AFI

„Decemberunderground is a time and a place. It is where the cold can huddle together in darkness and isolation. It is a community of those detached and disillusioned who flee to love, like winter, in the recesses below the rest of the world.“ sagt AFI-Sänger Davey Havok. „Decemberunderground“ ist auch der Titel des frisch erschienenen neuen AFI-Albums. Janina Blaumeiser führte über dieses und mehr ein ausführliches Interview mit Bassist Hunter.

Q: Tell me something about the band’s evolvement throughout those many years of the band’s existence.

A: Gosh, where do I start! When I first joined AFI it was a completely different band which is about 9 years ago and our style of music was just different then. And I think it just evolved and as you might even realize the music has changed with me joining and then Jay joining. It just continued to evolve, and I think from album to album we push ourselves and try to do something new that we haven’t done before, and it is just because it’s us doing it it’ll always be AFI. But we keep things interesting and just see what new things we can do that WE like to do.

Q: Has there ever been a point in the band’s existence where you were thinking of ending the band?

A: No. Never! This is the one thing we love, so why would we ever wanna stop doing it?! I mean, in the early days obviously something had to take place for me to join the band, the previous bass player had to quit, and then the same thing when Jay joined AFI, but since then we have been a pretty tight unit.

Q: Can you tell me something about the new cover of “Decemberunderground”? It reminds me somehow of the film version of “Watership Down” or is it attached to the “Sing the Sorrow” booklet’s last page?

A: We’re not trying to reference “Watership Down” with the cover at all. We actually try to incorporate rabbits thematically or otherwise into a lot of what we have done over the past four or five years and it has come out in different ways, in our newest video or in the video for “Girl’s not grey”or in the special packaging for “Sing the Sorrow”. I think it is a sort of a symbol that has different meaning to all of us, it means a lot of different things to us. It is definitely one of those things that are very representational for AFI.

Q: Why the rabbit?

A: I think if you’d ask each of us separately you’d get a different answer, but there is quite a different symbology….is that a word?

Q: Eh, symbolism, maybe?

A: I like symbology, sounds good – but maybe you should look up the word. There is quite some symbolism behind the rabbit like a symbol of fertility although that does not really apply to us in a specific way, but then there is also the analogy to Alice Through The Lookingglass you know, following the white rabbit, and we are certainly crossing the threshold to that myth-cycle. But I think it applies to many different things especially in the context of a group of songs we are presenting. There are different ways were it’s sort of, for example in the video for “Miss Murder” it’s appliable as a sort of a symbol or a foreboding or an omen if you will of a change to come.

Q: How would you describe the sound of the upcoming album?

A: I think it is very diverse, and I think we cover a lot of different styles, a lot of different moods, and we have done some experimenting with different tempos and different dynamics more so than we have in the past. There is definitely some new arrangements and new instrumentation even more electronic elements than in the past. But overall I think that it is still very AFI, it is still us. I don’t know whether those fans that know us as more of a punk band are going to like the album or not. We are fortunate that most of our hardcore fans expect us to evolve from album to album, and in turn they sort of evolve with us. But there’s always gonna be people that have their one particular album that is their favourite, and that nothing else will ever compare. Maybe for the AFI fans that haven’t been paying attention for a couple of albums we sort of sound different.

Q: Did you have a certain concept in mind writing the songs? You took 2 years of studio work for the album…

A: We actually wrote about 100 songs for the album. And in doing so there’s countless possible albums that could have been made from 100 songs. It wasn’t until we really picked out the songs that we were going to put on the album. Well, we narrowed it down to 15 songs we were gonna record, and even within that group there were many different ways that the album could have gone. And then once we actually picked the songs for the album, then it sort of got its final shape. Maybe only in the last month or so we only got a feeling what the album is as a whole work, but I think that overall the songs we wrote – even all of the 100 songs – sort of had a similar theme, and that sort of coincides with who we are as people, musicians, and that is always impossible for us to betray, but I don’t think that it is premeditated – there’s no consciousness of sort of HOW we were going to express ourselves.

Q: Davey Havok wrote a song-to-song-guide for the English Kerrang! magazine. Why so?

A: That was more of retrospective than it was a concept for the album. I mean, you can always talk about what you did on a song AFTER you have done it. But it was not that type of thing where we got together and said: “Well, we need to write a bunch of songs that are all on some specific song.” We just write about whatever comes to our heads.

Q: “The Interview” is one of the bands’ favorite songs on the album as Davey says in his little guide. Why?

A: Well, that is one of them definitely. Maybe because it is one of the older songs of the bunch, one that has been around for the longest. And, you know, it’s easy to sort of grow tired of a song after you have played it about a million times, practicing, and pre-production, and demos, and recording, and then mixing and mastering in the studio, and then if you get to shoot a video for it you’ve heard the songs so many times, and also when you play it on tour it is easy to get tired of a song. “The Interview” being one of the oldest songs that we wrote on the album it had a greater chance to run its course, but I haven’t grown tired of that song. There’s just something about it…some kind of magic.

Q: What do you think of bands trying to exploit the punk scene or attitude these days and just make punk music because it is fashionable these days?

A: I think that if you take a band like Green Day that has been around for as long as they have been, and I used to see them play really small shows and now they have had a number of years with successful albums. I think it’s great. It’s kind of like scoring for your home-team. But they are also a great model for bands. They didn’t just jump into success, but they put in a lot of hard work for a lot of years, starting out playing shows at a club like Gilman Street, and there’s nothing glamorous to that. It’s a dirty, stinky place, but it was home. And I think that if I was to give advice to bands today it was to find some of that rather than jumping right into this number-one-song-successful-band without a lot of true hardcore fans and not just flashing the pan fans. That’ll all just crumble beneath you. Calling a band like Green day a sellout is silly because they haven’t done anything different than what they have ever done just because more people liked them and they have become more successful has nothing to do with selling out. And then the notion itself: “selling out” – what does that mean, you know?! It’s a thin line between underground and mainstream these days.

Q: What do you think about bands whose sound seems to be clearly attached to YOUR music? Does it get on your nerves bands trying to copy or do you feel flattered?

A: Our friends are always trying to tell us: “Hey, you need to check out so-and-so-band! They are stealing your moves on stage!” or “Look at that photo session on the magazine, so-and-so is trying to buy your style!” But we don’t have a copyright on anything except for our specific songs, so they can do what they want. It is not as if we had such a sort of premeditated style or sound, and if someone tries to copy that I feel kinda sad for them that they don’t have enough creativity or personality to come up with something on their own. But at the same time we are constantly evolving and moving forward, and I feel like all that’s in the past.

Q: Which bands are influential to you now and which ones have been influential over the years?

A: That’s a long, long list. I think a lot of bands get together and they all sort of listen to the same music, and they are influenced by a small amount of bands which will then make for a smaller, linear sense of music that they create. I think for us it is not really that way. We all have completely different interests in music. There are only a few bands that we can all kind of agree on like The Cure for example. But that than is not to say that The Cure has the greatest influence on us, it is just one of the only bands that we ALL listen to. A common ground.

Q: What about The Misfits?

A: Well, yeah, we have done some cover songs, but it is not really a band that has influenced us as a whole. I mean, I have never been…let’s say that it’s not that I don’t appreciate The Misfits, but I have never been like a huge fan personally.

Q: How did it feel to go from an underground band to an MTV2 Viewer’s Choice Award winner?

A: That was great because of all the awards that MTV gives out during their Music Awards that is one of two that are voted by the viewers and not just a panel of voters. It was sort of an extra-honour to know that out of all the bands that were nominated that we were the ones that people voted most for and actually watch MTV. But at the same time it is a very surreal feeling to think that there is a sort of entity called MTV that I have watched since I was a small child, and has been a part of my culture. And now we’re getting recognition from them. It is really hard to take it too seriously because I don’t feel like one of the bands that I grew up watching on MTV like The Police or so. But at the same time I am sure that probably like I was watching The Police back then that is the way that some people view us today.

Q: What will the future hold for AFI?

A: Well, I know that we have planned actually the same thing we always do which is playing a million shows, keep recording, and then doing what we do. The world could ignore us, and we would still be doing the same thing hopefully. We would find a way to do it somehow. But hopefully with every record we produce more people will take notice, and hopefully enjoy it. As long as we’re having fun we are going to continue.

Thank you so much for this great and informative interview!

Interview: Janina Blaumeiser
Photos: AFI
AFI Website: www.afireinside.net

06.06.2006