David Myhr supporting Tim Christensen at Debaser Slussen (R.I.P.), Stockholm
Posted: December 31st, 2013 | Author: David Myhr | Filed under: post | Tags: debaser, jellyfish, merrymakers, mike viola, powerpop, stockholm, the beatles, tim christensen | Comments Off on David Myhr supporting Tim Christensen at Debaser Slussen (R.I.P.), Stockholm
“I love the feeling” by David Myhr theme song for “Montazamis med vänner” (TV3 Sweden/Norway)
Posted: October 15th, 2013 | Author: David Myhr | Filed under: post | Tags: merrymakers, montazami, montazamis med vänner, powerpop, signatur, signature tune, signaturmelodi, swedish, theme song, tv3 | Comments Off on “I love the feeling” by David Myhr theme song for “Montazamis med vänner” (TV3 Sweden/Norway)Newsflash! I am very happy to announce that my song “I love the feeling” from my solo debut album Soundshine will be heard in hundreds of thousands of homes in Sweden and Norway this fall since it will be the signature tune of “Montazamis med vänner” featuring enormously popular television personality Maria Montazami.
The song will be released as a radio promo (only) single in Sweden and Norway on Oct 25th and will hopefully be accompanied by a new video clip soon.
“I love the feeling” can be bought on iTunes Store, and is also available on Spotify, Soundcloud.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/21684058″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
“Never Mine (Abbey Road Version)” – Video premiere!
Posted: January 2nd, 2013 | Author: David Myhr | Filed under: post | Tags: abbey road, analouge, beatles, fairchild, harrison, jellyfish, lennon, mccartney, merrymakers, power pop, recording, retro, soundshine, starr, studio 2 | 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!
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.
Thank you 2012! (Soundshine medley and slideshow)
Posted: December 26th, 2012 | Author: David Myhr | Filed under: post | Tags: 2012, abbey road, david myhr, matthew sweet, merrymakers, mike viola, power pop, release, ron wood, soundshine, sweden, swedish pop, tim christensen, tokyo | Comments Off on Thank you 2012! (Soundshine medley and slideshow)It’s time to say goodbye to the year of 2012 and I want to do it by saying thank you to all you wonderful people who have been involved in one way or another in the events surrounding the release of my solo debut album Soundshine.
To do so I have put together a four minute long slide show that will take you through memorable moments from recording sessions in Stockholm and at Abbey Road in London to gigs in Tokyo, Osaka, Madrid, Burgos, London, Stockholm, and Piteå. But more importantly it shows some of all the great meetings I’ve had with music lovers, music colleagues, fans, friends, family, band mates, record label and music publishing people, and a couple of idols as well.
The soundtrack consists of a medley of all the songs on Soundshine in a “don’t bore us – get to the chorus” fashion. The photos were taken by among others Amy Campbell, Paula and Carol Muñoz Macaya, Kiki Fukuzumi, Jonas Förare, but also by many more… thanks!
So, from the bottom of my heart – thank you to each and everyone who has supported the release of Soundshine (and that includes all of you who didn’t end up in the slide show as well)!
Hope to see you all again in a not too distant future!
“Live at PDOL” – concert video premiere!
Posted: September 27th, 2012 | Author: David Myhr | Filed under: post | Tags: concert, david myhr, gatusfestival, jellyfish, konsert, live, merrymakers, pdol, piteå, piteå dansar och ler, popsicle, power pop, soundshine, swedish pop | Comments Off on “Live at PDOL” – concert video premiere!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.
It was twenty years ago today… Andrew’s Store 20th anniversary!
Posted: August 31st, 2012 | Author: David Myhr | Filed under: post | Tags: cardigans, gry forsell, hit it, jellyfish, merrymakers, piteå, power pop, release party, secret service, stockholm records | 2 Comments »If you’re reading this you probably already know I was in a band called The Merrymakers in the 90’s. Our two albums which you can find on Spotify came out in 1995 and 1997. We had our greatest success in Japan and was fortunate to work with our hero Andy Sturmer of Jellyfish. The second half of the 90’s were our “heydays” when we were at least somewhat productive and succesful. By then we were a trio featuring me, Anders Hellgren, and Peter Arffman. But that story I’ve told many times – like in this interview or in many blog posts like this one.
But today I’m going to celebrate the “mark 1” line up of The Merrymakers from the formative years. Back in the days when we were still living in Piteå up in northern Sweden. By then we were a five-piece band with no more than four of us figthing about the spot behind the vocal microphone. Almost like a “super group”…
The reason for becoming nostalgic today is that it’s exactly twenty years ago that our first single (with a proper record deal) was released and heard on national radio P3. We were signed by Ola Håkansson (already legendary from bands like Ola & The Janglers and Secret Service) to his new label Stockholm Records. They later fired us partly since we were lacking a clear profile (very true by then!) and that they had found “a younger group”. How old we were..? Twenty-three! The other group…? The Cardigans!
Here’s a picture of the single cover from 1992 alongside the cover of my new solo album Soundshine. As you can see a lot has happened in 20 years!
Anyway, the song is called “Andrew’s Store” and below you can enjoy (or suffer!?) a few nostalgic video clips from that era. You will note I had more hair, more glasses, worse shirts, and a stronger Piteå accent (only notable for those who speak Swedish). I sing lead on this particular song (I won the fight that time probably because I came up with the melody for the chorus and bridge). No matter how painful and embarrasing it may be for ourselves (and our wives) to watch this I thought it was a good moment to share these clips. It might be fun at least for those who were around at the time. And maybe (but no guarantees, hey!) for those who discovered the song much later after our success in Japan where it was re-released again in 1998 o a compilation together with the rest of the singles and B-sides from the early years.
Enjoy and have a nice weekend!
Coverage by SVT (Swedish television) with clips from the studio and outdoors in Piteå (don’t miss the ending picture with the trumpet players behind Andrew’s Store):
Coverage by local TV (Piteå Kanalen) from the release party at local record store Hit It Records.
Playback in Z-TV (first TV performance ever):
Live (but playback) in Z-TV at Stockholm Records release party at Hamburger Börs:
“Don’t say no” to some acoustic guitar practicing!
Posted: August 28th, 2012 | Author: David Myhr | Filed under: post | Tags: acoustic guitar, chords, lynne, merrymakers, petty, soundshine, strumming | 4 Comments »Following the “incredible success” (hey, I got one comment, didn’t I!?) of this summer’s posting of the chords for “Looking For A Life” (check it out even if you already did – updated layout!) it’s time to take up guitar practicing again. We’ll just have to move in from the camp fires to the in-door log fire. In today’s acoustic guitar master class by senior lecturer Myhr we’re going to study the famous chords of C and F. Well there’s one or two more but not many. We’re talking basic stuff here! However what’s a F/C? Easy! That’s a F but using the 5th note (the C) as the bass note. Em/G? Same way of thinking. Use your logic! The C -> F/C is a popular trick used many times in rock history. For instance in “Like a rolling stone”, “Angel of Harlem”, “I’ve gotta feeling” (though in the key of A), and many more. And now my song from my album Soundshine called “Don’t say no” can be added to the list.
So, all you acoustic guitar strummers out there – by “popular demand”, or at least from P J in Florida and his dogs (see comment to the previous blog plost) – here’s the lyrics and chords for “Don’t say no” (please comment if the font size is to tiny or if you find other problems) :
Feel free to listen to the song by clicking the Spotify widget to the right (song #7).
And if you want inspiration on how to strum this song with your right hand and how to move your body while playing in a classic Petty / Jeff Lynne style check out this video from the actual moment of recording please feel free to enjoy this video (blame my MacBook for making the image mirrored after filming with PhotoBooth…):
Remember to not keep pushing your dreams away! Thanks a lot for stopping by!
americana-UK.com: “Doctors in Sweden prescribe [Soundshine by David Myhr] as a cure for seasonal affective disorder”
Posted: May 5th, 2012 | Author: David Myhr | Filed under: post | Tags: alternative, jellyfish, merrymakers, review, soundshine, swedish pop, timeless, tour | Comments Off on americana-UK.com: “Doctors in Sweden prescribe [Soundshine by David Myhr] as a cure for seasonal affective disorder”So what’s the world like after the release of my solo debut album Soundshine a little more than a month ago? Do people talk about a “before and after Soundshine” effect? Maybe it’s too early to tell… ?After all the sound of the album is what I usually call “timeless” (sounds better than “dated”, doesn’t it?) and therefore I hope it will live on for years to come.
What I do know is that I have extremely fond memories from the “Soundshine release tour” that took me from a solo show in Osaka via a show in Tokyo with a backing band consisting of Japanese musicians early this year to the odd gig in Turku, Finland, followed by a small solo tour of Spain (Bilbao, Madrid, Burgos) together with Lukah Boo. Then it was time to throw a big release party in my home town Stockholm and shortly after that fantastic night when my U.K. label Lojinx put together a magic night at Borderline in London where I shared the bill (see video clip here) with Farrah and Pugwash. I’m already looking forward to new live shows!
Since the release I’ve received messages from happy record buyers both on Facebook, Twitter and e-mail saying incredibly nice things about the album. (You can be one yourself – no matter where you live – by ordering it from the David Myhr Store!). And that’s really what makes it all worthwhile. It’s such a thrill knowing that the CD is now spinning in car stereos and the mp3’s streaming out of computers and iPods in the U.K., the U.S., Japan, Spain, Sweden, Italy, France, Germany, and hopefully many more countries. I want to thank you all for those messages – your feedback means the world to me! Please keep the thumbs-up coming for a year or so in order to avoid me sinking into the post-production-depression that I’ve been fearing since I started the recordings two years ago.
There’s also been a bunch of reviews – above all in the blog world – and I thought I’d share some of them with you. Starting of today with a review from americanaUK written by David Cowling that gives Soundshine a 7 out of 10 saying it’s “sheer unadulterated pop music, sheer unadulterated delight” and that it contains “a kaleidoscope of major chords, of bouncy melodies with everything fine-tuned for pleasure”
He mentions the fact Peter out of Peter Bjorn and John co-wrote ‘Icy Tracks’ which he calls “the snappiest song” and that it “sounds like an amalgamation of the Jayhawks, Matthew Sweet, Elvis Costello and Big Star“. The review finishes off by saying that “doctors in Sweden prescribe this CD as a cure for seasonal affective disorder”. That sure as hell would be a good sales boost!
Read the whole review (and feel free to share it with others) by clicking the picture below