[dropcap]I[/dropcap] know why it became cool to hate on AFI.
OG fans who latched on during Davey Havok’s Danzig spike phase had no choice except to backlash against 2006’s Decemberunderground. Some of that had to do with the mid-’00s over-saturation of interchangeable third-wave emo bands. Some of that had to do with the idealistic/selfish mentality that artists who reside outside of mainstream awareness should stay there. But I suspect the biggest reason why anybody groused about Decemberunderground was, unlike every previous AFI record, it didn’t have any songs you could listen to while punching someone in the face.
Regardless of how angry an individual might be in the moment, he or she will feel silly beating someone up while blasting the peppy mega hit “Miss Murder” or sentimental deep cut “Endlessly, She Said.” Now, let’s consider “Totalimmortal,” “The Despair Factor,” “A Single Second,” or even “The Leaving Song Pt. II” and “Dancing Through Sunday” from 2003’s major label debut Sing the Sorrow. Those are all great tunes, and especially great for when faces need punchin’ and/or groins need kneein’.
I do not understand why anyone think it’s still cool to hate on AFI.
I actually kind of dig Decemberunderground okay just fine, whatever, in 2013, so 2006 me needed to calm down, I guess. On the 2009 followup Crash Love, the SoCal quartet toned down their melancholy to make room for glammy pizazz, and maybe Crash Love didn’t have any good songs for face punchin’ either, but the lead single off the new AFI thing Burials does the trick, just as one might foresee from its title: “I Hope You Suffer.”
We’ll get a fistful of that one and more Monday night, when AFI take on Royale in Boston.
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Before bassist Hunter Burgan and guitarist Jade Puget joined in the late ‘90s, founding members Havok and drummer Adam Carson recorded goofball, would-be skater anthems like “I Wanna Get a Mohawk (But Mom Won’t Let Me Get One)” and “High School Football Hero.” We can suppose that without Burgan, the singular amalgamation of hardcore, emo, and horror from all the best AFI records might not have unfolded quite the same. Plus, having co-written a few songs with Tegan and Sara and been a member of Matt Skiba and the Sekrets, he’s had the coolest side projects out of the AFI guys. Over the phone from a tour stop in Kansas, Burgan says he’s working on a crossword puzzle.
You do a lot of crossword puzzles?
It’s kind of a newer thing I’ve been trying to get into. I feel like, y’know, my grandparents used to always do the crossword puzzles. I need to start so by the time I’m the age they were when they did them, I’m a pro. I’m just putting in the time.
How quickly do you usually finish a crossword?
Y’know, it depends on what day of the week it is. I’m up to the point where the Monday or Tuesday ones are pretty quick. The Sunday one still just kills me.
Do you get them out of the New York Times?
That’s always been one of the main ones. I’ll do the LA Times one if that’s all I can find. Today I’m doing the Lawrence Journal-World one, and it’s really easy. Such questions as “The (blank) and the Sea.” C’mon…
It’s “The Old Man,” right?
Exactly.
Each AFI record since, like, 2003 has been a different animal from its predecessor. Why all the changes in direction?
Yeah, I mean, y’know, certainly in the last 10 years, we’ve only made a new record once every couple of years, or in this case, four years. So a lot happens in three or four years. You listen to a lot of records. You go through a lot emotionally. You find yourself at a different place in your life with different interests. So multiply that by four members, and the combination’s going to be totally different every time. At least, I think, the albums are consistent in that they’ve always been an accurate representation of where we are at that moment in time. That’s the common thread.
What do you think of bands who pretty much put out a different version of the same record once every few years?
I don’t know. It’s a weird thing because, obviously, if it’s a band… I’m trying to think of an example… the Ramones or something, where their style was pretty consistent throughout their career but it was really good, and you didn’t get tired of it because it was such a good thing. I think there are arguments for both, but from a performance point of view, I feel like it wouldn’t be a good creative outlet for me if we just did the same type of thing over and over again.
AFI have been the same four guys since the late ‘90s. How are you possibly all not sick of each other?
Uh, I don’t know. I think that’s the magic of what makes it work, is that we’re all, y’know… I don’t know… we work well together [laughs]. Usually bands will reach some boiling point in their careers and fall apart, but we just figured out some sort of way to make it work.
I know Davey and Jade don’t drink or anything. Think the sober atmosphere keeps potential fights from ever getting anywhere?
Yeah, I also don’t drink, and that could be part of it. I mean, since Day One, we’ve always really had a strong work ethic and put the band and the work before everything else. That’s certainly been something that’s helped us.
Why the longer-than-usual period of time between Crash Love and Burials?
Well, at the end of the Crash Love tour cycle, we decided… the cycle extended a little longer than we normally would’ve done it because we got offered a tour with Green Day. When we got done with that, we decided to take a little bit of a break. I’ve been in the band since ‘97, and we’ve been going since, so it was like, “Okay, hopefully people will be okay with us being slightly self indulgent and taking a little bit of time for ourselves.” In general, we like to take time to write and record. We don’t whip out records quickly, so that contributes to that gap.
I was at one of those Green Day shows. It seemed like 85 percent of the audience had no idea who you were, which was a 180 from your headlining shows. Was that jarring?
It was a little strange. Y’know, at most of those shows, we were playing during daylight hours. Also, often, we were playing huge, huge venues that wouldn’t be full because people would still be coming in. So it’s a huge stage, but we’re playing to sort of a strange audience, essentially. But it was cool. At every one of the shows we had fans and people who were interested in what we’re doing who came closer to the stage, and that’s all we need, really.
For me personally, and probably a lot of your other fans, it was easiest to connect with AFI music as a teenager. Do you guys, even sort of, consciously write for 16-year-olds?
We don’t really write for a specific age group. But I could see that, because of the emotional content of the music, it would appeal to people in that teenage period where there’s a lot of intense emotions going on. But a lot of people who got into us when they were teenagers continue to listen as they get older and older, so we have fans of all different ages.
Yeah, but would AFI ever write a song about, I dunno, doing taxes?
Um, there may already be one. No, it’s, uh, I would assume, I can only assume, that if Davey were to write a song about doing taxes, it would be written so well that you wouldn’t realize that was what it was about.
And it would be profoundly emotional.
Yes, exactly. Which doing taxes can be.
I read a thing on VICE’s music blog thing a while ago that compiled all the weirdest AFI erotica fan fiction they could find. What do you make of all that?
It’s kinda creepy. It’s mostly creepy. It’s strange. I’ve read a couple of them, and it’s just… I don’t know. I don’t come from that place mentally at all where I would write something like that. Certainly to read it and be the subject of it is just bizarre. I guess everybody’s got their own thing.
Yeah, but what do you think it is about you guys that attracts those people? Like, nobody’s writing fanfic erotica starring Mumford and Sons.
Yeah they are. Y’know, I don’t know. I would like to think that it’s because people feel like they have a connection to us through the music that maybe a band like Mumford and Sons don’t provide.
But you’d prefer if people wrote erotica about Mumford instead of AFI?
We’ll see. Maybe I’ll write it.
What are you listening to these days?
I listen to a weird combination of stuff. I’ve been listening to the Savages record. It’s really cool. I’ve been listening to some old Miles Davis, specifically with Coltrane. And, uh, I don’t know. I go through cycles. I’m in this jazz period right now. It helps calm me down when we’re out on the road playing super active shows.
Nice break from the big ballsy punk rock things going on.
Exactly.
AFI + TOUCHE AMORE :: Monday, October 7 @ Royale, 279 Tremont St., Boston, MA :: 6pm, all-ages, $25 :: advance tickets :: bowery boston event page