AFI
The documented origins of AFI stretch back to 1991 when Ukiah, California, teens Davey Havok and Adam Carson formed the band and released a debut split 7″ the following year with fellow Ukiah High students Loose Change (whose lineup at the time featured future AFI guitarist Jade Puget) titled• um• Dork (hey, they were in high school). A handful of singles, EPs, compilation tracks and the early albums Answer That and Stay Fashionable (Wingnut, 1995) and Very Proud of Ya (Nitro, 1996) followed in that youthfully exuberant, sometime sophomoric East bay hardcore/punk mode, as early incarnations of AFI hit the road and began to cultivate a worldwide following.
AFI would make the decision to brave major label waters soon thereafter, releasing sixth album Sing the Sorrow on Dreamworks in 2003. Another ambitious leap forward for the Ukiah foursome, Sing the Sorrow was co-produced by Jerry Finn (Green Day, Blink 182) and Butch Vig (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins), and expanded the AFI palette in all directions: “Girl’s Not Grey” would be the band’s single most infectious “pop” moment to date, while “Death of Seasons” incorporated lockstep industrial rhythms and mournful choruses before dissolving into a cacophony of screaming anguish. Elsewhere on the record, “The Leaving Song Pt. II” and “Dancing Through Sunday” showed that the familiar AFI chant-along choruses were as fierce and frantic as ever, even if they were couched in increasingly virtuosic musicianship.
As with AFI’s previous forward strides, their fans made the leap of faith with them-and then some. Sing the Sorrow sold over one million copies U.S. and the bands burgeoning live draw continued to grow exponentially. Sing the Sorrow’s success would also provide AFI its first truly mainstream recognition, in the form of the 2003 MTV2 Viewers Choice Award, as well as best of 2003 accolades from the NEW YORK TIMES, GUITAR WORLD, SPIN, ALTERNATIVE PRESS, REVOLVER and USA TODAY, which named “Girl’s Not Grey” one of the top singles of 2003.
“I was completely in awe then and still am now,” says Hunter. “It all seemed to have come naturally from our efforts and honestly that’s really hard for me to comprehend.”
As the members of AFI readily acknowledge, their atypical success story owes no small debt to possibly the most passionate and unlikeliest assemblage of fans to coalesce around any artist: The Despair Faction. “They’re not really a fan club per se,” says Jade. “The Despair Faction was conceived to be more interactive than that, to have more of a direct connection with us and with each other.” As such, in addition to more conventional fan club perks such as exclusive merch and ticket pre-sales, DF members regularly attend AFI’s soundchecks, where they come bearing gifts ranging from vegan baked goods for Davey and Hunter to homemade AFI merchandise, clothing, artwork and other keepsakes.
Now with the new DECEMBERUNDERGROUND, AFI invite The Despair Faction and other fans new and old (and yet to be made) to experience their most accomplished and labor-intensive work to date. The product of some two years worth of painstaking songcraft and performance, DECEMBERUNDERGROUND finds producer Jerry Finn returning to provide an evolutionary continuity between Sing the Sorrow and the new record. With their team in place, AFI set about the process of writing and perfecting DECEMBERUNDERGROUND.
