After blistering sets by The Showdown and Showbread, Blindside hit the stage with passion and energy. Their set included tracks from "A Thought Crushed My Mind", "Silence", "About A Burning Fire", and also included two songs from their latest release, "The Great Depression", playing 'This Time', as well as their first single, "Fell in Love With The Game". Just before the show, I had a chance to sit down with Simon (guitarist) and Christian (vocals), to get their thoughts on the tour, the new album, the last 10 years, and Africa.

antiMUSIC: Well first things first, how's the tour been thus far?

Simon: Good. Real good. We were a little rusty at the beginning, but we'd been off the road for 10 months. But once we got on tour, we've brought a couple new songs into the set, so it's been good.

aM: So do you guys spend most of your time in the states, or do you live back home in Sweden and just travel over for the tours?

Simon: Yeah, that's pretty much been it. We'll come over for the tours, but it's pretty much been about 50/50.

aM: I know you guys have had a busy year, with releasing the DVD ("Ten Years Running Blind"), as well as re-releasing the first two albums. What made the band decide to remaster and re-release "Blindside" and "A Thought Crushed My Mind"?

Simon: There were a couple different reasons. I think we gained a lot of new fans with the last two records, and we wanted to introduce them to some of our older stuff. Plus, we'd also heard that there were a lot of people who were having a hard time getting a hold of the first two records, mainly because of distribution. And this was also a way to get some unreleased material to them, and the 7" stuff, because a lot of people had been asking about it.

aM: Well I know also that Christian, you did some work on the new packaging and artwork. So are you guys happy with how everything turned out?

Christian: Yeah, my brother and I did that. We felt like, if we were going to re-release it, it would be nice to get some new artwork in there, so it wasn't the same product from before.

aM: How did the recording go for "The Great Depression"? Are you guys happy with how everything turned out for the release?

Simon: Oh yeah.

aM: How does this album compare with the last couple albums, because it seems like with "Silence" and "About A Burning Fire" you went in a little bit different direction, maybe a little more mature musically, so how does the new one compare with those two?

Simon: It's hard to say. I think it's a little bit wilder, I suppose. It's always hard for us to compare them, but from what we have heard from people that have been close to us, they've said good things, and say that it's a little different direction for us.

Christian: Yeah, there are some different elements that are there. There are heavy parts to it that are pretty heavy, but there are some mellow parts there too. So it's real diverse.

aM: I had read on the site that there were 20 songs you had written for this album, so how many made the cut, and do you have any plans for the remaining songs? 

Simon: The album has 13. We've got 2 or 3 more songs (from the sessions) that we've just mastered, but we haven't decided what to do with them yet. 

aM: How do you feel you've progressed, both as a band, but also musically, in the last 10 years.

Simon: Man, that's a tough one. (laughs)

Christian: Well, we've become closer as friends.

Simon: That, and we learned how to play our instruments. (all laugh) It's been natural with that, but we've always tried to improve, and do something a little different. I think if you look back on our records, we've succeeded in doing that, and that's good to look back on.

Christian: But it's weird because it's never that planned, it just seems like it comes out like that. We try not to plan too much. We have these ideas for the record, but when it's actually four guys coming together in the same room, you never know what can happen. You always try to keep it open.

aM: It seems like over the last four albums, you've progressively expanded yourselves as a band, while still staying within that style you guys are known for. Even if you do something different, it seems like there is still that element that is 'your sound'.

Simon: Yeah, I think that's always going to stay there, definitely. But that's a pretty cool description. I guess that's what a lot of people say, especially when we make a song that we think is really out there, and you play it for someone who listens to us, and they're like, 'Man, this is pretty crazy, but it's still sounds like Blindside'.

aM: Christian, I know when the band got back from the (Internal Storm) tour with mewithoutYou last year, you and your wife went over to Africa. Can you talk a little bit about your experience out there, what you guys did, and what impact it had on you?

Christian: Yeah, my wife was going out there for a specific reason, because she was writing an essay���.but for me, I just went there to basically see things with my own eyes, just to be a sponge and absorb everything I saw. So that's pretty much what we did, but when we were there, we were helping out, and we met this guy that was from Long Beach, he'd been living there for 2 years, and he was taking us around. His whole thing about why he was there was that he would make friends. So everything is relationship built. He introduced us to these people he knew, and they became our friends. It was never like we were helping these poor people, it was, 'Hey, I've got a friend in the hospital who's dying, do you want to come with me to see him and maybe buy his groceries', so that's what we did. We were hanging out with him, doing that, and we were able to really see how devastating AIDS is in South Africa. It's hard to explain, because a lot of people are dying. There was one comment when we got there, there was this clinic there in this township where people live in shanties, and there was this one lady there, who my friend (from LA) asked her, 'So what are going to do this week?', and she said, 'Well you know, it's the same as always, funerals on Saturday and church on Sunday', and you know, that's the way it is down there. People are dying all the time. But you know, it kinda ties into the record a little bit, because there are some songs that are about the experience down there, as well as the contrast and some similarities between our Western society and what I saw down there.

aM: Sounds like a life changing experience.

Christian: Yeah, definitely.

aM: Cool. Well, one last question for you guys. With the new album coming out and the touring, what can we expect to see out of Blindside in the next year, and what plans do you have?

Simon: No plans! (everyone laughs) All the time in this career, we've never had plans. It's hard to plan.

aM: After the album hits, do you plan on going out on the road again?

Simon: We do have plans to go out again, we'll probably go out again in the springtime, but we may do a tour before that. We'll be playing in Europe also. But we never know until it happens.

Be sure to catch Blindside when they head back out on the road September 22nd for a two month tour with Trapt. And don't forget to pick up their latest album The Great Depression in stores now! 

Read Brodie's Review of The Great Depression

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