ZEBULUN KREITER: Thanks a lot for calling. Where are you right now?

CHRISTIAN LINDSKOG: We’re actually in Detroit right now.

ZK: Oh yeah. I just saw you guys at Roseland in New York the other day.

CL: Oh ok.

ZK: So you guys are pretty far away from there now. How has your tour with P.O.D. been going?

CL: Good man. It’s been fun to do it again, you know. We toured with them a few years back so it’s kind of like a reunion.

ZK: How long have you known them?

CL: We’ve known them since ’98.

ZK: Where is your favorite place to play?

CL: As far as venues? In the country?

ZK: No, your favorite city to play in.

CL: I think my favorite place to visit in the States is San Francisco. I just like the city. We also like to play L.A., and New York is always cool too.

ZK: Yeah, your show on Tuesday (5/25/04) went pretty well.

CL: Yeah, we’re going to play CBGB in August sometime.

ZK: Are you guys going to be headlining?

CL: Yeah. We’re going to go on a headlining tour. Not everything is set yet, but it’s looking like we’re going to go out with this band called Me Without You. They’re a really cool band, and this band called The Kick.

ZK: Do you prefer playing smaller clubs over larger venues?

CL: I think it becomes something more intimate. I mean, I like to do both, but it can become something really special when you have the kids up close and can look them in the eye.

ZK: Is there a certain show that you can remember as being the best show that you have ever played?

CL: Nah, I don’t think I can. I think the first show we ever played was pretty fun. We played at this graduation party, and no one knew we were a band. And we just went up there played, and everything went over pretty well, and all of sudden you became a celebrity in school for a couple weeks.

ZK: Is there a worst show that you can remember? Any disaster stories?

CL: Oh yeah. Plenty. I remember this one time in Holland where we played and there was hardly anyone. Actually the worst one was in El Paso a long time ago where we came in and there were like no people in there. There were a couple of guys playing pool, and there was this young girl maybe 14 years old who was the promoter, and I said, “I thought more people would come, did you advertise for it?” “Uh, not really, I put up a poster one place,” and it was like “OK.”

ZK: How long ago was this?

CL: It was in ’98.

ZK: Were you on Solid State back then?

CL: Yeah.

ZK: How did Solid State find you in Sweden?

CL: We were on this really small indie label in Sweden. Basically it was our friends who started a label with us and other bands.

ZK: So did you send your demo across to the States or were you heard over there?

CL: There was supposed to be a demo kind of thing and it became kind of the real record and stuff. And then our friends from the small indie company, they flew over to the states and were at this festival and handed out CDs and Solid State got a copy from that.

ZK: Besides P.O.D. what are your favorite bands to tour with?

CL: I would say the Kick. They’re one of my favorite bands; they’re from Florida.

ZK: You mentioned at the show on Tuesday that you are working with World Vision. Is that the first charitable organization that you have worked with?

CL: Yeah. It’s the first one.

ZK: What drew you towards working with World Vision?

CL: We were sitting in Sweden in Stockholm and me and Simon were just talking about the band and everything and all of us started talking simultaneously about how we should really try to do something and that we wanted to work with an organization that helps other people, especially the AIDS crisis in Africa. I called our manager the same night, and he said that"... it’s funny that you’re talking about that because today I actually just read about this organization called World Vision," and we started talking about it, and it was perfect for what we were talking about. We started reading up on the organization so we got a better picture of what they were doing. Also, my wife is going to Tanzania to write her final thesis about the AIDS crisis in Africa, so I’m going to fly down there to visit and see what’s going on.

ZK: That’s great. Is there any kind of message on About a Burning Fire?

CL: In a way, yes and no. Because it’s about the passion that keeps moving us forward. The whole record is basically about finding that place in this world. In this world it’s about distraction. You’re constantly surrounded by distractions. You’re hardly ever alone. You have CDs and all this stuff that keeps you from being alone, because then you have to face who you are. If you find a way to be alone and silent, then you can draw something from that feeling. Sometimes those places can be life changing. That’s pretty much what the song “Shekina” is all about. It’s about one of the moments where the presence of something bigger than yourself, when you have that feeling that everything is just right. And those moments can be totally life changing because it can go in one direction or suddenly change and go in the other one and go another way.

ZK: What role does religion play in your music? Is that what it’s all about?

CL: Definitely. It’s definitely the whole reason why and where all of our creativity comes from. We believe that Christ is the father of creativity so we draw a lot from that. But at the same time we have just got to live our lives, and hopefully people will see that. We try to affect the people around us with the message. And at the same time there are too many bands that are just shoving stuff down people’s throats, and a lot of people are just repulsed by that. We’re not that band. If you believe something else that’s cool, and you can still listen to our music. But at a lot of times during our career it’s probably not been the best way to go career-wise to have this faith.

ZK: But it also gains you other fans that you wouldn’t have otherwise.

CL: But we just came to the conclusion that we have to stay who we are we can’t just go on changing because of what someone else thinks you are supposed to do. And in the ten years we’ve been together we have just found that this has totally been our strength, that we have this unity and that we draw a lot of strength from this.

ZK: So is that how you guys came together?

CL: We were friends in high school but we all have that in common. But we have also grown more and more in our religion and try to dig deeper and deeper. We always had our faith but it has become a really important thing in our lives.

ZK: When you were recording About a Burning Fire was there anything you did differently this time around?

CL: On the Silence record we were touring a lot for eleven months straight, and then we came home and it was summer in Sweden, for a month, and we just relaxed and hung out with all of our friends, absorbing. When you’re a road warrior the only thing you see is dirty clubs and concrete and cities the whole time. Going from that to the countryside of Sweden, and summer, and swimming and all of this stuff, it’s such a contrast. So I think that helped a lot with our song writing on this record, so that when we flew back to L.A. it influenced us. L.A. is--it’s a very success driven city, a lot of cars, and totally just concrete everywhere.

ZK: Which is the complete opposite of Sweden...

CL: It’s kind of like the tension between the two, that got stuck on the record too. If you look at two songs like “Hooray It’s L.A.” and “Shekina” they’re totally different vibes. You kind of see the tension there. So it was really nice that we had the time off. But when we came in and recorded this album I think that we needed and wanted to bring another sound to the record. Like on the Silence record it was kind of like a wall of sound. It was charged and pretty thick, and that’s what we wanted to do, but on this one we wanted everything to stick out more.

ZK: It shows different aspects of your sound…

CL: Yeah. This time we used a lot of vintage guitars and it became something different.

ZK: Did you write different songs in different places?

CL: The lyrics came together in LA. Some of them like About A Burning Fire came together back in Sweden though.

ZK: Do you guys have as strong a European following as in the States?

CL: No, actually we have more here than in Sweden.

ZK: So your tours in Europe are not as big as in America?

CL: Not at all. That’s the funny thing. Because we have a small indie label in Sweden we don’t sell that much at all because they don’t know what they’re doing. So we started building here in the States right away. Our first tour was just like a road trip, we just got a van and started trying to tour, slept on floors and all of that stuff.

ZK: Is it hard to tour the States being so far from home so much of the time?

CL: It’s hard. Two of us are married, but it works though. We have a great time on tour, but it’s hard at the same time being so far away from your family. It’s the best job you can ever have and the worst at the same time. We try to bring them out as much as possible.

ZK: Do your families come out on tour with you often?

CL: Yeah, a lot, our wives at least. We try to do that as much as possible.

ZK: What is the music scene like in Sweden now?

CL: I couldn’t really tell you actually. There’s a lot of 80’s stuff for a while but it might have changed now. I don’t really keep track much.

ZK: Is there a particular reason that you write most of your lyrics in English?

CL: The reason is because if you want to reach outside of Sweden you have to write in English, because Sweden is a small country of 8 million people. If you want to tour, [Sweden] is smaller than the state of Texas, so…

ZK: What were your biggest influences when Blindside was founded?

CL: I would have to say a lot of the grunge and all of the Seattle bands in the beginning of the 90’s. But there was such a good music scene with Pantera and Rage [Against The Machine] coming out at the same time and Refused were big in Sweden. It was a good atmosphere and there were a lot of local bands coming up. So it kind of felt like a sweet time, and if you went to shows there was such a good atmosphere when the sign would go off and everyone would go crazy at every show. I think that influenced a lot.

ZK: Did you ever get to play a show with Refused?

CL: No we didn’t actually.

ZK: What are you currently listening to?

CL: Today I am listening to Pedro the Lion. They’re good.

ZK: Are you satisfied with the state of music today?

CL: I think there’s a little too much fear in the major label scene. The labels are afraid to put out anything that is different because they want to make their money, of course, and the bands become afraid, because they want to be on a major label, to play something different, and the radio is afraid to play something different because they want to have the ratings. So, everyone becomes afraid, and the music becomes, just static and one-dimensional. I am not saying that everything is crap out there, but I do see that fear all over. Maybe it’s about to change. I think it has to change at some point because otherwise people will just stop listening to radio and CDs.

ZK: Do you see any other bands out there that are going against that unoriginality?

CL: Oh yeah. A lot of bands are going against that. And a lot of people see that, I think. But at the same time these bands don’t get on major labels and don’t sell a lot of records because they’re different. I’m always encouraged to see artists like Bjork.

ZK: Was there any backlash from fans when you signed to a major label?

CL: It was weird. Of course there are going to be old fans who say that A Thought Crushed My Mind was the best one ever. I mean we’re proud of all of them, you know, we’re proud of our history. But I think that the transition was pretty smooth actually and a lot of fans stayed with us and tried to figure us out. They know that we’re not going to put out the same record twice, and we’ve never done that. With [Silence] a lot of people were thrown off because A Thought Crushed My Mind was a lot heavier. Then we decided to work with more melodies and a lot of the A Thought Crushed My Mind fans got a little thrown off, but they kind of stayed with it and tried to dig deeper in the lyrics and stuff. We toured a lot in the hardcore scene, so a lot of those people probably say that there’s too much melody and they want just screaming. I think that they appreciate that we try to do something new and not just…. We try to keep ourselves interested and hopefully someone else will think that’s interesting too. I don’t know what the next record is going to be like, whether it’s going to be heavy or if it’s going to be even more heavy or softer, who knows, it can go either way. But I think that the fans by now are used to us changing all of the time (laughs).

ZK: Have you guys thought about any new material yet?

CL: We’re not writing that much right now, but there’s always new stuff that we come up with that we mess around with so we always kind of write a little bit, but nothing really new right now. Nothing’s really settled yet. We try to keep it open and write whatever comes out.

ZK: Besides the better exposure, what were the advantages to signing to a major label?

CL: We had the possibility of recording an album for a longer time and being in a studio with really professional people. The A Thought Crushed My Mind CD was recorded up north in Sweden, but this time we had the chance to work with a really good producer, and the main difference was vocals, because Howard [Benson] was so good with vocals and really brought the best out. So that was a major difference because we could never afford that before.

ZK: Do you plan on continuing to work with Howard Benson?

CL: Uh, who knows, we try to keep it open.

ZK: That’s all I have for you. Thanks a lot for taking the time to talk.

CL: No problem. Take it easy.