For those whining about true emo being Sunny Day Real Estate and not My Chemical Romance, we’ll produce the turning point from hardcore-dudes-going-indie to pop-punk-dudes-getting-theatrical: its AFI’s 1999 album
Black Sails in the Sunset.
The band had just acquired new guitarist Jade Puget and immediately switched from a fever-pitched melodic hardcore to a sound best described as an auditory bastard child of Glen Danzig and Lord Byron, which spawned the movement of black-fringed mopers we deride to this day. 2006’s
December Underground was the pinnacle of epic pop-punk mourning for the band, but AFI and iconic singer Davey Havoc were always about pioneering trends rather than following them. In the intervening years Havoc and Puget have purged their predilection for darkwave electronica with Blaqk Audio, bassist Hunter Burgan toyed with producing, while drummer Adam Carson was essentially jonesing to get back in the studio.
Now they present
Crash Love, a distillation of everything they’ve learnt in their 18 years as a band – drama, despair, hooks, hope and, ultimately, energy. It’s a word that Carson used a lot during our chat.
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You must be happy with Crash Love’s stripped back approach, because the way December Underground was going you were almost getting replaced by a drum machine!
[Laughs] Not necessarily.
December Underground experimented with electronics but there was only one song that didn’t include me, per se. If you look at earlier records there was the occasional ballad that didn’t include me. The songs that were the most interesting to me on
December Underground were the ones that involved electronics but combined the drums. ‘Love Like Winter’, for example, with a drum groove and electronic percussion thing underneath it. I liked the way we were doing that but you’re right that the new record is exciting because it’s more of a straightforward rock record.
Especially ‘Too Shy To Scream’. I’ve been bopping along to that and it’s not something I thought I’d get from AFI ever again.
That was a fun one. We have a couple of different mixes of that and some sound like fuckin’ Stomp or the Blue Man Group or something. I kinda had to leave the room when it was being mixed because I wanted to hear more and more of the drums.
I know a lot of bands say this, but Crash Love feels like a distillation of the best parts of AFI’s musical career.
I wish we could say that we knew what type of record we were writing at the time. But the reality is that there were probably 60 songs written and 30 songs worked on as a band. We never really know what songs are going to work, no matter how much effort is put in to the song. The songs you keep are the ones that have a bit of energy; that the band responds to really well. We don’t know what’s going to work but after a while they stand up and raise their hand. I am really happy that the selection of songs we ended up with is really well-rounded and shows what the band can do and highlights different influences that we’ve always had.
I’ll agree with your statement, and a guy in the band is always going to say this, but I think it’s our most well-rounded record. Certainly from a performance standpoint – it’s the best playing we’ve done as a band together.
Why do you think that is?
Well, we had – I wouldn’t call it time off because I don’t remember not being busy – but we hadn’t played in a room without people watching us for a long time. It was fun to play together as a band and I think there was a bit of energy there. You spend a lot of time recording and going on tour; you’re playing together but you’re playing the songs that you recorded over and over. The first time you get in a rehearsal spot and create new music, it’s always inspiring. I think we’re just remembering how awesome it is to just play together, the four of us.
Did you feel like you got over-excited?
I’m always guilty of that [Laughs]. I’m “that guy” in the band. David and Jade were out with Blaqk Audio and Hunter’s out recording with Tegan & Sara and his million different side projects. I was trying to play with whoever I could. I’m in San Francisco and it’s a little bit harder – it shouldn’t be harder – to connect with people. I was rehearsing on my own. By the time we got together I was trying to make up for lost time.
A.F.I - 'Medicate'
Well, talking about having people watching – you had fans join you in the studio who won the YouTube competition. What did you learn about your fans from the thousand video submissions?
It confirmed that, to this day in 2009, that our fans are many types of people. They’re old and young, kids going to school and 40-year-old soccer moms. It’s strange. They’re generally really intelligent. The time and effort that was put into the videos was really impressive and it was nice to be able to put a face with the name.
I saw a photo from the studio with the fans doing the gang vocals and it didn’t look like that diverse a demographic.
It’s probably hard to tell. There were kids who were really young and one who was our age, [30s] basically, who had been around since the early days of Gilman Street. We tried to be as non-biased as possible. We looked for the videos that most touched us, I guess. But that wasn’t a prerequisite either, we just looked for the videos that jumped out. We’re a totally democracy here. We had everybody do their top ten and looked for ones that reoccurred. It was cool. We were doing this as an opportunity to involve our fans in the making of the record but an unintended consequence was that we really learnt a lot about our fans as well. It’s humbling that people still care so much.
They might care, but were they any good at singing? Did you have to autotune the bejesus out of them?
[Laughs] We were very selective in what we had people involved in. There was one song which had these call-and-response shouts that just about anybody could do. I think the kids were surprised. After a handful of takes, when the novelty wore off, they were looking at each other thinking ‘How long do we have to do this?’ At the end of the day we got the takes. Whatever we would’ve done on our own to make it presentable on record is what we did.
December Underground reached that apex of Romanticism in its feel and the band’s look, but with Crash Love that has disappeared. Was this a change in Davey?
I’m not sure. I’ve known Davey for twenty-something years now and even when we were in the eighth or ninth grade, his look changes every couple of years. He’s a guy who explores things until they don’t necessarily interest him as much, and then he moves on and tries new things. He likes to have the way he looks be a reflection of the way he’s feeling. He has really strong beliefs and ethics and a strong core that is never going to change but as far as the way he packages and presents it, he’s happy to let that happen organically.
Would happiness or contentedness within the band kill off AFI?
I don’t know. That’s an age old question. You look at bands that reach a certain level and no longer have something significant to say… I’m not sure. Without sounding too dramatic, I think it would take a lot for us to be content with things. [Laughs]
Andrew Tijs
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AFI are coming to Australia to play the 2010 Soundwave Festival
February 20 - Brisbane, Soundwave Festival 2010
February 21- Sydney, Soundwave Festival 2010
February 26 - Melbourne, Soundwave Festival 2010
February 27 - Adelaide, Soundwave Festival 2010
March 1 - Perth, Soundwave Festival 2010