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(Summer 2005) by George Dionne
To commemorate their signing to DRT Entertainment in early 2005, Swedish
Christian metal band Blindside reissued their self-titled debut and sophomore
release A Thought Crushed My Mind, complete with rare and unreleased
tracks (read CD review).
That move was made only to tide their fans over until they put the finishing
touches on their fifth album The Great Depression. Born
out of an inspirational trip to South Africa by frontman Christian Lindskog,
The Great Depression (read
CD review) has been described by the
band as being unquestionable dark, yet strung through with lights of hope.
Guitarist
Simon
Grenehed took
time out of Blindside’s hectic touring schedule to answer a few questions
for us.
Rock Is Life would like to thank Rich, Sam, Colin, Samaya, Paul,
and Bebop from the Blindside Official Street Team Forum for helping out
with the questions.
RIL: If I knew absolutely nothing about Blindside, how
would you describe the group to me?
SG:
We just try to do music from our hearts and we don't put any limits to
where it's going musically so it's hard to explain what we sound like I
think. We usually leave that to others.
RIL:How did you come up with the theme
for The Great Depression and
what does it mean to you?
SG: Coming up with the title for a record is usually
a pretty interesting process. We usually talk about different subjects
that are close to our
hearts and for some reason we had "the great depression" as an
idea for a
title for some time. We hesitated on it cause at the first look it can
seem a bit negative. For us, the record is an observation of the state
of our generation. It's
impossible to give a short answer to this question because the title
touches on a lot of different subjects. Just how this generation is going
through a mediarevolution that seems to be capturing all of our time, be
it tv, internet, movies, videogames & ipod's.. it seems like it's very
hard these days to sit down and think for yourself in quiet with no
distractions.
We're fed with all these ideals on how to become fulfilled
through fame, success and bla blah. At the same time young people get burned
out, depressed
and
selfdestructive and it seems like there's an emptiness that can't be
filled with the things we do. It seems like people are searching for
something meaningful and there seem to be a hope in that and we think that
it's the place where it gets interesting. That's where The Great
Depression might actually lead to something.
RIL: What are the differences between About a Burning Fire and The
Great Depression in terms of inspiration, feel, and overall writing
of the album?
SG: The Great Depression was a bit of a new start since we were back in Sweden
with our friend and producer Lasse Marten who did our first record a long
time ago, it was very inspiring to come back and do things with him but in
a new way.
About a Burning Fire and Silence was recorded with big
budgets in Los
Angeles together with Howard Benson so that was a different process all
together.
There's good and bad things about both ways of recording. In Stockholm it
was just us and Lasse basically and we had to work with what was there but
it was easier to be creative since there wasn't much of a set structure of
the recording. It was of course nice to be able to be with your families
when you were not in the studio also so we felt a lot more relaxed. At the
same time we wanted to renew ourselves musically and find something we
hadn't done before and I think we did.
RIL: How has the tour been? Any good pranks pulled?
SG: The tour has been great but we've had some misfortunes. Showdown's van
broke down in Seattle so they missed most of the west coast dates and then
when they were back, Showdown's van broke down so they also missed a few
shows and now our trailer broke down for the third time and we have to
cancel our first show which is always a bummer.
It's been much fun though and usually most of the pranks are saved til the
last week so we'll see what happens.
RIL:
Are you going to tour some more in the states this year (after the Black
Friday Tour ends)?
SG: Yes, we're going out with Trapt in the fall.
RIL: What are a few places you like to tour/play at when you’re
in the U.S.?
SG: We like the west coast and a couple of places all over the place that
is fun to visit. It has a lot to do with people in certain areas that you
like to hang out with, or even things like a good place to eat or a cool
shopping area.We are also into checking out new places and on this tour
we play in West
Virginia for the first time and from what I understand we're playing in
Maine on the Trapt tour so that's something I'm looking forward to.
RIL: Why
was there only one show in New England on the Black Friday tour?
SG: Well, our booking agent puts a tour together based on a routing that
works
and on clubs that are avaiblible at a certain time.
RIL: How tough is it keeping
your faith with all of the temptations on road?
SG: Our faith is a part
of our daily life and even more so I think when we are
together on the road. I think we aren't overly attracted to the
rock'n'roll lifestyle though and all that comes with it and I think that
might be one of the reasons we are still in this band and good friends
after 11 years.
RIL:
In the eighties, bands like Stryper were chastised by religious groups by
mixing religion with heavy metal music. Have you felt this backlash?
SG: No
RIL: What does the name of your record label (WASA) stand for? Are
you going to sign other bands to it or just use it to release their own records?
SG:
The name Wasa comes from an old Swedish King and it was also the name of
a
big royal ship that sank outside of Stockholm.
Right now we're just releasing our own music on there but we are talking
about maybe signing bands to it later on.
RIL: Are you still
associated P.O.D.’s
3pt record label?
SG: Nno, that label doesn't exist anymore.
RIL:
When you first started out in '94, did you start out singing in Swedish, or did
you jump right into doing songs in English?
SG:
It's been in English since day one although we've used Swedish in a few
songs.
RIL: Do you write the songs in English first or convert it?
SG:
They're written in English from the start.
RIL: Are you more recognizable in Sweden that in the U.S.?
SG: No, we've spent basically all the time touring in the states. It came
naturally for us after we got signed and noticed that people really got
into our music over here.
RIL: Why does every Christian band (or band whose members happen to be Christians)
have a member who looks like Jesus?
SG: What did Jesus look like?
RIL: On your DVD, in the very beginning it looks like you had five
band members.
What happened to the fifth?
SG: Magnus was in the band for about a year before he went into military
service. This was long before we even had a name for the band so it
was
at a really early stage.
RIL: What album is being held in the picture
of your self-titled album cover?
SG: It's a made-up album cover but we're thinking about using it sometime
in
the future for something.
RIL: What do the covers of your albums mean
(if there are any meanings)?
SG: It's artwork. We've given artists we like free hands with the
record covers. Usually they listen to the music and read the lyrics
and
come up with something and then we approve it if we like it.
RIL:
If
you weren't in a band, what would you be doing for a living?
SG: Who knows, working dayjobs in Sweden probably.
RIL: What is the message, if any that you want to get across to the listeners?
SG: Well the idea is that we make music that we can relate to both
musically
and lyrically with a passion and hopefully people can relate
to it and get
something out of that.
RIL: What’s the best advice you can
give to young aspiring musicians that want to follow in your footsteps?
SG:
The idea we have of being in a band however, especially in the beginning,
is the love of music and to have fun together. What is always missing is
music that is original these days, so that's something that'd we'd like
to
hear.
We hear a lot of kids starting to talk about sending demos to major labels
and making money before they've even played a show together and that is
a
bit sad I think.
I think the best way is just to start playing with some friends and see
what happens, that's what we did.
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SIMON
GRENEHED
