I saw Yellowcard for the first time at a little dive in Greensboro, North Carolina appropriately called The Hole in the Wall. It was 2000, there was no stage, and maybe twenty people milled around while the band (the second of five playing that night) rocked out as if they were headlining an arena show. I was instantly hooked on their brand of pop rock, accented by a very unique electric violin.

It's seven years later and Yellowcard has been through quite a whirlwind. There have been major label successes and losses, a hit run on MTV, one broken kneecap, one broken jaw, vocal chord surgery, a new guitarist, two new bass players, and through it all, tireless touring.

After a long hiatus, Yellowcard is back this July 17th with Paper Walls, their new full length album produced by Neal Avron. In preparation for a huge summer, founding band member Sean Mackin – the man with the violin – was nice enough to chat with BlogCritics.

Congratulations on the new album. It’s a very nice progression in line with your last two major label albums. It’s considerably more anthematic than anything else that you’ve done and has some very aggressive guitar and violin. Can you talk a little bit about how you achieved the musical aesthetic?

First, thank you. One of the things that Yellowcard really wanted to focus on while recording Paper Walls, and probably the only thing that we really looked at from the beginning, was that we wanted to take the best of what we had done on Ocean Avenue and sort of have the energy, the bigger hooks, and the anthems. Then we wanted to take some of the more straightforward rock side and some of the different sounds that we grew and developed on Lights and Sounds and we wanted to put all that together. Basically what you have is the best that Yellowcard has to offer.

What would you consider some of your biggest musical influences over the span of your career, but also specifically for Paper Walls?

Well, because I come from a classical background, a lot of my personal influences come from that. I love Bach. It’s so beautiful to listen to his music. It’s so dark and passionate and I really like it a lot. But going into some more popular music, I’m drawn to artists that have a little more of a classical edge to them. I really like Muse and Thrice. I also really enjoy some singer-songwriter types like Ben Folds and Damien Rice. I think that by far, Ben Folds is this generation’s best song writer. So, I get a lot of inspiration from that and I try to collaborate really well with the rest of Yellowcard.

I know that Dear Bobbie is an intensely personal song about the relationship between Ryan [Key’s] grandparents. What pushed him, or you as a band, to include something so close to him on this album?