Band leader Kristi Magdalene formed Pink Motel in 2020 amidst the global Covid pandemic.
For almost her entire life, she never believed she would pursue music professionally at all.
Years prior to that, Kristi moved from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada to Los Angeles in order to study cinema at the University of Southern California. This was a most pinnacle achievement for her, and she genuinely believed she would become a successful filmmaker for the rest of her life. However, In 2009, tragedy struck. She was riding her bicycle through a green light, a pick-up truck was making a left hand turn, and didn’t see her. The vehicle collided with her bicycle and she struck the pavement head first. Kristi suffered a catastrophic brain injury; including an epidural hematoma, which is bleeding in the brain. She survived the accident, but would never be the same human being ever again.
After many months of physical recovery following Kristi’s brain injury, all CT scans, MRI’s, ENT evaluations, and countless follow up appointments, concluded Kristi was fine. But while one can appear physically fine from a near death experience, the emotional after-effects can go undetected. She developed Anxiety Disorder, Depression, Insomnia, PTSD, Anorexia, OCD, Fibromyalgia, and Borderline Personality Disorder as a result. When mental health assistance failed to help her, as is the case for millions of others who suffer from mental illness— a dependency on drugs and alcohol took over completely. For six years in Toronto, she was in and out of psychiatric units, jail cells, hospitals, halfway houses, and finally homeless shelters. In 2016 she was living on the freezing cold streets of Toronto; homeless, friendless, jobless, penniless, and nameless. She was seemingly without a hope in Heaven or Hell. But unbeknownst to all, that was when she would hit rock bottom and discover a totally new life beyond her wildest dreams. This came out of an intensive spiritual and therapeutic program that led her to find sanity.
Prior to the accident, Kristi had no history of mental illness or addiction.
Prior to the accident, Kristi also had no real goals or plans to become a musician.
It was once she realized she had a second chance at life that she understood she had always had a deep inner yearning to pursue music, and now was the time.
Out of all these so-called tragedies, a new girl has been reborn out of the darkness and into the light. Through facilitating many different genres of music, predominantly based in rock, Kristi hopes to spread awareness on the various different life traumas she has endured. By having a voice in music, she eagerly and excitedly speaks up about what it is like to live with a catastrophic brain injury and to be a mental health warrior. More recently, she has felt it is a societal duty to use music as an engine to fearlessly discuss the failures of our political systems that are tearing this world apart.
As an up and coming musician, Kristi has already been repeatedly praised for the dynamism of her performances. When she takes the stage, literally anything could happen. There is a spontaneity and fierce energy to her shows which sets them apart from others. She doesn’t allow the stage itself to be a singular place for performance, and instead often includes herself at the most unexpected points of interest in the audience. Thus, a Pink Motel show is an inclusive experience, as the crowd is a huge part of the art at the heart of it. The best way to describe the sound itself is “Taylor Swift meets System Of A Down.”
At the end of the day, writing and performing music is the greatest source of spiritual healing for Kristi. Being able to help bring awareness to social justice alongside that is the ultimate dream come true.
“The most important thing about music that I’ve learned after all this time is that to me, it’s a way of reaching the truth.”
- Serj Tankian