On some levels AFI are an enigma. They carry heavy Goth elements but have never been shackled by the Gothic Ghetto curse that seems to affect so many Goth bands. Their music is emotional, but they have never suffered from being called an Emo band. They have outlived the hegemony of Grunge, Pop Punk, Hardcore, they are soon to outlive Metalcore and their stock keeps rising. The appeal of the band and their music is like an episode of Prison Break: you either get it and understand why it is brilliant, or you don’t (in both cases it helps if you have a thing for intense young men with tattoos).
On a Saturday night in Shepherd’s Bush, London, guitarist Jade Puget and bassist Hunter Burgan were kind enough to answer a few questions I had about the band, their music and the new album. Jade speaks softly and chooses his words carefully. Hunter hardly speaks at all. This may have resulted from flying from Berlin that morning, having played a show there the night before. While I nervously fiddle with my tape recorder they swap notes about their phones and Sidekicks. Check One, Check one, my tape recorder is now working.
Thirty hours prior, the Universal office in London had let me hear the new album, a slick, muscular disc called Decemberunderground, a progression on Sing the Sorrow in terms of sounds and songwriting, but still unmistakeably AFI.
With that in mind I ask them what they think the might have got right on this new album that they may have got wrong in the past. Jade took a slightly different view: “I guess it’s not really a question of right and wrong, it’s more a question of doing something a little different… I personally didn’t have any major regrets for the last album… But there are ideas that I know that I wanted to do that I didn’t do on the last record.”
Hunter joins in “You try to do things better than you might have done in the past, but that’s not to say that you did them poorly.”
Back in time to hearing the album again. Decemberunderground is awash with nifty little electronic touches that catch you by surprise. EBM, IDM, Electro and Future-pop flourishes abound. There were electronics on Sing The Sorrow. There were even electronics on Art of Drowning. This is something else.With that in mind, I ask about the sounds that are found on the record, and what might have inspired the progression that has taken place.
Jade picks up the thread: “I think that you want to cover areas that you haven’t covered, and maybe there’s things, more ideas with each record that never get done. I know that with each record there are always things that I want to try, and I know that on this record more of those things [were realised], pushing the boundaries a little bit. Like instrumentation and programming and songwriting and melody, and I think they are a little bit more advanced on this record.”
Interesting. I’m curious as to whether the programming was all done in house.
Jade replies: “On ‘Love Like Winter’, Ronan Harris from VNV [VNV Nation, Anglo-Irish Synth-Goth crew], we asked him to do a little programming on that because we are fans of their music. But we like to do most of it ourselves. We never have outside songwriters or anything like that.”
I ask what influences the songwriting/arrangements/themes…
“As far as influences go, it’s no one thing. I know personally that when I write songs it’s not a particular band I’m listening to or how do I write a particular form or music like [affects a studied songwriter voice] I’m going to write a Hardcore Song its just you pick up a guitar or whether you’re on a keyboard or a computer and just do it. It’s a mixture of everything that you’re influenced by. As far as the lyrics go, Dave’s influenced by whatever art or literature. People have asked ‘what are these lyrics about?’ but he’s never answered them.”
The new album does represent some serious left turns from previous material, but AFI have traditionally given the impression of a band unconcerned with following tight genre guidelines. With that in mind, I’m curious as to whether there was ever a point recording this album that they felt ‘we can’t do this, it’s too weird’ or ‘this is too much of a left turn’?
Jade disagrees: “Actually, that was a concern on previous albums. Say on The Art of Drowning there was a song called ‘Morningstar’ on that record. And I remember I wanted to put some strings on it, and when we put the strings on it, I remember thinking [channels anxious studio Jade] ‘How can we do that, it’s so… it’s too melodic, it’s too crazy, our fans are never going to accept that.’ And the song as a whole we nearly left off because we were so concerned, ‘how can we do this, this isn’t like AFI’. And on the previous album, [Black Sails in the Sunset] the song ‘God Called in Sick Today’, those songs are always the ones that are fan favourites.
“So on this record it’s the first time we’ve thought ‘Let’s just do what we want, let’s just explore whatever area we want to, if people hate it, so be it, so long as we’re proud of what we did, artistically, then that’s all that matters.”
When I tell Jade and Hunter that ‘The Morningstar’ is one of my favourite AFI songs, and if I was interviewing Davey I would have asked him ‘Are you the “ghost upon the stage”’ (a leitmotif that occurs on Art of Drowning) they both laugh. Jade tells me that is one lyric ‘which can probably be taken literally.’
AFI releases from the All Hallow’s EP onwards have featured distinctive illustration by the American artist Alan Forbes. I ask if Alan Forbes will be doing the album artwork this time around.
Jade tells me that for Decemberunderground Alan Forbes contributed the circle of rabbits, but that on this album and the last the Art Direction has been moving away from the heavily stylised and cartoonish vibe that it had on All Hallow’s, Black Sails and Art of Drowning. He goes on to tell me that this is a process that started with the sleeve for Sing the Sorrow, for which Alan Forbes created an image which was less of a cartoon an more of an iconographic image.
Finally I ask when AFI might be returning to Australia. Jade insists that the band intend to return to Australia while touring this album, but he does not know precisely when. He does mention that in September AFI are going to Japan, and from there Australia is only seven or eight hours by plane. So there might be an Australian tour as early as then.
I’m fresh out of questions. I ask Jade if he has any final words for AFI fans in Australia, which he does, but he then speaks so softly that the Voice Activation function on my tape recorder (accidentally switched on by your bratwurst-fingered scribe) doesn’t pick him up. It doesn’t matter. AFI are still an incredible live band, and they have made the record that they wanted to make, as no one else could. You’ll either get it, or you won’t.
AFI’s Decemberunderground is out now through Interscope. An Australian tour is rumoured for September – stay tuned to FasterLouder for details.
