Sweden

Dave Castaldo reveals Inner Beauty

| davecastaldo

Find my new record, Inner Beauty, on iTunes, Spotify, Rhapsody, Amazon, Google Play, Bandcamp and other online stores.
10581567_10152404453622286_1520472346_nCREDITS:
Cover Girl: The beautiful creature on the cover is no other than gorgeous princess of Glamtron, Alaska Thunderfuck 5000. Thank you for all the inspiration, and for your contagious smile.

Dave Castaldo: Voice, bass, guitar, percussion, mellotron and piano.<strong>
Johan Salomonsson: Drums in all songs except Can’t Get Enough.<strong>
Theodor Arvidsson Kylin: Guitar in Scream, Keep On, and I Never Told You.<strong>
Stella Thors Berefelt: Background vocals in Here to Stay, and percussion.<strong>
Oscar Leander: Drums in Can’t Get Enough.<strong>
C.G: Background vocals in Can’t Get Enough.<strong>
Andres Dussel: Claps, whistle and production in I Never Told You.
Graphic Design: Herman Carlsson

Creative Director: Elizabeth Lundén

Press Photographs: Mariana Kasses

Special thanx to: The Thunderbabes, Alaska Thunderfuck, Justin Andrew Honard, Jonas Wågberg, Conny Wall, CG, Mariana Kasses, Viviana Reveron, Renato Tato Giovannoni,  Nicolas Bernaudo, The Mabs, Ossian Gynther, Antonio Castaldo, Andy Dussel and Rodolfo Valentino.

“The most beautiful make up for a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy.” – Yves Saint Laurent

http://www.davecastaldo.com  contact@davecastaldo.com

All songs written, recorded and produced by Dave Castaldo at Sounds of Thunder studios (Stockholm, Sweden), except I Never Told You mixed and co-produced by Andres Dussel at Estudios Silbador (Buenos Aires, Argentina). Mastering by Hoffe at Cosmos Mastering.

Melodifestivalen 2013

| davecastaldo

I thought about giving you some insight on Swedish culture.
Many of you might be familiar with the European song contest that takes place every year: Eurovision.
In this contest all countries send an artist to represent them. The previous winner of a local contest. Our local festival to find the winner is called Melodifestivalen.
It is a big deal here in Sweden. For around six weeks everyone is locked on Saturday nights watching it, and there are even “Schlager parties” going on, where people gather to watch, vote, discuss and dance all night.
World known group ABBA was a Melodifestivalen/Eurovision winner, so expectation on Swedish candidates is generally high.
One year ago they decided to include a selection of external voters, a European jury formed by people from the music industry who would give points to the different songs, to then be added to the votes from the Swedish Audience.
It went well in 2012, both the international jury and the Swedish people agreed for Loreen to be the winner, and Sweden rise with the price at Eurovision.

This year…things didn’t work as well.
Sweden’s favourite, young rocker Yohio, got the far majority of the votes. 22%, making him a clear winner among Swedes.

But when the votes where added to the ones from the “International jury,” they were not enough to get to the top. Just a few points behind, Yohio was left out from Eurovision by Robin Stjernberg who only got a 15% of the audience votes.

The international jury gave Robin 91 points, against only 30 for Yohio.

To make things more controversial, Robin wasn’t even the audience favourite the day he sang for the first time, and he had to give it a second try among the ones left for “a second chance.”

So how does this work? Swedish people spend their money voting for nothing?
Some say that the introduction of the jury gives an insight to Europe and therefore will help Sweden win Eurovision, but is it the win the only thing that matters? Isn’t Eurovision a moment for countries to show their artists and their favourites should go no matter what?
I personally think that Yohio was ripped off. He is the winner of Melodifestivalen, he should be representing us on stage this year. Robin will represent an international jury, not Sweden. Even if he wins, I don’t really see the point of Melodifestivalen taking place any longer.
He has a long career ahead. He shouldn’t be dissapointed by this. He has A REAL career ahead.

What do you think?

Stuck in London

| davecastaldo

After 2 nice monthS in Argentina, I’m now on my way back to Sweden. The flight from London to Stockholm was canceled because of the snow. Hmm… Maybe I should have brought a jacket. Anyway, now I’m stuck here so why not do the best of it and eat a risotto at Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant!!! Yeah!!

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As a risotto junkie I must say it was very good, though slightly underseasoned. A bit more goat cheese would have made the trick. The sweet potatoes on top were a fantastic contrast for the palette.

Shooting the video

| davecastaldo


Early morning of yet another rainy day in Stockholm… Getting ready for a long day of shooting. My team of talented and beautiful filmmakers: Mariana Kasses, Viviana Reverón and Elizabeth Lundén have planed and set all to perfection.
Still, not even the heavy make up can disguise a terrible fact: I haven’t had my coffee yet, and we all know how vital the black gold is to me.

Luckily, so did one of the production assistants that ran for my first big cup. No sugar, no milk, just plain black coffee, swedish style this time. Sorry, I had to check.

Now, back to life and ready to rumble. Oh my… I now realize that morning coffee makes me look like Ozzy. That has to be a good thing, I guess.

Here we are shooting one of the scenes at Sergel square, in what is known as Plattan. We tried to avoid the crowd by going early on a Saturday morning. Despite the precaution, people were gathering around at cautious distance.

Ok, I have to admit that the outfit was not exactly discrete either, but hey, isn’t a man allowed to wear his synthetic white fur during the morning when it is below zero outside?

Plus, during my day in the city, I found out that I might have some competition around town…

Mariana – Director of photography – tried new interesting ways of putting  Pancho’s talents to use,  turning him into a human tripod… watch out girls.

The shooting went on and on and on. So did the waiting. Exhausted, Pancho and Lucia didn’t find it as exiting any longer after several hours and locations. They gave up and embarked on video games frenzy with their iPhones.

Can’t blame them though, I -myself-  found my moments to chill and read about the history of Glamour, by Stephen Gundle. (Highly recommended)

Finally, once the last shoot was over, I got to rest at my “camerino” where …

ok…. I cannot explain or justify why there is a vacuum cleaner over my private parts, but I promise you will understand it when you see the video. I hope…

Looking forward to seeing the results!