Interview- Colony 5

Last Updated on Tuesday, 01 January 2008 12:43 Written by Lynda Dale MacLean

Here’s a couple of fun and light questions to start the interview off…and no, I won’t ask you about your personal lives. I just can’t stand when that question is asked. It’s so trite and really none of my business, or anyone else’s for that matter.

Grave Concerns: What’s are your favorite foods? I’m a vegetarian, by the way, so don’t scare me…(: But seriously, what do you guys eat? It’s fun to find out what musicians crave.

C5: We had a wonderful dish of Gnocchi and fresh herbs at a restaurant in Leipzig a while ago. I’ve done it several times at home since. But now it is the BBQ season so it’s anything dead on the barby with a nice bottle of Shiraz.

Grave Concerns: I read you like beer too, how is the beer in Sweden? I like dark beer; Guinness is a favorite of mine.

C5: We love a good beer, and Sweden surprisingly wins a lot of international awards in beer competitions. But I prefer ale and stouts of course. There is nothing like a Guinness poured with love and patience.

Grave Concerns: Other than musical influences, where do you look for inspiration?

C5: That’s always the golden question, isn’t it? And the short and boring answer is that we don’t know. You have a sponge-phase before writing new stuff when you soak in anything. But it’s not so easy as to say that we listened a lot to the new “insert name here” album and got inspiration. It’s always a mix of everything from Mesh to Placebo to movie scores to machinery to paintings. So a lot of inspiration doesn’t necessarily come from music, but rather impressions that you interpret through the sounds and words you produce. Sorry to sound pretentious, but it’s true.

Grave Concerns: I’m sorry; I get confused sometimes, which one of you is single? (:

C5: The single hasn’t come out yet ;) (What happened to no private questions?)

Grave Concerns: Have you ever just said to one another “Let’s just call it quits?” If not, why do you think that’s so, and if you have, what was said to make you realize how ridiculously silly it would have been to actually go through with it?

C5: No not really, but we have thought about it. The question then is still, what the hell should we do instead? When the adolescent romantic dream of a glamorous pop-star life finally coughed the last time and laid to rest we found different dreams. And we’ve lived some of them so why stop having fun. It’s like any other hobby in some ways. If we’d renovate old cars in a garage somewhere just for fun, we still wouldn’t be able to live on it. It would still cost more than you would potentially make. So I think we’re in a really good place when you get a perspective on it. We don’t sell enough to make a living out of it, which makes us totally indifferent to fashion and politically correct media endeavors. But we sell enough to make it worthwhile. I still get that explosion in my chest when we finish a really good song and then again when we perform it live and make people smile. I have a note in a drawer in my bedroom from a fan, which basically said we made her survive a really tough time. I have the exact same note in my head to Morrissey, so I see where she’s coming from.

Grave Concerns: You’ve been a member of MySpace since February 8th, 2006. How has MySpace helped, or hindered your musical endeavors? And which countries do you feel have embraced your music the most from being a member of MySpace?

C5:It’s always good to get exposure, and we’ve made thousands of friends on MySpace without asking anyone, they’ve all come to us. And it’s makes it possible for them to ask or tell us anything they like. So I see it as an entirely positive experience. And since we’ve never been to the U.S I think that’s the place most new people come from. Perhaps because it’s basically an American site, although it’s grown almost unbelievably.

Grave Concerns: Being a duo, do you find there’s more room for creativity, or is it harder to get your visions acknowledged? Have you thought about adding new members to the band, or are you comfortable where stand as a duo, and as artists?

C5: We started as friends, and since we’re not professional musicians as such, we’ve never felt the need to bring in people just to add up the numbers. What we lose is of course more sources of input. What we gain is less interference. I think it’s a good balance right now.

Grave Concerns: As a band, you know how difficult it is to get ones music out and heard. If you were, to say, put together your own line-up of bands or artists you’d like to open for you, who would they be? And if you were able to open for one band, whom would you choose?

C5:I’d like to open for Placebo, but it would probably not go down well with their fans. Not the same crowd. But why not Nitzer Ebb, they opened for at the festival in Arvika last year so we could return the favour ;)

Grave Concerns: When do find you’re most creative, in reference to writing lyrics and music?

C5: With a glass of wine, a notebook (not laptop, the analogue kind) my favorite pen and a brilliant view.

Grave Concerns: I’m obsessed with you song Plastic World; its got such a fabulous sound. What got you to write it? It’s very deep, in the lyrical sense.

C5: Yeah, when I heard the demo P-O did I immediately told him he’d written the song of the year. And we won an award for it so I was right for once. And he’d written almost the entire chorus also, so I got what he meant and just tried to write a couple of clever verses and bridges. We have different ways to approach words, so sometimes P-O writes something that I could never think of, because I tend to over-complicate things. I think the lyrics for Plastic World is a fine example of when we get our heads together and use the best in each other. There are a few really good examples of that on the forthcoming album also.

Grave Concerns: Do you have any tour plans in the near future? Or more precisely; North American tours? Boston is quiet lovely in the summer, and spectacular in the fall! (;

C5: We’d love to; we just need people setting it up. We’ve been here and there but never in the U.S. so it would be really interesting. I’ve actually just been to New York so I haven’t experienced anything of America, and I’d like to.

Grave Concerns: How do you differentiate a real good song, from a classic? In other words, what really makes a song stand out and last? And with your music, which song or songs do you feel have met that challenge, have come close to it, or are you currently just enjoying the creative bliss?

C5: That is so much easier when it comes to songs from other artist. Sometimes it just clicks, it’s exactly like love. There are so many parameters that have to hit home for you personally. But I think generally a classic whatever format (song, film and photograph) has the ability to engage you a long time. You have the initial crush, the deepening love and then the nostalgia. A good song may have one or the other, but not all three. Therefore I also think that classics can be different examples for different people, just like somebody you find intoxicating is another man’s reject.

Grave Concerns: I’m giving you 13 letters to choose from, in any order; you only have to use 6 of them (you can use more if you want, but not less than 6) and you have to make up a phrase describing an encounter with a succubus. But only with these letters…CKYHILGM0PSNB.

C5: You didn’t specify if I could use them more than once, so I did.
Starry night, morning cool
Gorgeous laugh, lady ghouls
Open sea, boat off map
Open casket, headless nap

Grave Concerns: What is something about yourselves, that your fans would be surprised to know?

C5: That we are actually not alcoholics.

Grave Concerns: As a musician, how does the music in movies affect you? And if you were asked to compose a song for a soundtrack, which genera would that be in? Now let me take that question even further---actually backward; if you were to go back to the past, with your current music in hand, and were asked that same question, would any of your songs stand out as a good fit? If so, which song and movie would it have been?

C5: Intriguing question, which I have asked myself before. There are many different answers depending on where you take the discussion. If there was one movie-score I wished I had composed that would be the score to “Requiem for a Dream”. But looking back I’m glad we never got the offer because then that score wouldn’t be made and the world would be poorer. But if we where to make a score we would not use any of the songs we have I think, we would probably make it different to fit the film. But Plastic World would be excellent on an episode of Nip/Tuck wouldn’t it? I actually have a friend working with Ridley Scott so we’ve been sending him albums left and right just in case there is a spot open. *Fingers crossed*

Grave Concerns: It’s 3:38 on Friday morning, and you’re about three-hours away from your hotel room, on a road, in a city you’ve never been to before, when your tour bus breaks down. It’s snowing, cold, and none of the cell phones can get reception. What do you do?

C5: We would use our light sabers to cut up a Tauntaun and sleep in that! It would smell bad but would keep you alive until the Rebel Base finds you next morning.

Grave Concerns: Individually, what would your fans be surprised to learn about you?

C5: I don’t think they are particularly interested in our persons so they probably don’t know many facts of our lives, and wouldn’t be surprised by many, if any.

Grave Concerns: I’m a game nut, and I love to play cards. Poker is my favorite, well, that and Fish, and Old Maid (but I think that’s kind of sexist, when you look at it in the big picture), so when traveling, do you guys play any games?

C5: We’ve tried everything from games in mobile phones (the Nokia N-Gage was brought to many gigs) to cards and even magnetic chess. But nowadays we usually just read and listen to music and sleep.

Grave Concerns: You’ve been asked to create a new word defining your style of music. What is that word?

C5: Meta-Pop

Grave Concerns: I admit it; I do love TV---all kinds, from Horror/Sci-Fi/Dramas/Romance/Mysteries/Cartoons (Scooby-Doo tops my list) and Comedies. What are some of your favorite shows, and are they similar to any shows from America?

C5: You guys drench the world in series and unsurprisingly a lot is garbage, probably to you too. But you also have quite a few brilliant shows, especially when it’s not so format bound as many shows usually are. I love “Scrubs”, it’s magnificent with its blend of comedy and drama and whacky humor. Simpsons of course, and Futurama, now Family Guy and American Dad. I loved Millennium when that was aired, such eerie atmosphere and now I watch Entourage, Heroes and Arrested Development. But it’s mostly English series that I find interesting, like The Midsomer Murders, Sherlock Holmes, Inspector Morse, House of Elliot, Red Dwarf and such. Less shiny surface and more depth and real people, but when it comes to light comedy which we all need, America rules.
And I mustn’t forget the absolutely best show on TV of all, Top Gear! It’s my addiction. P-O is more into Sci-Fi like Stargate and such. But “Friends” is always there in the background. You can always relate everything to a “Friends” episode.

Thank you Kalnins and P-O for taking the time to talk with Grave Concerns. It’s been such a pleasure, and we here at Grave Concerns, all wish you continued success, and hope to hear from you soon.

Cheers!