On the underground of the Swedish rock and hardcore scene for several years, Blindside has finally crashed through to the States with a new album on a major label. Silence is their third effort and the album is anything but a quiet affair. Vocalist Christian talks about breaking through to the States, spirituality, being signed on a major, and of course Abba!

Why did you wind up calling your new album Silence when it's anything but...

It's the title track on the album and it's an acoustic song we did. After we toured so much, when you have so much rock and roll in your ears everyday - we all went home and no one wanted to listen to music at all. It was not a decision that we made - it just happened. And when you don't listen to music that much, it kind of makes you start hearing riffs and you get ideas for the lyrics. On this record, we were inspired by Silence in a way. We didn't listen to much music, so we weren't influenced by other musicians on this album. We just did what we wanted to do basically, and that's why it's called Silence.

How do you think Silence compares to the other two Blindside albums?

The last album - it was almost three years ago when we recorded it - it was much more of a hardcore album. We really wanted to experiment with different time changes, just going crazy and a lot of screaming - but it still had some melodies in there. If you look at the first album, it's actually more similar to what we are doing right now. I won't say we went back - we kind of evolved and did something new again. But this is exactly what we wanted to do, which is really nice for us since we're on a big label and you can be pushed into being more mainstream or whatever.

Where do you get your influences for some of the lyrics?

All the lyrics are about me or my friends or about God. It's hard to say. It's just trying to be real - it's just what you have on your heart - that's what comes out. As far as the lyrics on this album - some of the lyrics were dealing with the fact that we got signed on a big label. It's kind of scary in a way and it's like what every band dreams of. It's kind of like both, because now we are going to be so much more busy and we'll be away from our families a lot.

How did you wind up getting hooked up with Elektra?

We were on a tour with POD. They actually asked us to come on a tour and we didn't have any money. We weren't signed because we finished our album with Day Glo. So we figured "Let's just go!" It looked like it was really a dumb thing to do, because it costs so much money to be on a tour like that. We didn't have any money. We just tried to collect as much money as we had, and we didn't have anything almost. But we just went anyway and ended up breaking even, which was amazing. The budget for the whole thing was $40,000 and we were roughing it in a van - like sleeping on floors, sleeping in motel rooms, driving all night and playing. It was all so good, because every night you played in front of 3000 kids. And all the labels started coming out on that tour. On the last show we did, there were four labels out and one of them was Elektra. They were all super interested. After that, we decided to go with Elektra. We looked at the other labels and what they had to offer too. But Elektra has a good way to build rock bands. They have acts like Metallica and AC/DC. And also creative stuff like Bjork. This label knows how to work rock bands for a long time, and that's why we went with Elektra. We've been together for eight years and have been friends since high school, just writing songs from the very first rehearsals - even though we couldn't play really (back then). But we still wanted to play in a band. And we're definitely in this for the long run - and it's nice to be on a record label that can offer that.

What did you think of the Furnacefest show you guys did?

It's awesome! It's such a cool venue. We played there one time before like two years ago and it's been growing ever since. It's been very underground - all these cool bands. And now it's starting to go with bigger acts, so it's growing, but in a cool way I think. And it's a lot about word of mouth. We were there just for one day, and I had Andrew W.K. sign a seven-inch.

If Abba was to do a tribute album and invited Blindside to be on it, what song would you guys want to do and why?

Does Your Momma Know. It's a good song. Dancing Queen maybe? I don't know, I didn't listen to Abba but they're good.

So now that you're on a major label, how influenced are you by Christianity?

It's very simple in a way. Our faith is the most important thing to us in the world. That's what we live for. We're a rock band, so we'll just play rock music and stay human. And that's the most challenging thing in this business, and especially on this level. It's a very shady business and we just want to try and stay as human as possible and show who we are and not tell anyone what to do. Just show people who we are. I could be working Subway and my faith would still be the most important thing to me. So it's not like we're using the band as a big propaganda tool. For me, when I get interested in what people think is when they don't shove anything down your throat. You become more curious. If you see that they're living in a different way, that's what inspires me. So that's how we approach it. There's been a lot of kids coming up after the shows who say "This lyric means so much to me. I went through a tough time in my life and it really helped and inspired me." So of course we have a message, but I think you could make God so small sometimes. God can be in the music without you even saying anything. Through the actual sound waves people can get spiritually affected.

Do you any messages for Blindside fans or people who have not heard your music yet?

Check our album out and if you like it, buy it. Basically we tried to put as much passion as we can in this album, so hopefully people like it.