Fear is a natural human emotion, stitched into all of us from the day we’re born. Instinctual and largely unavoidable, for most people, there’s one thing that towers above the rest when it comes to those feelings of dread. Spiders, heights, darkness, and death are all common choices when it comes to naming our greatest fears, but for AFI’s Davey Havok, the real horror is something a little different: stagnation.
That philosophy is one that’s defined AFI’s entire journey. With a career that spans over four decades, since their combustible punk beginnings the California band have taken countless forms. From goth rock to pop-punk to new wave to post-punk, no two albums from the four-piece have existed in the same realm. Powered by reinvention and a deep drive to satisfy their own creative instincts, they’re a band who play by their own rules, constantly rewriting their own story in the process.
After 34 years of shapeshifting, AFI’s twelfth album ‘Silver Bleeds The Black Sun…’ taps into even more unexplored territory. Conceived with a singular intention, it’s an album that leans into the ethereal, drawing inspiration from the fine art and cinema that has long fascinated Davey. Grandiose and intimate all at once, it’s a powerful statement of just how far AFI has come, but more importantly – it’s a statement on how much they still have left to uncover.
Ahead of its release, Rock Sound sat down with Davey to unpack how ‘Silver Bleeds The Black Sun…’ took shape, and to explore how its creation has lit a new fire within them.
Your last album – 2021’s ‘Bodies’ – bounced around a hell of a lot sonically. Having explored so many different sounds on that project, where were your heads at coming into album twelve?
“Part of what was exciting for me about ‘Bodies’ was being able to explore that new territory so far into our band’s lifetime. I love that record, and playing those songs live is a joy. As time went on though, it became clear that it was time to create again. I became confronted with the thought of writing in a way that I had never been before. We always want to grow as a band, and we need that artistically to push forward. However, as we headed into this album, for the first time I was confronted with the question, ‘What haven’t we done?’ It has to be something new, but it also has to be something that is genuine.
I thought about something my friend RJ from Timeless Coffee in Oakland, California had said to me many times. He said, ‘You guys need to write your mood record’. What he meant by that was that we needed to write our version of The Cure’s ‘Pornography’ or ‘Disintegration’. I agreed, but I didn’t know that we had the ability to do that. I knew that it would take a lot of conversation, a lot of agreement, and a lot of focus. During a meeting with the band and management, I presented the idea of writing a mood record. They said, ‘All right, what mood are you thinking of?’ I laid down some references, and we started near those. That explicit conversation led to ‘Silver Bleeds The Black Sun…’ and created a framework of where we wanted to go. We wove in and out of that framework, but for the first time we had a framework. That limitation resulted in an album that is more defined than anything we have done in decades.”
Historically you’ve been quite freeform in the studio. Did operating within a specific vibe feel restricting, or freeing?
“Ironically, it was so freeing. Those limitations allowed us the freedom of knowing where we wanted to go, and it opened up the door to a lot of things that we hadn’t touched on before. When we opened those little doors, new worlds opened up to us. It created a vaster palette for us in that regard. It was very fruitful process. We wrote a whole lot of music.
It’s been more than 30 years since we started this band, and it’s crazy because I honestly believe this is my favourite record that I’ve been a part of. After decades and decades of writing, that’s such a luxury. I’m so excited for people to hear it.”
It’s a record that has to be experienced. These aren’t songs to have on in the background, they’re songs that demand to be listened to with headphones on, fully immersed. How much did you draw on influences outside of music to create the record’s mood?
“A lot, but no more than ever before. I’ve taken inspiration from different art forms throughout my whole life, and film is very important to me. I have a friend at the gym who is a producer, and he asked what I would be doing if I wasn’t doing music. My first response was film. I’m very passionate about film, but also about literature, fine art, and life experience. The latter is something that I recently became aware of in a different light. I always knew that human interaction and how I fit into the social structure impacted my writing, but I only realised recently how profound that is.
During quarantine, I had no interest in creating because there was no life. There was no real human interaction, and thereby, I had no interest in making things. I wasn’t depressed, I just wasn’t inclined to create. There was nothing that was inspiring me. As an artist, I am trying to communicate. If there’s no one to communicate to, and no life to live, I don’t have much to say. Now though, there’s a lot of life to live, perhaps too much.”
Where were you drawn lyrically this time?
“My head is always wrapped around the times. It’s focused on whatever is happening currently in my life, as well as what’s happening in the world. All of that played into what is going on lyrically in the record. There’s a focus on dystopia, and this surreal, uncanny deconstruction of culture and forward movement. Everything’s moving in reverse and upside down, and that comes through in the twists of the lyrics. A lot of the influences in the lyrics also come down to the art I was consuming at the time of writing. You see a lot of the French writers that I grew up reading coming back, as well as a lot of fine art influence. Essentially, it was a direct reaction to the time of the writing, and sadly a lot of that still applies today.”
Gilbert Trejo’s visuals feel essential to the world of this album. What did he bring to it?
“He elevated it with his visuals. He totally understood the mood of the songs, and the intention of them. I had a conversation with Gilbert for the first time on the telephone before we embarked on the video. The intention was to have a brief conversation about what we wanted to do visually with the video, but it quickly veered off into a conversation about film and music. Immediately I knew that this gentleman knows what he’s doing. By the end of conversation I said, ‘I have utter faith in you and what you’re going to do’. He would constantly text me ideas, and we were having phone calls and sending voice notes all the time. We played off of each other with different elements for ‘Behind The Clock’ and ‘Holy Visions’, which we shot over the course of two days. The videos are interconnected, and he is wonderful to work with. I very much hope to work with him again in the future.”
The record feels both grand and intimate. How did you navigate that scale?
“The credit for that goes to Jade [Puget, guitarist] in the production. I think that having both of those feelings is very important for the songs that we were creating here. In order to achieve that, you need a producer who really understands where you’re going, and Jade just shines here. As far as the intimacy goes, I’m able to supply that because I’m honest in what I say, and I believe in what I sing. That imparts a feeling of intimacy, because you’re hearing me speak candidly through song. However, how you capture that is up to the producer. A lot of these songs are grand, but it’s punk. There needs to be a purity to it, and a throughline that doesn’t get hidden in the in the vastness of the moment. A lot of that has to do with how you frame it, which Jade did an incredible job of.”
There’s so much confidence in this record. Over time, how has your understanding of AFI’s identity evolved?
“By the time our first full-length record came out, we were surrounded by such a great community. Everyone knew each other, and we were being uplifted by the Gilman Street scene. From then, we were comfortable being ourselves musically in that community. That had only grown by the time we reached our second album, and when our third took a pretty sharp turn we got even more comfortable. The fourth record was when we started to learn that we were never afraid of taking risks. There was nothing to lose, and our goal was never commercial success. Our goal wasn’t to appeal to anybody; we just wanted to make music that we believed in and for it to reach the people who connected with it. That’s never changed, and that’s the essence of AFI. That became easier and easier to do as we learned that there were always people out there who were going to relate. With every record, we’ve lost a lot of fans, but we’ve gained new ones. Those numbers are never the same, but now we’ve got a group of core people who understand what AFI is. They know to expect the unexpected, but there are always those few people who are shocked that our new music doesn’t sound like that one record of ours they liked two decades ago. There are always those people that think, ‘Maybe this one will sound like they used to’, but it never will. If it does, it means this band has become stale and boring.”
How important is it that fans hear the honesty in what you do?
“It’s interesting, because if anyone didn’t hear that, it would simply mean that they don’t understand it. If you don’t get it, then it’s not for you, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not coming from a genuine place. I know that our fans do hear the honesty in our music. For many years, people have asked me, ‘What do you think people connect with in your music?’, and the answer has always been the honesty. I think people can hear that we believe in what we’re doing, and that’s important. It’s like having any other conversation. If I’m lying to you, or trying to fit into something that is popular… You could see it. It’s tepid.”
This is the first time you’ve worked with such an explicit directive. How has creating ‘Silver Bleeds The Black Sun…’ shaped what comes next?
“The process drove itself like all of our writing processes do, but working with an express directive was fun. We’ve never had that to this extent, and it started to veer off in different directions throughout the writing. During the process, we went in so many other directions that you’re not hearing on the final record, and we’re already excited to explore those further. When I look back at how I felt after creating ‘Bodies’, thinking back on that realisation that I didn’t know where to go next… That’s gone. The essence of where we left off with ‘Silver Bleeds The Black Sun…’ is fresh in my mind, and I’m excited to see what’s still to come.”
‘Silver Bleeds The Black Sun…’ is out October 03 via Run For Cover.