andreasviklund.com

Local newspaper Norrbottens-Kuriren has an article about my work today, following up the current interest for website templates and for my ideas about making a living from giving away things for free.

The article is written in Swedish, but I recommend everyone to take a look at it anyway since there is a pretty photo of me, Johanna and little Elven in it! Johanna has done a lot of invisible work by helping and supporting me in many ways since we first met more than seven years ago. She is an amazing person and naturally a big part of everything I do, and the fact that she is getting into template design as well makes our project a lot more fun to work with. I am a lucky man…

Edit: The other local newspaper (NSD) runs a similar story today. It is a bit longer and more detailed, and since the interview was made more than a week before the NK interview I still have hair on my head. Summaries in English will be posted here in a day or two.

NK: "Snällhet lönar sig"
NSD: Webbdesign från lilla Jokkmokk

A couple of months ago I jumped into a co-operation with an old friend, music producer and internet star Marcus "Perrra" Persson. I wrote the lyrics for his entry to Melodifestivalen, the Swedish qualifying competitions for the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the first music writing project I took part of in several years, and it may possibly a sign of a soon-to-be return into the the world of music.

The song was not among the 28 selected tracks that were chosen to participate the huge TV-shows, but now Perrra has released it as a free download on his website! He didn't give any hint about me being involved in writing the lyrics, but I like the cute and happy track so I would want to recommend it here anyway.

The song is built around a style which is very common in Melodifestivalen, but as a completely free MP3 track it is well worth downloading and listening to if you like happy dance music. The lyrics are in Swedish, which should be extra fun for those of you who don't understand the language. I have written a complete English translation as well, but I don't know if it will ever be recorded…

You can find the song here: Perrra.se (look for Perrra feat. Ellen - Hela världen)

Yesterday I gave another interview, this time to Swedish technology news site IT24.se. The main topic was still templates and plans for the future, but the article also mentioned the new website that is launched within the Tjuvlyssnat network today: Tjuvtittat.se!

Tjuvtittat! is a simple photoblog where Damon and I will post funny and strange photos that are sent to us by the readers of Tjuvlyssnat. It will hopefully add another dimension of entertainment, a little bonus for everyone who enjoys the kind of humor that Tjuvlyssnat is based on. Damon explains more about it in this article (also from IT24.se).

Note: All links to sites in Swedish. But this photo on Tjuvtittat may work well in English as well…

Swedish TV channel TV4 made an interview with me a few days ago, and it was aired on friday night in the economy news. I talked about the templates and about the plan to launch a company together with Johanna where we would try to make a living from giving away work for free. I mentioned that this was a target for the nearby future, without explaining anything about the reason for waiting (the fact that I'm putting my energy right now on recovering from the anemia).

I also explained that the whole thing was possible thanks to the internet, that I was able to work from anywhere in the world and that we hope to bring in more designers into the project in the future.

The program can be seen on the Ekonominyheterna TV website. Look for the link that says "Ekonominyheterna fredag 18:33 (2007-10-26, 18:31)". Please note that it is in Swedish and that it is my little computer corner in our kitchen you see. I miss my old studio and I really look forward to getting an own office again some day…

A quick message to Swedish readers, announcing the release of the second book from Tjuvlyssnat.se - the Swedish humor site which I have been a part of for almost a year now:

Ny bok från Tjuvlyssnat!

Tjuvlyssnat släpper snart sin andra bok, och inför releasen hålls en tävling där Tjuvlyssnats besökare kan vinna boken genom att svara på några frågor om sajten. Frågorna hittar du i Tjuvlyssnats "Bakom rubrikerna"-blogg.

Boken innehåller många av de bästa tjuvlyssningarna ifrån sajten och är precis lika rolig som den första boken som släpptes i början av året. Idag avslöjar jag hur bokens omslag ser ut, och jag kan ärligt (trots att jag är partisk) säga att det är en bok som de flesta sannolikt kommer att tycka om!

För sannolikt, det betyder väl något som är likt sanning, eller hur?