Colony

Formed during their high school years in the early 1990s, the St. Louis alt-pop quartet Colony—featuring singer Ted Bruner, guitarist Jon Armstrong, bassist Andy Conrad, and drummer Matt Hickenbotham—maintained its lineup through the members’ subsequent college years. The group secured a deal with MCA in 1997, which resulted in the September release of its debut album, Siren. Though that record did not achieve national traction, Colony cultivated a substantial local following through repeated performances in its hometown. In 2001 the band earned best new artist honors at the St. Louis music awards, known as the Slammies, around the same time it moved to the Beyond label for the release of its second album, Who I Wanted to Be. The project’s lead single, “Happy,” had already surfaced earlier in the film Rat Race.