AFI
Interview
Mmm, a freezing cold Saturday afternoon at London's Wembley Arena. Not
everyone's favourite place to be, but the Arena was about to witness a mighty
fine gig just a few hours later, in the form of The
Offspring.
And headlining the support slots were one of Nitro Record's finest bands - AFI
(A Fire Inside for those who were wondering). Audiostreet went to meet Adam
Carson (drums), along with Jade Puget (guitars) and Hunter (bass). Unfortunately
for us, singer Davey Havok was far too busy taking his shirt off for various
photographers, displaying his rather fine body art.
However,
the three musicians, friendly and polite, were willing to have a quick chat with
me. Adam, the most talkative here, and one of the founder members (along with
Davey) told me about the history of the band. "We started in 1991, we were
at High School, and we were your typical High School garage band. We scraped the
money together to put out our first 7in. We gained a few fans and put out a few
more 7ins. And then we broke up for a while to go to college. During that
Christmas break, we were all at home and decided to play together, to do some
shows for fun. And we had such a good time that we decided to continue to do the
band, and that's what we did. Along the way we've had new members, but I think
this current line up has been around the longest. It's definitely the best
incarnation."
The band are slightly more reticent when asked to describe their sound. Often
lumped into the 'US punk' category, the guys want to keep their sound as vague
and as open as possible. Bleached-blond Hunter is adamant that "We're a
rock band", while Adam is a little most descriptive when he describes AFI
as "a melodic hardcore rock band with dark textures". Which isn't too
far off when you listen to the band's most recent release - 2000's 'The Art Of
Drowning'.
Singer Davey is responsible for the band's lyrics, but who writes the music?
Softly-spoken Jade insists that "We all do", but Adam adds that "Jade's
being modest here. He writes the majority of the songs". And Hunter's role
in the band, apart from playing bass? "I wrote one song." Adam?
"I wrote no songs". Well, he's far too busy drumming!
When it comes to music, the band have a range of various influences, and some of
these are found on Hunter's pin badges. "Yeah, I like The Clash a lot. We
all have different influences, we all listen to completely different music, and
we all bring elements of what we like into the AFI sound. I like to think that
AFI doesn't really sound like anything else, any specific thing that anyone of
us listen to, but it's just a sort of conglomeration."
[Adam] "The general tone of the band was set a long time ago, because we
were influenced by early '80s punk rock like Black Flag, The Misfits and The
Circle Jerks, but I think, as Hunter said, that it's a combination of all of our
outside interests that make the band unique. Because we're not trying to sound
like anything. We just play the music we like."
Despite their deep-rooted love of old punk rock bands, the band still buy loads
of music. [Adam] "I buy records and I don't even listen to them. I have a
big CD carrousel. I buy them and I put them in and I forget that I've put them
in there and so ever once in a while I'll have it on 'shuffle' and a CD will
come on that I didn't even know I owned, and I'll get real excited!" Recent
purchases for Jade include "Cradle Of Filth. The new Beatles CD that
everyone has. It's pretty good. And At The Drive-In." At The Drive-In are a
band that AFI thanked on their last album. [Adam] "We played shows together,
before that record ['Relationship Of Command'] came out, and we always try to
thank the people that we played with."
AFI are singed to Nitro records, the label set up by The
Offspring's Dexter Holland. He's not just the band's label manager,
though, he's a friend too, an older sibling, perhaps, who keeps an eye on the
younger band. Adam explains, "Dexter started the label to put out his kind
of music. He singed our band. He totally looks out for us. It's kinda cool
because he's in an enormous band but he knows what it's like to be in a small
band. He's gained a lot of experience in running a label and being in a big
band, but he still remembers what it's like to struggle so he helps us out and
makes things easier for us."
A lot of reviews of AFI liken the band to a Goth band, and it has been said that
there are Goth elements of 'The Art Of Drowning'. But the band disagree with
this. [Jade] "I think that the fact that we dress in black and that Dave
looks Goth, they apply that to our music. That's not really true. When they see
us dress like that, they assume that we're Goths. I don't think that our record
sounds like that." Adam adds, "I think that the record has a
melancholy feel to it, sort of a darker feel to it, which I really like. I
wouldn't call it Goth." The band have toured with some rock greats,
including Rancid, Danzig, Sick Of It All and The Offspring, with whom they're in
the middle of a European tour. Some bands might find it hard work being the
support act, but AFI, for the most part, enjoy it. Jade explains that it's
actually easier to be the support, "You don't have the stress of being
headliners. We show up, we play, and especially on a tour like this,
everything's taken care of. We do our set, and we're off."
It probably helps that AFI are both friends with and fans of The Offspring, and
that this is a good support slot for them - a chance for hoards of people to see
them live. They've just played Glasgow and Manchester. [Adam] "They were
some of the biggest shows we've ever played - the biggest indoor-type shows.
We've done the Warped tour, a couple of the Warped tour shows last summer. Each
show about 10 times the amount of people we're used to playing in front
of." Have the crowd warmed to AFI and their show? [Adam] "Yes. I don't
think people are too familiar with us. I think they've enjoyed it. I'd like to
think that they liked it." [Jade] "There's a language barrier [in the
rest of Europe]. But the kids are the same everywhere. They're quite young. Our
crowd is pretty young."
Finally, I ask about AFI's
plans for 2001. [Adam] "Well, we finish this tour, and go home and have a
couple of weeks off. Then we tour Canada and a little bit of the United States,
and then late April or early may, we're gonna come back out here for a week or
so and play some shows. Headlining in small clubs." Make sure you're there.
Emma Badger
