Interview: Magnus Kalnins (Colony 5)

   Colony 5 is a Swedish synthpop/ futurepop band, active ever since 1999. Catchy sounds with pleasant vocals, and a new album on the way. Magnus Kalnins was nice as always and granted me this interview!

pdn: Good afternoon, Magnus! Like always, my first question will be about the band's name; please tell me how this band got the name Colony 5.

Magnus: Well I wasn't in the band back then but from what I've heard they picked it from an old Star Trek episode partly because it sounded and looked cool but also because it unlocked something to write about. A new world based on fresh ideas, sometimes you feel that it's too late to restart this world and you need a new planet.

pdn: Did your activity in the EBM scene start together with joining C5 or had you been making music before that?

Magnus: I was making all kinds of electronic music before Colony 5, but never seriously. Just as a hobby and too unfocused to ever be a proper band. I was all over the place, one straight popsong and after that 10 minutes of different kinds of white noise with delay and a distorted radio-samples. Kinda miss the naive experimentation back then, every song was an adventure.

pdn: What was the first instrument you've ever played and at what age did you start?

Magnus: I have never really been good at any other instruments, I've tried flutes, oboes and drums but I always felt that learning an instrument took a lot of time and didn't get me any nearer my goal of creating music so when I discovered synthesizers I finally got the creative control to empty my brain onto a tape. 

pdn: I know you have a beautiful daughter, and congrats again! :) How does your personal life and family influence your musical career?

Magnus: Thanks darling, yeah it has literally changed every aspect of my life but I'm not sure where I will end up cause I'm still in the void, the dream. Life on pause. 

pdn: Your newest album was aimed to be released in 2011. Will it still be released this year? 

Magnus: We hoped to release this year and it looked optimistic but no, earliest in 2012. We have both just taken a breather from what we have done this last decade. We are also quite unsure about formats, maybe a full CD isn't optimal anymore for anyone. We are maybe going towards only downloadable songs and not waiting until we have 12-14 song but release a song when it's finished.

pdn: Which song will you have the next music video for?

Magnus: I'm really gearing up towards making a good new video, I just need the time to shoot and edit it. Until then I will probably make some new background videos for the live background projections. They are a bit easier to make. But if I need pictures of a beautiful girl I'll let you know Laura ;)

pdn: One of your most successful songs is Plastic World, which is clearly about the shallow world surrounding us and unhealthy ideals of people. Was there any particular event that made you guys come up with that song, or just general facts?

Magnus: The Plastic World title was written by P-O along with most of the chorus, it is a good example of the simple straight-on way he writes. So I just took the title and wrote a couple of verses around that about what annoys me. I'm very happy on how it turned out cause sometimes I can't write exactly what I want, it has to fit with the music.

pdn: You have toured a considerable amount of countries. What was the place you loved most and why?

Magnus: We have had a little look around some parts of the world and most places have had their charm. Mexico was really nice in many ways and Russia has it's special dark & twisted beauty. Florida was fantastic also. I'm sorry but I don't think I can pick one specific place that was better, it's all down to the promoters, timing and audience.

pdn: What are Colony 5's plans for the near future?

Magnus: We have no plans at all at the moment, we wait for the fizzing sensation to come back and until then we keep busy with other engagements. It's a bit easier from me though, cause 90% of my work in C5 is writing texts and that's something I never stop doing, not even now with an 11 month old crazy wonderful little girl taking over most of my life. So it's just sitting down and producing the songs we have and checking around with labels and see where we go from there. God knows when though, hopefully sometimes this winter. 

pdn: Thank you so much for your time and patience! Anything you would like to add for your fans to read?

Magnus: My pleasure Laura. I just want to thank everyone for the last decade and hope we will keep their friendship another one. Keep checking our FB page for updates and silliness. And we will launch a Youtube channel and have already started a development-blog for the new album so that we can keep people updated when we start properly to work on producing it. Address will be published on FB, Myspace and colony5.com once it gets updated periodically. And thanks for the attention :)


www.colony5.com
http://www.myspace.com/weseekcolony5