David Myhr - Soundshine

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…).

 

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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.

 

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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.

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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

 


The Beatles on Spotify!

Posted: December 28th, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , | Comments Off on The Beatles on Spotify!

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I guess it’s no news to anyone that my musical life (if not life?) revolves a lot around the Beatles. And it never stops. One climax was of course last year when I finally shook hands with Sir Paul McCartney!  (Read the 4000 word long blog post about that defining moment and more about my Beatles background in general here).

Looking back on 2015 in a Beatles perspective, a fond memory is when McCartney came to Stockholm again. As usual, I felt I had to make something “extra”. So I put together a nice little “super group” (he said humbly), called Myhr, Kvint & Morén. In a “pre-McCartney-concert”-show at Clarion Hotel, Stockholm, we played a bunch of songs that McCartney wasn’t going to play himself and it was of course good fun. I mean, how often do you get to play (or hear!) songs like “Cafe On The Left Bank” live?

 

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Before that day,  I was interviewed by the Swedish news agency TT, in the role of “Beatles expert”, about the upcoming McCartney concert and my expectations, as almost a “spokesman” for the Swedish (hard core) fans. The interview was published in many leading Swedish newspapers (and included my list of favorite Macca songs and albums). See articles for instance in Dagens NyheterGöteborgs-Posten,

Within my own musical career during 2015, there has been a couple of Beatle-related releases, like when I together with Linus of Hollywood (under the Melody & Madness umbrella) covered Badfingers “Come and Get it”, written by Paul McCartney. Or when I released my version of Elvis Costello’s “Veronica”, co-written by… yes, him again…

And just recently, as tradition prescribes just before Christmas, I made my annual “living Beatles jukebox” Christmas special show.

But the BIG Christmas gift this year was of course the news that The Beatles music now is available streaming. So, while digesting the Christmas food I thought it’d be fun to make a few playlists of Beatles songs on various themes.

First of all a top 100 list, or as I call it:

 

The Beatles – 100 essential tracks (according to Myhr).

 

It features all their greatest hits but also a carefully made selection of the greatest album tracks. All in chronological order. Basically it’s a top 100 list full of evergreens, and masterpieces. It might very well be the “ultimate” 4 hour and 42 minute introduction to their catalogue.

Then there’s three playlists where I have put focus on Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison individually where I have picked out 25 “cool” tracks. Which means they are not necessary their most famous songs (except in the case of Harrison where I had to include basically everything he ever sang and/or wrote within the Beatles).

The Beatles – 25 cool Lennon tracks (according to Myhr)

The Beatles – 25 cool McCartney tracks (according to Myhr)

The Beatles – 25 cool Harrrison tracks (according to Myhr)

There are of course many different themes that one could think of. One, close to my heart, is the “rock’n’roll”-theme. It’s sometimes forgotten what a marvelous little rock’n’roll combo they were. I mean the Rolling Stones were OK, but really…!? Just play The Beatles version of “Long Tall Sally” loud on your stereo, and you’ll get my point. 😉

The Beatles – 25 cool rockers (according to Myhr)

A completely different theme is the one of “beautiful melodies”. What a beautiful melody is, is very difficult to define of course. And the Beatles very rarely recorded songs without beautiful, strong or memorable melodies. Anyway, I tried to use my gut-feeling to pick out twenty-five of my all-time favorites in this category.

The Beatles – 25 beautiful melodies (according to Myhr)

The Beatles of course doesn’t need me to reach out to a new audience. But it’s that it’s hard to stop. It’s like I’ve been on a mission since I was ten. The Beatles is my religion and I thought this was a fun new way to “evangelize”. So, feel free to turn of your mind and float down streaming on Spotify with me…

 

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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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David Myhr’s “living Beatles jukebox” tour in Finland

Posted: March 18th, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , | Comments Off on David Myhr’s “living Beatles jukebox” tour in Finland

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Are you in Finland this weekend?

Please feel most welcome to attend one of the following concerts (click on the links for corresponding Facebook event):

Amarillo, Oulo, Friday, March 21,  23:30

Scala, Nykarleby, Saturday, March 22, 19:00
Skafferiet at Ritz, Vasa, Sunday, March 23, 18:00 (FB event here)
I will be playing Beatles songs together with this fine super talented group of people:

Stefan Brokvist on “Ringo” drums
Eero Paalanen on “McCartney” bass
Stefan Backas on “Geoff Emerick” sound

As I wrote in this blog post from last year the “living Beatles jukebox”  is a side project I sometimes entertain myself (and hopefully the audience as well) with. The concept is: I enter the stage where there’s an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar, and a piano – and I ask the audience: “-What do yo wanna hear?”. Then they can shout whatever Beatles title they want. And off I go – singing and banging out the song on whatever instrument I find suitable. A fun concept with many possible twists and turns in the repertoire. I never know what to expect. It can start with “Sexy Sadie” and end up with “Hey Bulldog”. Or (more likely) start off with “All my loving” and end up with “Hey Jude”. All depending on the “level” and mood of the attending crowd….

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As I also wrote in the same blog post (in which you’ll also get a nice movie tips!) – Finland for me is quite exotic although I do have a special bond to the country since my father grew up in a small village called Kukkola close to the Torne river.  Quoting Wikipedia: “The Finnish and Swedish sides of the river were once one cultural entity, as before 1809 they were both parts of Sweden”. As a child my father actually spoke Finnish at home and he was born with the Finnish name Suo as his last name. In the 50’s he and his brothers had their last name “translated” into Swedish and then the family name became Myhr from the Swedish word “myr”. What it means in English…? “Swamp”! How about David Swamp as my new artist name?

 

 


David Myhr live on the internet for the first time! Playing The Beatles’ “Revolver” (side 2).

Posted: August 4th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , | Comments Off on David Myhr live on the internet for the first time! Playing The Beatles’ “Revolver” (side 2).

On Wednesday I will be doing my first concert live on the internet. I will be sitting in a corner of my Stockholm studio with a guitar and a piano and I will perform the entire B-side of the Beatles “Revolver” album. Hope to see you there!!!

All you have to do is to get your ticket and see how it works over at stageit.com – here’s the link to my concert!

The whole thing is part of a series of concerts and the initiative came from my very talented artist colleague Mike Viola who said:

“An act of randomness and pure cruelty. Fans of Mike Viola signed up to have their names pulled out of a hat and assigned to cover and perform live an entire Beatles album side! Some might go deep, some might stay shallow and safe, some might wear uniforms, some might perform naked (Wedding Album). You have to tune in to find out. This is FOR the fans and BY the fans. It’s gonna be ugly, beautiful, soft and quiet, but above all: it’s gonna be weird!”

Wednesday Aug 7 (4 pm in California, 7 pm on the East Coast of the US), midnight in the U.K., 1 am (1 hour after midnight) in Sweden/Spain etc, and 8 am (on Aug 8) in Japan.


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).

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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.

 

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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.


David “Swamp” live in Finland!

Posted: January 23rd, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on David “Swamp” live in Finland!

I’m happy to announce that after my Christmas show in Madrid, Spain, and my January performances at club Wonder in Osaka, and at the Shimokitazawa three in Tokyo, Japan, it is now time for a couple of shows in my neighbor country Finland!

Starting of in Vaasa on Feb 10 at O’Malley’s acting as a “living Beatles jukebox” which is a side project I sometimes entertain myself (and hopefully the audience as well) with. The concept is I enter the stage where there’s an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar, and a piano – and I ask the audience: “-What do yo wanna hear?”. Then they can shout whatever Beatles title they want. And off I go – singing and banging out the song on whatever instrument I find suitable. A fun concept with many possible twists and turns in the repertoire. I never know what to expect. It can start with “Sexy Sadie” and end up with “Hey Bulldog”. Or (more likely) start off with “All my loving” and end up with “Hey Jude”. All depending on the “level” and mood of the attending crowd….

The second Finnish show will take place in Turku on March 2 at a the cool pop club Flavour of the Month (named after The Posies great song) hosted by Pikku-Torre. This time I will go back to playing only my own stuff – both from the upcoming album Soundshine but also my old songs from my time with the Merrymakers –  and I look forward to meeting the audience over there and the people behind the club and the Finnish pop site One Chord To Another who seem to have an impeccable taste in music. Click the picture below to come to the event page:

Finland for me is quite exotic although I do have a special bond to the country since my father grew up in a small village called Kukkola close to the Torne river.  Quoting Wikipedia: “The Finnish and Swedish sides of the river were once one cultural entity, as before 1809 they were both parts of Sweden”. As a child my father actually spoke Finnish at home and he was born with the Finnish name Suo as his last name. In the 50’s he and his brothers had their last name “translated” into Swedish and then the family name became Myhr from the Swedish word “myr”. What it means in English…? “Swamp”! How about David Swamp as my new artist name?

The last thing I have to say related to Finland for now is that you have to see the movie Steam of Life if you can get your hands on it. It’s about “Finnish men in sauna, speaking straight from the heart.”. A master piece if you ask me!


Mastering of Soundshine by @davidmyhr at Abbey Road Studios

Posted: May 27th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: post | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Dear followers of the development of my solo debut album Soundshine scheduled for release in the fall of 2011. Today May 27 is a somewhat historic day – at least for me and for my album! I am very happy to announce that the album will be finished later today! Exactly one year and three days after the initial recordings took place in Stockholm. As I’m writing this I’m sitting back in a sofa enjoying the finished recordings in a mastering room at nothing less than ABBEY ROAD studios! Together with Steve Rooke, senior mastering engineer here at Abbey Road and my mixing engineer Marcus Black we’re going through all the songs on the album one by one giving them the last final touch. Later we will be joined by my wife Paula who is so far the only honorary (or should I say just only?) member of my fan club.

For me as a die-hard follower of the Beatles since childhood it’s of course a very special feeling to be on the actual inside the world’s most famous studio complex. The studio where all the Beatles albums were recorded! I’ve been outside a few times before in my life. Doing the famous walk over the zebra crossing of course – but was never before allowed to actually enter until today when I am here as a client. But as always – the building is one thing – the equipment another – but in the end it’s the ears of people who has been around that you’re paying for. And to say Steve Rooke has been around is an understatement. He has been working here since 1983 and was part of the team doing the Beatles remasters that was released in 2009 and has re-mastered albums by all the four Beatles solo catalogues and has also mastered albums by many other artists from David Bowie to the Cure. So I figured – if it worked for the Beatles it should work for me as well!

Steve is tapping his foot and seem to be enjoying his working day and is giving thumbs up to both the songs and the mixes which of course is making me and Marcus proud and happy!

Abbey Road studios is still a very active commercially functioning studio and for instance today there’s going to be strings recorded for the last Harry Potter movie down in the enormous Studio 1. The same studio where the Beatles recorded “All you need is love” which was broadcasted to the world back in 1967. Marcus and I got here early today so we could enjoy a proper English breakfast in the canteen and just “by accident” we managed to sneak into both Studio 1 and Studio 2 which was the main studio for the Beatles all the way from 1962-1970. A memory that will definitely last a lunchtime!

I hope to be able to make a small video blog from this visit later that will be up on my YouTube channel but for now please enjoy a picture from the inside of mastering room no 7 at Abbey Road Studios.

Don’t forget to check back on June 1st for the premiere of my new single and video “Looking for a life”.

Peace and love!

David Myhr