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…
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)
(And here’s a link to the video on YouTube where English subtitles available by clicking the subtitles button.)
Swedish Radio P4 had been playing the first single from the album ”Jealous Sun” quite a lot in the previous weeks and at one point the radio personality Stefan Livh at P4 Gothenburg commented upon the song, spontaneously calling me ”The Jeff Lynne of Sweden”. He is a musician himself and it’s obvious that he has a soft spot for classic melodic pop. He invited me to come and sing the song live in the studio.
David Myhr and Stefan Livh
But there was also time for an conversation where we talk about both present and past. For instance he asks me about my background in The Merrymakers and our collaboration in the 90s with the Jellyfish frontman Andy Sturmer and how he – to our delight – helped us finishing off our song ”April’s Fool”. I explain how big the whole thing was for us and that this event is now part of Brighter Day… A Jellyfish Story (The Jellyfish biography).
I talk about how we later started to write and produce for Japanese artists in our own Monogram Recordings studio. And the realisation, after The Merrymakers had gone separate ways, that all my songs “suddenly were approved”. “By myself!”. And how going solo opened up new possibilities including calling whoever I felt like, and recording in Nashville etc. We also talk about my Electric Light Orchestra pastiche ”Spellbound” from the Ulf Malmros and Jaana Fomin movie Flykten till Framtiden and why film music composer Jimmy Lagnefors asked me to co-write with him.
I get to talk about my general philosophy of recording and I talk in particular about the making of ”The Perfect Place” and how Andreas Dahlbäck (who I refer to here as my ”George Martin”) helped me out in finding two songs that fitted into one, and how violinist Hanna Ekström had to double herself many times in making the strings sound like a full orchestra.
We also discuss the difficulty in finding a balance between ”loss-making” artistic passion projects and my job as a senior lecturer at The School of Music in Piteå, far away from family and home in Stockholm. And how my annoying(?) commercial jingles like ”Ryds Bilglas” and ”Insplanet” (co-written with Dobedai) are heard by more people than who get to hear my own music, and how they help me out in making ends meet. We also talk about the Lucky Day release party at Brooklyn Bar, Debaser, in Stockholm, and the incredible band I put together for the occasion including Peter Kvint, and Peter Morén from Peter Bjorn and John.
The whole thing was done ”live” and was aired on P4 Gothenburg on May 4, 2018. This video was edited by Todd Productions.
My last couple of posts have been about my latest single “Spellbound” (release post here, gala premiere report here, official video premiere here). But now on Christmas Eve there’s even more to report!
If there’s one chart that’s classic in Sweden it’s ”Svensktoppen” (“The top of Sweden”). As Swedish Radio P4 puts it (in my own improvable translation): “This is where you’ll hear the Swedish songwriter’s music, international as well as national hits in any language. The chart is voted by a statistically chosen jury and is one of the most important benchmarks of Swedish music”.
In any case, the list has existed since 1962. And through the years all big Swedish artists have appeared, all the way from Lasse Lönndahl (who by the way once heard me entertaining at an after-ski in Björkliden up in the Swedish mountains), Lill-Babs, and Sven-Bertil Taube via ABBA and Per Gessle (of Roxette fame) and recently Laleh, First Aid Kit, and Robyn.
Tomorrow Sunday, yes on Christmas Day(!), the ELO influenced song I wrote together with Jimmy Lagnefors for the movie Flykten till Framtiden after the brief from the director Ulf Malmros will be one of three ”challengers” (”utmanare” in Swedish). Not being quite a house-hold name in Sweden (yet!?) it will obvioulsy be difficult for me to “kick out” national legends like Benny Andersson (of ABBA fame!) and his orchestra , Magnus Uggla and new international star Zara Larsson. Things are not made easier by the fact that the two other challengers Nisse Hellberg and Cajsa-Stina Åkerström both are well-known names with great new songs (Cajsa-Stina’s song is produced by my friend and highly respected colleague Peter Kvint who I’ve talked about here and here).
Funny anecdote: My good friend, Andreas Dahlbäck, who plays drums on ”Spellbound” (and who also played drums on my debut album Soundshine), actually plays on both ”Spellbound” and both the other challengers’ songs. For the last few years I’ve always talked about him as one of the key people in the Swedish recording business, and this certainly proves my point.
Who knows what the verdict from the jury, consisting of 500 people supposedly representative for the Swedish people as a whole, will be. But in any case – no matter what happens after Sunday – I will definitely remember this as a ”mile stone” in my career. Or is it rather just a ”stepping stone”…? Time will tell!
My heartfelt thanks to Ulf Malmros for making a great movie that partly takes place in 1973 and therefore had the good taste of requesting an ELO song, to my close friend, Jimmy Lagnefors who invited me in on the opportunity to write the song (something I talk more about in this Hooks & Harmony interview and in this radio inteveiw with Hawaii radio show Time Machine).
I hope you all are enjoying your Christmas celebrations!!! Probably the perfect time (yeah, right…!?) to enjoy the official video for “Spellbound”:
Happy Xmas – War if Over!!! Let us have a Wonderful Christmastime!
From Wikipedia: Svensktoppen (Swedish: [²svɛnskˌtɔpːɛn]) is a weekly record chart airing at Sveriges Radio. Until January 2003, the songs had to be in the Swedish language. Svensktoppen has aired since 1962, except for the years 1982-1985. The last years before the January 2003 change, the programme was strongly dominated by dansband music.
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:
https://youtu.be/b9CX2HPsEPs
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!
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!
Six months before the Japanese release of Soundshine and nine months before the European release I entered the main stage at PDOL (an abbreviation for “Piteå Dansar och Ler”
which is Swedish for “Piteå dances and smiles”). It’s an annual street festival in my former home town Piteåway up north in Sweden which usually gather at least some 25,000 visitors.
For the occasion I used the same backing band as I did on my premiere show in Piteå earlier the same year. Andreas Dahlbäck on drums who also played drums on the album and acted as my sounding board in the recording process which led to me entitling him “co-producer” of the album. Robert van der Zwan (Poplabbet) and Krille Eriksson played guitars, Erik Jonsson (The Fix) played bass, and Joel Sjödin (Mankind) played keyboards. An amazing backing group if you ask me. Furthermore we were joined on two songs by the horn section Horny Minds from local blues heroes Ramblin’ Minds, and last but not least we were honored to have one of the finest Swedish current female pop artists around… Edith Backlund!
I have played at this festival a few times before over the last twenty years, both with the Merrymakers in the 90’s, not to mention our short “revival” in 2007, and also at reunions of my early bands from my youth (Ant-Mansson and 2nd Hand B band). I’ve also played there with the ABBA tribute band Super Trouper in which I play the part of Benny Andersson. However, this was the first time that I entered the main stage of the festival, and what’s more as a solo artist. In that sense it was kind of a big moment for me so I decided to document it properly which included renting a multi-track recorder and hire a film crew.
Time has proved it difficult to come out to meet audiences in other countries with a full backing band. Instead I’ve made solo acoustic gigs – like for instance in Spain in March. It’s true, there are rare exceptions like when I played in Tokyo with local backing musicians or in London on the Lojinx release party where I had a full band. But as the situation is right now it doesn’t look like a proper world tour with a full backing group is happening…
Therefore, I am now very pleased to be able to share this live experience and fond memory with anyone, anywhere, who might be interested. The 47 minute film documents not only the entire show including all the talk between the songs (subtitled in English – only for you!), but also a little bit of life back stage including the nervous artist only seconds before going on stage and the after show hugs while the credits are running to the soundtrack of the re-mix of Looking for a life.
Put on your best headphones, get your beverage, sit back, and enjoy! A splendid time is guaranteed for all! I really hope you like what you see and hear and if you do, please feel free to comment, and of course to share. For those of you who want to have a high quality, hi res experience, I am open for burning DVD’s of the occasion. Don’t hesitate to contact me in order to discuss the practicalities…
And hopefully one day I’ll be able to bring the band, come to YOUR town and play IRL!
I am very pleased to be able to announce that my “upcoming” album Soundshine ACTUALLY is “coming”, finally!!! The first country that will have the album in stores is Japan and the release date is Dec 7, 2011. The album will be released by the fine label Thistime Records.
As some of you may know my former band The Merrymakers had some success in Japan in the late 90’s when we sold more than 100,000 copies of our albums and our song “Monument of me” was a huge radio hit. I had the fortune of going there five times with the band during that period until things calmed down. We made promotional tours doing radio interviews, and in-store performances, signed CD’s, played a showcase gig (with ex-Jellyfish Andy Sturmer on drums!), and so on… I developed a long term love affair with the country and Japan has a very special place in my heart. Through the years I have found so many wonderful people there and things don’t get worse by the fact that I have had the luxury of having a few of my songs released by Japanese artists like Puffy, Miku Kakoi, Sarasa IFU, Yuko Yamaguchi, and Tokio.
As everybody know 2011 has been a year of terrible catastrophes for Japan and my thoughts and deepest concerns have since then been with its people and my heart goes out for all of those who have lost their loved ones.
After such an enormous tragedy the event of releasing my album suddenly can feel even smaller and more unimportant than before when looking at things in a big perspective, but nonetheless it’s a long-awaited (at least for me personally) “comeback” on the Japanese scene as an artist. Way too many years have passed since the release of the Merrymakers last album Bubblegun. I’m looking very much forward to trying to spread some “soundshine” and joy in Japan and I will also be going there for a promotional tour to support the album in the very beginning of January 2012.
The Japanese version of the album will have of two bonus tracks. Both are songs that I originally wrote for the phenomenal and famous Japanese artist duo called Puffy (a.k.a. PuffyAmiYumi). The first one is an exclusive “for Japan only” song called “Boom Boom Beat”.
Feel free to check out Puffy’s version as well (that was produced by former co-Merrymaker Anders Hellgren and me) in this live performance:
The second bonus track is called “Record Collection” and it’s a song I’ve written together with the extremely talented and succesful Swedish songwriter Peter Kvint who I had the pleasure to get to know during a songwriting camp in Tokyo a couple of years ago. Puffy released it earlier this year as their 15th anniversary song which was kind of logical since in their version it was called “Happy Birthday”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYEhpqY_65g
So in some funny way my new versions will by “covers” of my own songs. Confusing indeed! I had a lot of fun returning to the songs again, and recording them in my own way and the best thing is that Ami and Yumi from Puffy were kind enough to lend their vocal services adding some background vocals to these versions so the two bonus tracks will be “David Myhr feat. Puffy”.
For those in the rest of the world who are very eager to hear the album, or are in desperate need for the ultimate Christimas gift – please feel free to investigate the possibilities of international orders either from Thistime Records Onlinestore or here at CD Japan. But rest assured that there will be a European release in the spring of 2012. To stay tuned for updates, just subscribe to this blog and “like” my Facebook page.
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”.
