“We’re going to party like it’s 1699,” sings Nina Persson on Colonia, the second album the Cardigans frontwoman has released under the A Camp name with husband Nathan Larson (Shudder To Think) and Niclas Frisk. As the lyric and album title imply, the ornate Colonia is loosely based on the theme of love in the time of colonialism and is inspired by cabaret and musicals from the ’40s. Larson and Persson—king and queen of Colonia—are guest editing magnetmagazine.com all this week. Read our Q&A with them.
Nathan And Nina: It’s not even fair or even possible to compare Sweden to the USA; they’re such totally different animals. We won’t even try, especially with genius material like the recent Jon Stewart spots. Who can top that stuff? But seeing as we’re a Swede and an American who have both spent much time in both countries, we can speak with some authority on our own perspective of the pros and cons of life in Sweden.
Pros:
Free healthcare
Child-friendly country, with crazy long maternal and paternal leave available
Clean
Good bands
Great and accessible education system
Relatively environmental aware; lots of windpower, etc.
Excellent train system
Meatballs are good
Bergman
Great clothes
Humanistic outlook on rest of the world
Cons:
Sometimes gets boring
Taxes. (Though if you factor in what Americans pay in insurance premiums, you’re more or less talking about the same kind of money; a very, very common misconception.)
Queuing (taking numbers)
People are sometimes scared to show emotions
Expensive liquor measured out in strict increments
The weather is not awesome about 90 percent of the time
Relatively homogeneous population, which can lead to fear of “foreigners”
Stuff closes too early
Less than 30 types of breakfast cereal available
