KGNU’s D Rider chats with Fort Collins band Colony Funk ahead of the KGNU Funkraiser at the Velvet Elk Lounge in Boulder. The group plays a few live tunes and discusses getting ready for their Friday night show, which includes a costume contest, silent auction, and DJ performance (Interview date: 10/22/2024)
D Rider: Welcome to KGNU.
Colony Funk: Thank you for having us.
D Rider: And that is Amanda. Who is in the studio with us today?
Colony Funk: Today we have Brian Adams on guitar and Joe Prinzivalli on bass.
D Rider: Okay, so like I said, that’ll be a taste because the band will be-
Colony Funk: Yeah, the band is a five piece. We’ve got Marc Teets on drums. This week we have Matt Goldberg filling in on keys. So we’re going to be a big five piece.
D Rider: Alright. Since we have three fifths of the band, how about giving us a couple tunes?
Colony Funk: Alright, sounds good.
D Rider: Nice. That’s live here in studio, the Colony Funk band out of Fort Collins. Thanks for coming down today, guys.
Colony Funk: Yeah, thanks for having us. We’re looking forward to Friday night. Now, Dennis, I have to ask, are you going to be there?
D Rider: I’m not sure. I may be.
Colony Funk: Do you have a costume?
D Rider: I’m trying to get my costume together. It’s that baby costume too, so it’s real easy to make.
Colony Funk: You’re going to be a big baby. That’s nice.
D Rider: I’ve been called that before. That’s all I need. A diaper and a mustache.
Colony Funk: That’s great.
D Rider: So you guys have been playing for how long? Fort Collins is your home base, right?
Colony Funk: Correct. Gosh, I think it’s coming up on nine years now we’ve been playing music together.
D Rider: But you have different members of the band occasionally?
Colony Funk: Yeah. We’ve had a lot of members come and go in nine years, as with most bands. That tends to happen. We’ve got a real solid group right now, and it’s sounding really good. We’re really excited for Friday night.
D Rider: Do you have a regular gig up there? Fort Collins has a number of places for bands to play.
Colony Funk: Yeah, we play about twice a year in Fort Collins. We like to play at Avo’s a lot. We play a lot in Winter Park and Steamboat, kinda hit the mountain towns a little bit.
D Rider: Okay. Avogadro’s Number up there.
Colony Funk: Yeah. It’s a great spot.
D Rider: KGNU, every spring, they have a Mardi Gras. It’s a big fundraiser. So we’re going to do something different for the fall and have a Funkraiser. We just got done with our fun drive, and we’re going to follow that up with a Funkraiser at the Velvet Elk Lounge. Mardi Gras is always a party, and I think this is going to be just a party also. We’re going to talk a little bit more about it, but can we have another tune?
Colony Funk: Yeah!
D Rider: All right, nice. Let me tell you a little bit about the Funkraiser. It’s happening this Friday. That’s October 25th at the Velvet Elk Lounge in Boulder. Colony Funk, the full band, is going to open up at 8 p.m. Then we’re going to have a costume contest. And since it’s Boulder and you’re going to be parking your cars, don’t worry about coming to the Velvet Elk in your Dracula or your Spongebob outfits. It’s Boulder after all. Nobody will even notice, probably.
We’ll do a costume judging contest with prizes. There’s also going to be a special silent auction and after that goes down at 10:30, get ready for DJ Stang Baby doing a funk dance party.
It’s gonna be a full lineup. It’s gonna be a lot of fun and you know what? I think y’all have to be there to just get your high on before your kids are going to go out and get all that candy that you’re going to be eating a couple days later. That’s this Friday at the Velvet Elk Lounge. And we have Colony Funk in the house. Amanda, a little more. So you’ve been around for nine years.
Colony Funk: With this band, yes.
D Rider: Where are you going next?
Colony Funk: Gosh, we’re gonna go in the studio next. We have some time off coming up, thankfully. We had a really busy summer, and I’m looking forward to a chill couple of months, and we need to get back in the studio and record some very old songs that we’ve had for a long time that we have not recorded yet.
D Rider: All right. So you have an album coming out at the beginning of next year, depending how much time it’s going to take to rework and rework?
Colony Funk: Yeah. I think that’s a good goal to work toward, and maybe we’ll just take your timeline and run with it.
D Rider: Oh, okay. Good. Colony Funk in January, look for their new release.
Colony Funk: Yeah. We’ll see. You know how it goes.
D Rider: Yeah. Once you get in the studio, you say, oh, I just want to tweak this and tweak that. Can you bring the drums a little up? It takes about two months, right?
Colony Funk: Yeah. The hardest part is just getting everybody’s schedules to line up to get in the studio.
D Rider: Yeah.
Colony Funk: It’s a lot of logistics. We’ll at least get it in the can.
D Rider: Okay, so for some canned music at the beginning of next year. Colony Funk, look for their new album. Like I said, they’re going to be opening at KGNU’s Funkraiser this Friday. They’re going to be there, and we want you to be there to just support KGNU and get your weekend rolling and have some fun before the next event on November 6th. So can we hear one more? Let’s get a tune to go out with here.
Colony Funk: Sure, sounds good.
D Rider: Wow, that’s great. An ending tune with a great bass line to take us out, a funky bass line. That’s Colony Funk here in the studio. Thanks so much for coming by. Thanks for having us. Joe Prinzivalli on the bass, by the way. Hey, Joe, sounded good. Y’all sounded good. And you’re gonna sound even better this Friday at the Velvet Elk Lounge.
Thanks again.
Colony Funk: Thank you.
