential hand shake). As I was grabbing for my iPhone in my little bag I noticed my hand shaking considerably. When I took it up it kind of dawned upon me… that was it! It just happened! David… you just shook his hand! That was all you wanted! Relax!!! And already then. A minute afterwards it was already surreal. Did it happen? Yes. It happened!!!

So I took a deep breath. Went on with my champagne. I made a quick analysis of the situation. The highly entertaining founder Mark Featherstone-Witty was carefully guiding Paul through the meet and greet. He seems extremely passionate for the school and its students and had made a remarkable speech earlier about the importance of performing arts in academia. Mark came up to me and said hello and we exchanged a few words. And so did his lovely wife. I felt very well taken care of. A little bit further away some of the teachers were standing, including Martin Isherwood, the head of the music department, whom I was fortunate enough to have gotten to know a little bit through work. So I knew I had somewhere to go after this unbelievable moment. But still… there he was. Still only a couple of meters away. I could almost hear what he was saying to people but obviously I didn’t want to intrude. So in a last attempt to capture the moment forever, and to be able to show my grandchildren one day, I thought… Ok… I’m not going to ask him for a photo. But since other people were doing just that. I thought to myself. Well if they do… there shouldn’t be a problem if I take a photo of the photo shoot so to speak. And in these times of ”selfies” I thought I’d better make one. And I wouldn’t “mind” to have Paul in the background. So that’s what I did. And between us is the above mentioned Mark Featherstone-Witty. So with all the love and respect for everybody involved in this occasion and for those that made it happen. I want to express a very humble, and deep gratitude. Looking very much forward to finding ways of working together in the future!

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Sir Paul McCartney, Mark Heather-Featherstone-Witty OBE, and David Myhr.

Afterwards… well… what can I say… I was deeply moved by the occasion. Obviously extremely nervous. I chatted to some people here and there. And I left the arena some half hour later. The first thing I did was to call my wife Paula (for whom, by the way, I wrote “The One” in typical Macca fashion). She was anxiously waiting for my update. After all… even minutes before the ceremony started I wasn’t sure that Paul was going to turn up at all. For any possible reason. Busy schedule to begin with (to say the least). But, as a dedicated follower I was well aware that his U.S. tour wasn’t going to start over again until two days later. In Minneapolis. Two days? Is that really enough. I mean he’s 72… but in theory it should be possible. But still. And only recently he had to cancel a few shows in Japan due to some mysterious virus. But that whole incident had blown over luckily. And I had seen in the papers Paul was back on track even enjoying a nice vacation in Ibiza with his beautiful wife Nancy. But even the smallest flu could have stopped him from attending. Or whatever… I don’t know. I just couldn’t fully count on being in the same room this day. But, as you can see, he was… and very much so!

Paula could clearly hear over the phone back in Spain how shaken I was and how taken I was by the experience. I was truly moved. My voice even cracking up from time to time when I was trying to tell her that… “Yes… it worked!”. Mission accomplished! She shared the excitement with me because as anyone who knows me… and she knows me best… she knows what it meant to me. And so did more than five hundred(!) friends and followers on Facebook on my artist page. (Feel free to check out the more than one hundred comments (and my response to each and everyone of them) in my post from this day. I am truly, deeply thankful for all the supporting comments I’ve received there!

So after that I was on a “high” that still is lasting. It just felt logical the day after to take a guided tour to the childhood homes of John and Paul. Enormously interesting and so well executed and presented with so much personality, love and respect by Colin and Sylvia Hall of the National Trust. They really made those young days of the ”lads that shook the world” (to use one of the old clichés) come alive. As I was walking through his house, playing (as always when I see a piano) “Lady Madonna”, walking through the rooms where John and Paul rehearsed and wrote their first hits. I was thinking. I met him. Yesterday!!! And all my troubles seemed very far away…

 

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At Paul’s childhood home at 20 Forthlin Road, Liverpool.

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