Popularity of punk spells success for Berkeley’s AFI
By Daily Bruin Staff
Jan. 15, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 MINDY ROSS/Daily Bruin Senior Staff AFI vocalist
Davey Havok leans toward the crowd during a
performance at the Hollywood Palladium in December.
By Chris Moriates
Daily Bruin Contributor
It was a little weird for Jade Puget the first time he heard
“Totalimmortal,” a song he had written alone in his
Berkeley bedroom, announced on the radio as the new Offspring song.
But he knew it was bound to happen.
Puget agreed to let Offspring cover the single last year for the
“Me, Myself, and Irene” soundtrack.
“It’s an honor that they like the song and want to
play it,” said Puget, guitarist for the San Francisco-based
punk outfit AFI, as he sat backstage at the Hollywood Palladium
hours before the band’s Dec. 8 performance with Rancid.
“Kids out there in radioland aren’t gonna know that
it’s our song,” Puget said. “But the fans, the
people that matter, know.”
AFI (an acronym for A Fire Inside) has released five full-length
albums and has been a part of the international punk scene since
its first nationwide tour in 1995. The band has performed
throughout North America, Europe and Japan. Blurring genre lines,
AFI’s music draws fans from punk to hardcore to goth to
metal.
Puget spoke about the origins of the band and his experiences of
growing up as a punk musician in the ’80s.
“Nowadays to be “˜punk’ is cool; Punk is on MTV
and the radio,” Puget said. “Back in 1986, it was
different. People hated you. It was like being an outcast. I was a
part of that.”
AFI vocalist Davey Havok, drummer Adam Carson and bassist Hunter
were part of that scene too. Staying true to their punk-rock roots,
they formed a band built on hard work, constant touring and an
intense live show, gaining a following mostly through word of
mouth.
The quartet has toured with the likes of Offspring, Rancid, Sick
of it All, At The Drive-In and Danzig, along with securing a spot
on the summer 2001 main stage of the punk-rock-meets-summer-camp
extravaganza, Warped Tour.
Through the years the line-up of the band has changed, but
instead of folding under the pressures, AFI has grown musically.
The band feels that its newest album, “The Art of
Drowning,” is its best and most complete work.
AFI’s fan base has also grown into a cult-like following,
even known to chant the mantra “Through our bleeding we are
one,” before the band takes the stage.
The fans are so dedicated that when Puget returned on foot from
his lunch at a local Denny’s a few hours before AFI was
scheduled to perform, fans quickly stopped him on the street to
introduce themselves and plead for autographs. Not one to forget
his days as a punk follower, Puget graciously stopped to sign each
autograph that was requested of him.
AFI likes to remain low key and down-to-earth, touring in a
modest van, living with friends in an old three-story house in
Berkeley, and meeting with fans.
“We like to keep it simple,” Puget said.
“We’re just having fun. As long as I feel that we are
out there making music and we aren’t just making music to be
on the radio or MTV, then whatever happens (is cool).”
Although AFI may not be chasing radio singles, the first single
from “The Art of Drowning,” entitled “The Days of
the Phoenix” has appeared at the top of almost all the
specialty radio show charts and has become a hit on AFI’s
hometown radio station, Live 105 in San Francisco.
But aside from its recordings, AFI prides itself on being a
“live” band. The fire inside this established punk band
will continue to drive it forward as it strives to ignite the world
with its intense music.
