Swedish sensations Sahara Hotnights are set to blow up big with Jennie Bomb, their U.S. debut.

In case you haven’t heard, rock is back. Yes, it’s been next to impossible to open a music publication without having that declaration blast you in the face lately, but yet, it wasn’t entirely true. The Hives, the Vines, the White Stripes and the rest, they were all simply the heralds. It’s Sahara Hotnights that have brought rock ’n’ roll back for real.

Jennie Bomb is the U.S. debut from the feral female foursome hailing from rock music’s undisputed new spiritual home, Sweden. Loaded up on sonic ammunition with titles like “Alright Alright (Here’s My Fist, Where’s The Fight),” “With Or Without Control” and “On Top Of Your World,” the rapid-fire 30-minute disc is a powerful punk-pop weapon, and it’s pointed in your direction.

With the band now joining the likes of the Hives, Soundtrack Of Our Lives and Division Of Laura Lee in what looks to be a full-on Swedish invasion, one might wonder where all these great groups suddenly came from. To Maria Andersson, Sahara Hotnights’ volatile lead singer and one-half of the band’s songwriting team (along with drummer Josephine Forsman), the answer is simple:

“We’ve always had good bands,” explains Andersson, unwinding at home in her native country after a series of high-profile performances, including summer festivals in the U.K. “It sounds very cynical, but the world always needs another hype, I guess. So they chose Sweden this time. Of course, when a Swedish band does well outside Sweden, there are other bands that are inspired by them. That’s why the scene grows all the time.”

Lucky for them, that growing scene is a friendly one. “It’s not that big, this country,” laughs Andersson. “And yeah, it’s friendly. I mean, if you talk to bands from England, they don’t have that at all — that supportive scene, sort of. Most bands like other bands in Sweden.”

So, what may seem at first glance like a phenomenon that sprung up overnight was actually a long time in the works. Both the Hives and Soundtrack Of Our Lives struggled for years, putting out multiple albums and building their fanbases at home and abroad before the international music press really took notice. Even Sahara Hotnights, whose members are all in their early 20s, have been together for nearly a decade, with a pair of albums to their name. With all that effort, and the dazzling high-energy music behind it, it was really only a matter of time before people noticed what was going on in the Scandinavian country.

“It should take time to get popular,” reflects Andersson. “I mean, it’s so funny that it was all at once, of course. But, I’m not surprised at all, because I think that we have probably the world’s best bands.”

Speaking of taking time, if you’ve done the math, you’ve realized by now that the members of Sahara Hotnights hadn’t even hit their teens yet when they decided to form a band. According to Maria, the four girls, who named their group after an Australian racehorse, were “eleven; twelve, maybe,” when the idea struck them.

“We all played different instruments,” she says, matter-of-factly. “I mean, we played separately, and we were all friends, so we just thought that it would be a fun thing to play together. And it sounded okay, so we continued. But it’s not that unusual to start at a really early age, here at least. Most bands that I know started playing when they were kids.”

Recordings from those early days are certain to become collectors’ items in the future, should they ever leak out. “We wrote some of our own songs, and then we did some cover versions of, I don’t know, Nirvana,” remembers Andersson of the band’s first excursions into making music together. “We’ve always thought that we were like the best band ever, so it’s pretty fun to listen to it and think of that.”

In 1997, while still in their teens, the girls released their debut EP, Suits Anyone Fine. Tightening up their sound as they matured, both as people and as a band, they followed with their first album, C’mon Let’s Pretend, in 1999. Now, Jennie Bomb, the group’s second full-length, which was released in Sweden last year, has made it to U.S. shores courtesy of Jetset Records. It’s Sahara Hotnights best work to date, a perfect way to make a striking first impression Stateside — and even Andersson admits she prefers it to the last album.

“Mostly that’s got to do with the sound,” she says. “We weren’t that satisfied with the first one because it didn’t sound at all like we do live… It was a bit different, because on the first one, we had never done it before, and you want to try everything. And you haven’t really got a clue how it’s going to sound, and how it can sound when you’re finished. And with a second album, you have an idea. We didn’t have that idea on the first one. But it’s a good one too.”

Don’t expect too much modesty, though. When asked if she considers C’mon Let’s Pretend a learning experience, Andersson replies, “It was a learning experience, but I’m really proud of it. I still think it’s a great album. So, I wouldn’t call it a learning experience. I would call it a great album.”

Jennie Bomb’s title is, in Andersson’s words, “a tribute to Jennie — that’s our guitarist.” Jennie Asplund formed the band along with Maria, Josephine and her sister, bassist Johanna Asplund. Already the subject of a great deal of press, the four have now faced repeated comparisons to bands like the Runaways and the Donnas, for their forceful, hook-laden approach to music, their youth, and, much to their chagrin, their gender.

“They’re both good bands,” says Andersson, “but it’s really sad that people still compare us to other bands because of the fact that we’re girls.

“When we started playing, we were just four friends,” she recalls. “We never thought it was a weird thing to do that, or, ‘We’re girls, can we really do this?’ We never thought about it. I guess it’s the media’s fault, when they start focusing on that.”

Citing bands like the Ramones and the MC5 as their true influences, Maria ponders the question of whether gender is only an issue because there aren’t enough female bands out there right now. “People are always going to look differently at males and females, no matter what they’re doing,” she reflects. “It’s really hard, because we don’t want to make it a big thing. If we make it a problem, it is a problem. But it’s important anyway, because like you say, there are not that many female bands, and in some way that is a problem.”

“I think it would be great if more girls really discovered how fun it is to play,” she adds. “But at the same time, I wouldn’t want more female bands to be successful just because of the fact that they were girls. There are a lot of bad female bands that are getting attention.”

The point is obviously that Sahara Hotnights is made up not just of four young women, but of four people — four distinct individuals, who, despite having grown up together as a band, all continue to bring their unique perspectives to the table. “We’re all very different, but that’s a good thing,” says Andersson. “Otherwise it would be really boring. But I think we agree on the most important things, like making decisions on what’s going to happen with the band.”

Not a whole lot has changed over the years either: “When it comes to the band, we all think the same way that we did when we started. It’s really a steady band,” Andersson insists. “Of course we argue all the time, and we scream at each other. But we know that it doesn’t matter if we have an argument. You know that it’s going to be over the next day. It’s no big deal.”

Finally making it in America, however, is a big deal. “I’m really looking forward to doing a whole tour in the U.S., because we’ve never done that,” Andersson admits. “So, it’s going to be fun. We’re coming over in October to tour with Mooney Suzuki.”

And as for the prospect that many U.S. listeners could end up thinking of Jennie Bomb as the band’s first release, that’s just fine. “Yeah, I mean, it’s a really good album,” says Andersson. “Isn’t that better if they think that our second album, which is better, is our debut? They must think that we’re geniuses or something.”

With that, she begins to laugh, chuckling at the implications of what she has just said. The real funny thing, however, is that she isn’t too far off.

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