Post by Thorn,Cery,Anya,Tobias,Sparrow on Jul 12, 2006 15:55:40 GMT -5
America's Most Wanted
The phenomenal rise of AFI, goth punk's original dark masters
It may only be midday,but the queue for New York's Roseland Ballroom already spills off West 52nd Street up 7th Avenue and back around onto 53rd.Clad entirely in black - a stark contrast to the smart summer wear of thirtysomething fashonistas passing by - this army of teenagers are waiting to watch AFI play the second of two sold-out nights at Roseland as part of their first US headline tour since March 2004
Big Joe,who works security on the stage door,has never seen anything like it in his life."these kids are just insane,"he says."When I clocked off work at 3:30 this morning they were all still hanging around.I told them that the band had left a couple of hours ago,but they wouldn't take my word for it.When I came back to work at 10 this morning they were all still here - exactly the same kids."
At 9PM that evening AFI frontman Davey Havok struts into the production office - a vision of glamour and flamboyance in tight white trousers and a matching t-shirt.He wants to borrow a razor to shave his armpits and get rid of his five o'clock shadow.Biology is a bitch when you're the king of androgynous punk rock.
In the flesh,Havok is a truly striking figure,with high cheekbones and perfectly preened jet-black hair.He looks utterly otherworldly.We have a brief conversation about his long,immaclately painted fingernails (yes,they are real,folks),but there's no time to stop and chat because there are 3,800 kids downstairs chanting his band's name.
These are extraordinary times for AFI.Hysertia follows them everywhere they go.Their latest album,'Decemberunderground',debuted at Number One on the US Billboard chart.It's already sold over 400,000 copies.To say AFI are seriously hot properly is the States right now would be an understatement.
Fast-forward 24 hour to the Electic Factory in downtown Philadelphia where 16-year-old Valerie from New Jersey is sat at the front of the line outside the venue sobbing her heart out.She was supposed to be at last night's show in New York."I had tickets for the Roseland Ballroom show but everything went wrong,"she says,mascara running down her cheeks."I'm too young to go to the city by myself,and there was no-one I knew who could take me.I'm sorry if I appear hysterical,but everything that my life stood for in the last four years will be stood on that stage right in front of me tonight." With AFI's sudden mainstream status,it would be easy to dismiss Valerie as just another obsessed fan.But with 15-years career and seven albums under their belt,AFI are far from the band du jour.They have genuinely made a huge impact on people's lives - years before the likes of My Chemical Romance,Fall Out Boy and Panic! At the Disco arrived on the scene."AFI mean everything to me,"says Valerie."I was going through a real low-point in my life.My family broke apart,and listening to AFI helped me get through it."
At the nearby Sheraton Society Hill hotel AFI guitarist Jade Puget and bassist Hunter Burgan are having lunch.After a good night's sleep,the pair are chatty and relaxed,laughing and joking and finishing eachother's sentences - clearly not the pouting prima donnas that their promotional photos would lead you to believe.
"Our fans are the best,"grins Puget,both his hair and his make-up absolutely flawless."It's extraordinary the lengths some fans go to in order to see our shows and meet us.People fly and drive incredible distances."
Such is the militancy of AFI's fanbase that the band have been forced to travel under pseudonyms to avoid the unwanted attention.While Hunter remains tight-lipped about his monicker,Puget 'fesses up that he normally checks into hotels under the name Hugh G. Rection.Clearly the mark of a man with a sense of humour.But it's also the mark of a man with both feet planted firmly on the ground.
"I remeber my first tour with AFI," he recalls."It was summer of '97 and that was the first time I saw someone with an AFI tattoo.I didn't think,'Wow! I've made it.I must be in a shit hot band because people have got our logo tattooed on their arms' I just thought,'Man,that guy must be nuts because we're only a little band from Ukiah,California.'.When we played the MTV Movie Awards a month before the new album came out some guy had already got the rabbits from the cover of 'Decemberunderground' tattooed on his wrist.Weird,huh?"
While the band's enigmatic frontman,Davey Havok,appears to be a magnet for outsiders and misfits,Puget gets his fair share of bizarra fan mail too."Dave gets a lot of the,'I'm gonna kill myself,'or 'I was gonna kill myself but...' letters,I get sent a lot of drawing and presents.But there is this one girl who writes to me as much as twice a day,every day.Every time I go home I get a stack of 50 hand written letters from her,and we're not talking one or two sentences - she writes pages and pages."
The transition from cult appeal to major league stardom seems to have been an easy one for this,"little band from Ukiah,California."After a decade and a half of ceaseless touring,they haven't forgotten who their friends are.Their road crew (a mere four people) is made up of friends from back home with Puget's younger brother,Smith,serveing as the band's tour manager.
"We always try and employ people we know,"Puget's explains."Sucess usually brings out the worst in people,but we've always kept level heads on our shoulders.If you think you have to act a certian way to maintain a certain kind of rock star image then you're just retarded as far as I'm concerned."
But given their recent surge in popularity,it must be getting difficult to maintain that all-important one on one relationship with their fans?
"We never once for a second think,'Oh,we've sold this may records so now we don't need our fans',"laughs Puget."It is really hard sometimes,but every show we invite our fan club into the venue after the sound check to hang out and take pictures."
Part of the reason why AFI are so down-to-earth and so tight as a unit is because of where they grew up.Even though they may hail from California,three quarters of the band grew up in Ukiah - a redneck town north west of San Franciso - where the median household income is significantly below the state average and petty crime is rife.Probably not the safest place for a bunch of skinny,pasty-faced kids with a penchant for eyeliner,then.
"In Ukiah there was a small group of us who liked punk and we got into a lot of fights because of it,"says Puget."There were about 20 of us in the punk and skater group and not only were we up against the jocks -the perennial foe of the outsider - but there were also the metalheads who were really tough white-trash guys.On top of that there was this Mexican gang called ATC and we fought them too.It was literally war on the streets.In cities,people don't mess with you because they don't know who you are or whether your packing a gun,but because we lived in a small town I think that people thought that they had a lot more to prove."
Burgan,who grew up in neighbouring Grass Valley,felt ostracised by his surrounding too.
"It was the same kinda environment,"he shrugs."There were six or seven of us and we were constantly getting shit from other kids or other people in the community.Once I had a guy try to run me over in his car while he was yelling derogatory terms out of the window.But it was kinda par for the course.
"There were also a lot of skinheads - both racist and non-racist skinheads.At shows the racist skinheads would jump anyone they didn't like the looks of.They hospitalised one of my friends and they beat him so bad that he had to have reconstructive surgery on his skull.I had a Mohawk at the time and it was a really,really scart time to be into punk rock."
Back at the Electric Factory the doors have just opened and the assembled throng are bobbing up and down to The Smith-ish tones of Long Island's Nightmare Of You.AFI front man Davey Havok is slumped on a sofa in the band's dressing room starring out the window.His oversized,diamante accented sunglasses are sat next to his pink Sidekick mobile phone on the coffee table in front of him.The band have just completed the first of today's meet and greets with members of their fan club (a grip and grin with competition winner from a local radio station is scheduled in after our interview).Havok looks visibly tired - the relentless barrage of press and promotion over the past tow days has clearly chipped away at the softly-spoken singer's insouciant veneer.
"It's been non-stop,"he sighs."Lobby call yesterday was 11:45am and from then on to going on stage at 9:30pm we didn't really have a moment to ourselves.MTV,Fuse TV,Sirius and XM radio,Entertainment Weekly...I can't even remember who else.We do so much press every day it's hard to remember what we've done,let alone track it down afterwards."I ask him how he manages to maintain that all important rock star mystique with such a rigorous timetable to adhere to.
Apparently effortlessly,"he says with a theatrical flourish.
For all his onstage bravado,in the flesh Davey Havok is polite,well-mannered and genuinely amiable.But as the singer of the most in-demand band in America,surely he's earned the right to throw full-on rock dive-esque strops?
"Not at all,"he says."Just because we've sold a few records it doesn't give us the right to be assholes.I was in the gym the other day and this guy watched me for 55 minutes and then asked for a photo.I said,'I don't look good at the moment and so you can't have your photo taken with me,'he seemed okay with that."
Since 'Decemberunderground' topped the US charts,debate about Havok's sexuality has once again reared its head (not least because of the album's sexually ambiguous lyrics).There is even internet fan fiction about what he and Jade Puget allegedly get up to on the tourbus.So,is he gay?Is he straight?Is he a woman trapped in a man's body?It seems that everyone has an opionion on Davey Havok apart from the man himself.
"Sometime I'm a man's man,sometimes I'm a woman's man,but I'm defiantly a cat's man,"he says,enigmatically."I don't really get too involved in what people say about me,but when I hear certain things I always find it intriguing.People talk about celebirty...I just am who I am.
"The 'He' and 'She' in the chorus of 'Love Like Winter' isn't there to confuse people,it's just to make the song gender non-specific and open to a broader interpretation.I don't talk about my lyrics because I like people to be able to draw what they need from them.The meanings are multifaceted to me,but that's not to say that someone might be able to draw something from them that wasn't my personal intention."
Like his bandmates,Havok is clearly unphased by AFI's new-found fame."It's been such a slow process for us that it hasn't affected us as people,"he says."For us every step of the way has been a tremendous achievement.Being here to talk to Kerrang! is an achievement.Having what we love reach so many people and to be recieved so well in our career makes it even better."
But when I tell him 'Decemberunderground''s latest sales figures his eyes widen.
"That is a lot of records,"he chuckles."I don't know how on Earth we managed to pull that off.I know our music asks a lot of someone who's into one specific genre of music to come outside of what they like and buy into what we do.We're extremely fortunate that people are able to say,'I like hip hop and AFI'.Or that they can look at me and say,'That kid is a freak - but I like him'."
Taken from Kerrang! issue 1116
PS. For Kimi <3
you guys can thank her for this
