In 35 years with AFI, Davey Havok has seen a whole lot more than just a thousand dazzling outfits in the mirror. From witnessing the Cali punk feeding frenzy of the 90s to becoming one of the 21st century’s great goth icons and brushing right up against the ceiling of the mainstream, he’s endured some of the most drastic turnovers in the industry that alternative music has ever seen.
Ahead of their first UK shows in nine years supporting last year’s none-more-black Silver Bleeds The Black Sun…, we catch up with dark punk’s prince to reflect on the journey so far.
ANSWER THE CALL OF THE MACABRE
“I was born in 1975, so when I was a kid, punks and death rockers were at the malls, Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park was on TV, and I was enamoured of the look and wanted to know more about it. I was fascinated by the ‘other’ and motifs of the underdog and what was considered to be horrific or grotesque. Why that is fundamentally, I can’t say, but I was raised Catholic and that oppression really informed my desire to reclaim my identity as a kid.”
BE AWARE OF PEOPLE’S INTENTIONS
“After Green Day broke, it really changed everything in a way punk hadn’t seen since the Sex Pistols, and it caused similar problems. After we signed to [The Offspring frontman] Dexter Holland’s Nitro Records for Very Proud Of Ya, someone made the mistake of sending the promo posters to [legendary California punk venue] Gilman Street. When we came there someone had taken all of those posters and made a big dollar sign on the ceiling!
Ethically we didn’t have a problem with people signing to bigger labels, and many bands from our scene learned that the indies were often more corrupt than the majors.”
VISUAL SELF-EXPRESSION IS A POWERFUL TOOL
“In being analytical about my looks – which I eventually started to do because people talked to me about it – I began to realise how much my look is contextual. The way I look now is very much a reaction to the current epoch that we live in, where I feel that the world is surreal and everything is an uncanny bastardisation of something familiar.
If you look at Decemberunderground, me being drawn to white and pink eyeshadow and pops of colour was a response to shiny, happy-sounding bands having adopted more sombre looks. I think self-expression through style can be very powerful.”
VEGAN STRAIGHT EDGE IS MORE THAN A LABEL
“I discovered straight edge when I was 15. I was involved in this music but I didn’t understand the self-destructive side of it, and I couldn’t believe it when I heard Minor Threat. It was what I was thinking about.
My father and I went to see Def Leppard last year. Some of the best riffs ever written are on Pyromania.
Davey Havok
Through the straight edge scene I was educated on animal rights, but I saw a lot of people using veganism as an identity rather than because it was the right thing to do. I was hesitant to go vegan because it was so trendy, but there was no way to consume animals and not be participating in the torture and murder of them, so I have been for 28 years now. It’s something I wish I had participated in since I was conscious.”
WE LOVE THE EMBRACE OF METAL
“If anyone who listens to metal appreciates what we do, I’m very touched, because I feel that metal in its purest state is one of the few genuine subcultures that still exists. We do not make anything that sounds too metal, so to have appeal to that community really means a lot to me.
Neurosis are one of the greatest bands ever, I used to go see them playing at Gilman Street, and if we’re counting hair metal I am in on that! My father and I went to see Def Leppard last year, and those three part harmonies are fucking high. Some of the best riffs ever written are on Pyromania.”
LET THE MOMENT TAKE YOU
“Steel Panther used to be called Metal Shop and would have a party in Hollywood every Monday night. They were entirely a cover band but were in character and would do skits the entire time where the band-members would fight and break up. It created this really bizarre revivalist hair metal scene that was both tongue-in-cheek yet totally sincere.
If you were a musician you’d inevitably find yourself being brought up onstage, and I would frequently go and sing Live Wire by Mötley Crüe or Talk Dirty To Me by Poison with them.”
KNOW WHAT TO TURN DOWN
“The writing of Decemberunderground was a miserable period. We had signed to Dreamworks, but they sold it to Interscope. Bummer.
Our A&R guy was hellbent on trying to get [Interscope boss] Jimmy Iovine – who had expressly claimed in the press that rock is dead – to pay attention to AFI, and so it was suggested that we collab with Jimmy’s great love at the time, which was 50 Cent. I have nothing against 50 Cent, but what does that even mean?!
Even worse was this was the era when ringtones were the new technology craze. I love this man and I still see him once a month at the least, but this motherfucker says to me, ‘What if you were to be the first band to write a ringtone album?’”
GRIT YOUR TEETH THROUGH THE TRENDS
“[When the emo boom of the 2000s happened] we couldn’t relate to that at all, but unfortunately the press pointed out that we wore make-up like these guys who wore make-up so we must be like them.
That term was bizarre, because of course the first incarnation of emo was referring to often very aggressive post-hardcore. These bands sounded nothing like Rites Of Spring or Mohinder, and I’d imagine these bands also didn’t like identifying with that term. There were only a couple types of guitar music on the radio, and we had louder, more aggressive guitar than what was going on with the New York dance rock scene, but we also certainly weren’t coming from pop punk. We probably did have more in common with 50 Cent!”
LET EVENTS PLAY IN YOUR FAVOUR
“When Girl’s Not Grey came out as a single and made it to the Top 10 [of Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart], that was unbelievable. We were then gonna go with Bleed Black as the second single ’cos it had bigger hooks, but KROQ picked up and started playing The Leaving Song Pt. II, which was a much heavier song, and our manager told us, ‘We can’t tell them to stop!’ I’m screaming on that song and it’s not an obvious single, but if you’d said to us that it had that potential… Then why not? That’s fun!”
HITS AREN’T WRITTEN, THEY’RE MADE
“It breaks my heart that Miss Murder will always represent us, and that I will die and someone will look up AFI and Miss Murder is what they’re gonna find. I don’t dislike Miss Murder, it’s a pretty good song! But never, even when we wrote it, did I think that it was the greatest song. I even voted to not put it on the record, but that experience really proved to me that it was all about marketing, because everything after Decemberunderground is better than Decemberunderground.
I have campaigned to keep it off the setlist and recently succeeded. When we play a festival or when we’re playing a city where we feel we have a few more passive fans, we’re gonna play it, and I don’t mind it, but I do enjoy the optics of removing it from the set.”
APPROPRIATE FOOTWEAR IS IMPORTANT
“I went to see the Circle Jerks and my plan was to test out this sneakerboot that I was gonna possibly wear onstage and see if they can survive the aggression. Fashion and veganism and function for my behaviour onstage rarely meet. During the Adolescents, I’m down there slamming and I look down and the heel from my shoe is just gone.
I limp upstairs with two halves of my shoe, and I’m crying to the promoter that my plan was to also dance for the Circle Jerks and now I couldn’t. The promoter lent me his shoes! That’s community, right there, and I sent him AFI socks as thanks.”
PHYSICAL COMMUNITY IS THE REALEST THING
“We’re living in a very surreal world that rates content over substance. It’s something we saw coming and did nothing to stop and now we’re living in a world of disconnection. The post-human element of existence is now actually veering into the true dystopias that were written about in the 50s and 60s.
It’s a horrifying, desolate reality, where participation in any sort of true human experience is at an unprecedented low for the species. All I can do is create, as this desperate act that acts as a flare.”
Silver Bleeds The Black Sun is out now via Run For Cover