From left: Aaron Sprowl, Rick Luna, Rob Sprowl, John Snyder, James Andrews.

Watch Blaknote play "Forward Pay."

Several years back, vocalist Rob Sprowl, 31, and guitarist Aaron Sprowl, 33, his brother, were gigging with a band called Sfumato. Within 12 months, the other members left and were replaced, resulting in a different sound, attitude and name: Blaknote.

Exploring soundscapes similar to the work of Linkin Park, Papa Roach and Tool, the band was fast out of the gate, releasing an EP and scoring some high-profile shows around the Midwest.

Then, Blaknote disappeared, spending much of the 18 months making an album, tweaking its lineup and plotting its future.

Now, the Sprowls are joined by guitarist James Andrews, 26, bassist Rick Luna, 36, and drummer John Snyder, 33. They recently spoke with Indy.com the Magazine.

In 2006, Blaknote was Zippo's 2006 Hot Tour contest semifinalist. You headlined stages at Summerfest in Milwaukee and Stage Fright at Verizon Wireless Music Center. Was it hustle or being in the right place at the right time?

It was... both, really. We worked hard promoting the band for the Zippo Hot Tour competition- a pure voting-based contest. The Summerfest and Hardees/Live Nation spots we sort of fell into.

Since then things seem to have cooled a little. Were you busy with the album?

The recording and production of "Conflict and Compromise" was a pretty lengthy process. The material was written from late 2006 to mid-2007, with recording beginning in late summer of '07. We didn't wrap production until that fall.

We spent most of that time at the Music Garage in Indianapolis tracking, mixing and producing the album. We're perfectionists, so it didn't leave a lot of room for playing out. We also changed guitarists.

What kind of response has the album generated?

The album led directly to our being featured in the 8Activision PC game "Rock Tour Tycoon" in October (and) helped open doors for us with several artist management and booking companies.

Explain how you split time doing cover shows and playing originals.

At this point, we're really focusing on being an original act as much as possible. However, being an original-only band is financially challenging. ..... We're able to make enough money playing a limited cover schedule to allow us to finance the original portion of the band.