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AFI formed in 1991 while the members were attending high school in Ukiah, California. AFI were formed by Mark Stopholese, Vic Chalker and Davey Havok. Unfortunately, they had several problems. Chief amongst them was their lack of a drummer. Mark suggested his friend Adam Carson be in the band. Furthermore, they didn't know how to play any instruments, but they knew that Davey was able to sing, and Adam had a drumkit. So Mark learned guitar and Vic learned bass (he was later replaced by future Tiger Army bassist Geoff Kresge). AFI made their first foray in recording with the EP Dork (1993) with the band Loose Change, which included future AFI guitarist Jade Puget.

AFI disbanded when its members attended different colleges, including the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Songwriter and bassist Geoff Kresge moved to New York where he played with the band Blanks 77. After reuniting to perform a live show, the other members decided to drop out of college to play in the band full-time. Between 1993 and 1995 they released several vinyl EPs (Behind the Times; Eddie's Picnic All Wet; Fly in the Ointment; This is Berkeley, Not West Bay; AFI/Heckle) independently. They released their debut full-length album Answer That and Stay Fashionable in 1995 with Wingnut Records; which was re-released in 1997 by Nitro Records. Their second album, Very Proud of Ya, was released in 1996 on the Nitro label. After several tours in support of the album, bassist Geoff Kresge decided to leave the group. Bassist Hunter Burgan (formerly of The Force) filled in for Kresge for the remaining Very Proud of Ya tours. He went on to help AFI record Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes and was invited to become the new bassist. Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes introduced AFI fans to a much more aggressive sound that included much more shouting as opposed to singing. Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes is generally considered the first step in the band's progression away from their original sound.

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Black Sails and Art of Drowning era

After recording the A Fire Inside EP for Adeline Records in 1998, guitarist Mark Stopholese left the band and was replaced by his close friend Jade Puget. Following the new approach they had taken on the A Fire Inside EP, the band recorded Black Sails in the Sunset (Nitro 1999), a musical turning point in the band's career. On this album, their original hardcore roots were still the base of their sound, but more gothic influences were apparent. In 1999, they recorded the All Hallows EP, which spawned the single "Totalimmortal". "Totalimmortal" was later covered by The Offspring for the soundtrack of Me, Myself and Irene. It got a fair amount of radio play and helped expose AFI to larger audiences. The lead singer of The Offspring, Dexter Holland, at the time owned Nitro Records, the label to which AFI was signed, and was featured as a backing vocalist on a number of Black Sails in the Sunset tracks. In 2000, AFI released The Art of Drowning which debuted on the Billboard Charts at number 174 [1]. The Days of the Phoenix was released as a single and video in order to promote the album. The song also had some moderate mainstream success, garnering the band both TV and radio airplay.

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Mainstream success

AFI's new logo as of April 11, 2006
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AFI's new logo as of April 11, 2006

In 2002, AFI left Nitro Records on the recommendation of label owner Dexter Holland. Their next album, Sing the Sorrow, was released on the much larger DreamWorks label on March 11, 2003. This album marked a growth in creativity for AFI and showed their continually maturing sound. Sing the Sorrow is a concept album about a man who dies and is destined never to reincarnate because he possesses the Chinese astrological sign of the Rabbit. However, this theory has not been confirmed by the band themselves and many theories about the album being suggested by the band's fanbase. The songs Girl's Not Grey, The Leaving Song Pt. 2 and Silver and Cold had some Billboard chart sucess and exposed the band to even larger audiences. They were nominated in the MTV Video Music Awards 2003 in the MTV2 award category for the video Girl's Not Grey, which came to be the first VMA they won. On October 7, 2005, AFI went on KROQ for an interview on the radio. They aired an unreleased song from the Sing the Sorrow sessions, entitled Rabbits are Roadkill on Route 37. This can somewhat explain the picture of a rabbit on the second to last page of the Sing the Sorrow lyric booklet. Rabbits are Roadkill on Route 37 would later be released as a UK & Australian bonus track for the group's seventh album Decemberunderground.

AFI's seventh album, Decemberunderground, was released on May 29, 2006 in the UK and June 6, 2006 (06/06/06) in the U.S. Reviewers have noted an even greater progression in sound for AFI in this album, featuring many more electronic, pop, and New Wave[2] elements. The Album's first single Miss Murder reached #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Charts. [3].The release reflects the continually changing and growing fan base of the band, and the album debuted as #1 on the Billboard charts.[4]

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Other notes

  • They are followed by a devoted fan base called the Despair Faction. Consisting of many fans, the Despair Faction are privy to many added band bonuses which include contacting the band on their website.
  • The band's initials have not always stood for A Fire Inside. Although the band claims that the meaning has always been A Fire Inside, They have stated in several interviews prior to the release of "Answer That and Stay Fashionable" that AFI stands for "Abuncha Fucking Idiots".

Answer That and Stay Fashionable is copyrighted to "Anthems For Insubordinates," and Very Proud of Ya lists contact information addressed to "Asking For It." Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes was the first AFI album to use the phrase "A Fire Inside" which is hidden on the inside of the CD case.

  • Havok and Puget have a side project called Blaqk Audio. Burgan is also involved with his own solo project, Hunter Revenge.
  • Two AFI songs are included in the Madden NFL video game series. "The Leaving Song, Part II" was in Madden NFL 2004, and "Summer Shudder" is scheduled to be featured in Madden NFL 07.
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Discography

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Full-length albums

The Nitro Records and DreamWorks Records releases were all released in Cassette, 12" vinyl and CD formats.

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EPs

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Singles

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Promotional releases

  • Alternative Press EP (magizine bonus promo) (1999) -on CD
  • Totalimmortal Promo Single 1999
  • Totalimmortal 1999
  • Wester Promo Single 2000
  • The Art of Drowning Promo mid 2000
  • The Art of Drowning Promo Cassette July 14, 2000
  • The Days of the Phoenix Radio Promo 2000
  • AFI: A History early 2003
  • Sing the Sorrow Advance CD early 2003
  • Girl's Not Grey Radio Promo January 2003
  • Sing the Sorrow 4-Track Sampler early 2003
  • Sing the Sorrow 6-Track Sampler early 2003
  • Sing the Sorrow Sampler (Australia) early 2003
  • Sing the Sorrow Test Pressing early 2003
  • Girl's Not Grey Advance Promotional Single January 6, 2003
  • Girl's Not Grey March 2003
  • Girl's Not Grey March 2003
  • Girl's Not Grey Single Promo mid April 2003
  • Rockline Promotional Radio Interview CD Set April 21, 2003
  • The Leaving Song Pt. II Radio Promo mid 2003
  • The Leaving Song Pt. II Australian Promo mid 2003
  • The Leaving Song Pt. II July 2003
  • Silver and Cold Promotional Single late November 2003
  • Live at the Hard Rock Cafe Promotional CD late November 2003
  • Head Like a Hole Radio Promo 2004
  • Head Like a Hole Australian Promo September 2004
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Compilations

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Videos

AFI BIO 2


AFI (left to right): Adam Carson - Drums, Jade Puget - Guitar,
Davey Havok - Vocals, Hunter Burgan- Bass

hen you're playing a style of music that doesn't really fit anywhere, you run a risk. You're challenging people to leave their niche, to leave their predetermined ideas of what they're supposed to like. Luckily, we have a lot of people who just focus on the music and appreciate us for what we are. So we get fans from all different genres of music, the jocks, the spooky kids, skaters, college kids, punk rockers, hardcore kids, metal kids, all that"

- Davey Havok
 
The origins and history of AFI are as humble as they are passionate, beginning with the meaning and philosophy behind the acronym now known to an ever-growing legion of fans the world over: A Fire Inside.

Over 10 years on and counting, the same inner flame that fueled four teenagers making a primal noise in a Ukiah, Calif., garage has propelled AFI to unforeseen musical and professional levels, as evident on Sing The Sorrow, due out March 11, 2003, on DreamWorks Records. "We've been doing this for a long time, and we love it more than anything," says AFI singer Davey Havok" To play music you're passionate about every night - it's like a dream. Sometimes you get sick; sometimes you get really tired, but I can't imagine doing anything else with my life"

If Sing The Sorrow is any indication, Havok won't have to worry about doing anything else for a long time.

Co-produced by Jerry Finn (Rancid, Green Day, Jawbreaker) and Butch Vig (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins), the record retains the Bay Area outfit's signature aggression and pathos - forging ever forward into uncharted territory like the virtuoso guitar intro of "The Leaving Song Pt. 2" or the industrial-leaning break and Dead Can Dance-worthy outro of "Death Of Seasons"

Meanwhile, from its sublime intro through beautifully subdued verses and infectious choruses, first radio track "Girl's Not Grey" is a standout that both recalls AFI coming into its own on 2000's The Art Of Drowning and hints at a myriad of future directions. For the purists, "Dancing Through Sunday" and "Bleed Black" come strapped with generous chant-along opportunities and heavy-as-hell, bolt-tight riffs and rhythms. And as with virtually every track on Sing The Sorrow, these are all imbued with alternately brooding and celebratory lyrical imagery of rebirth, resurrection, apocalypse, all somehow deeply personal - in other words, classic AFI. "We've always been able to do anything we want," says guitarist Jade Puget. "The credit for that goes to both the band and our fans: to us for striving not to sound like anyone else, and to our fans for embracing those changes and looking forward to the new directions each new record will take"

"It also comes from never having any other choice but to do everything ourselves," Havok adds. "We never planned or had any expectation of assistance from anyone else. And thanks to that work ethic, we were able to grow slowly and naturally so that when others gradually took an interest in what we were doing, whether it was Nitro [Records] or DreamWorks or whoever, they realized they couldn't change us even if they wanted to"

Although AFI first surfaced in 1992, on Dork, a split 7" with fellow Ukiah High School students Loose Change (featuring future AFI guitarist Jade), it wouldn't be until the band's third full-length, 1997's Shut Your Mouth And Open Your Eyes, that bassist Hunter (ex-The Force) would enlist. And it would be later still that the present AFI lineup would coalesce, with the addition of Jade (by then ex-Redemption 87) on the defining and now-classic fourth album, Black Sails In The Sunset, and the subsequent All Hallow's EP.

The latter would give AFI its first taste of exposure beyond its long-cultivated cult following when the Offspring's cover of the EP's "Totalimmortal" appeared on the Me, Myself & Irene soundtrack and, in turn, on Modern Rock playlists nationwide. A year later, "Days Of The Phoenix," from The Art Of Drowning, would do the same, albeit with the band playing its own composition this time.

"I was completely in awe then - and still am now - to hear any of our songs on the radio," says Hunter. "The fact that radio would pick up on us based solely on the quality of the music is still difficult for me to fathom, as is everything positive that's happened for us. It all seems to have come naturally from our efforts, and honestly, that's really hard for me to comprehend"

In the meantime, AFI's live draw increased exponentially, and with good reason: To witness the AFI live experience is to understand both that unique internal chemistry and the undeniable bond between band and audience that has been honed and strengthened through nearly seven years of non-stop worldwide touring. Favorites from Black Sails, The Art Of Drowning and the All Hallow's and A Fire Inside EPs typically find the band fighting to be heard over the din of the chanting crowd, every song received with a rabid enthusiasm that possesses the players, the songs and the audience alike. It's a primal, almost tribal experience, one that via word of mouth has tickets for the band's already sold-out early 2003 shows eliciting eBay bids of more than $300 a pair.

"Touring has always been the most important thing for us," says drummer Adam Carson, who co-founded the band with Havok in the early '90s. "We basically created our fan base by touring non-stop" "I've been touring since I was 19 years old," Havok continues. "We were always of the mind that if two people showed up the first time we played somewhere, we'd go back until there were 10, then 30, then hundreds or thousands. We would keep coming back until they were forced to take notice"

As regaled as their live show has been, however, the members of AFI make it clear that there was no attempt to replicate it on Sing The Sorrow. "That's a big priority for so many other bands," says Jade, "but it's never been a concern for us.

 If anything, it's the other way around; at least for me, it's about creating the song in the writing and recording process, then hoping it'll translate live, rather than road-testing the new songs, then hoping we can 'capture the live vibe' in the studio" Instead, the band prioritizes making the best and most adventurous record possible time and again, this time with the more-than-able assistance of the aforementioned Finn and Vig (both of whom Jade recalls as "so cool and affable from the very beginning," explaining, "There was never any kind of 'star producer' vibe"). "I think the progression from The Art Of Drowning to the new record is similar to the leap between Shut Your Mouth and Black Sails," says Havok. "People familiar with our previous records are going to notice a marked growth. The songs are far more complex, the performances are superior, there are some ambient and electronic elements, which we've never done before, and vocally, I pushed myself to extremes I'd never achieved before, both in terms of aggression and melancholy"

"Everybody says, 'This is our best record yet!' every time they come out with something new," Jade concludes. "I know it's a total cliché, but in our case, we're always pleased with our latest record because each one is different from the previous one. The fact is, this time we had more time and put more effort into writing and recording and I believe that really translates"

-Thanks to Dreamworks Records-

Nitro Records 2000 Biography

The origins of AFI (A Fire Inside) are humble-- four high school students making noise in a garage in the early 90's, looking for some way to alleviate boredom in a small town between skateboard sessions. As they learned to play their instruments with each practice, even they couldn't imagine what the band would become.

On September 26th, (2000) the band released their fifth full-length album, entitled
The Art of Drowning, showcasing exactly what it is AFI has evolved into-- a band with a sound unlike any other, a sound where chilling melodies collide alternately with furious aggression and somber melancholy. While their music is firmly rooted in both punk rock and hardcore, they have effectively blasted away any distinction between the two and can claim an army of fans from both subcultures as well as virtually every other underground or extreme music genre from goth to metal.

Not just a "studio" band, the intensity of their live performances must be seen and heard to be believed. "Through our bleeding, we are one!" the crowd chants as the band takes the stage, wherein occurs an exchange of energy between band and audience that is much like a lightning storm-- charging and changing the normally genial vocalist Davey Havok into a man possessed. One of the ways the band has garnered the fanatical following they now enjoy is through the plain hard work of many a month spent on the road. They've toured with such acts as The Offspring, Rancid, Danzig/Samhain and Sick Of It All to name a few, as well as doing a stint on the most recent Warped Tour (2000). Since their first nationwide tour in 1995, they have crossed the North American continent countless times and have done multiple tours of Europe. They even paid a visit to Japan in 1998. In support of The Art of Drowning, AFI have just completed a very successful tour with punk legends Rancid and are starting out 2001 as the support act for The Offspring in Europe. This will be followed by more touring in the U.S. and Canada in March, performing on the main stage of Warped Tour 2001, and a U.S. headline tour in the fall, 2001.

In addition to original members Havok and drummer Adam Carson, the band has seen its share of lineup changes. Bassist Hunter Burgan (of The Force) entered the fold as a tour stand-in before recording on the band's third album Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes, while guitarist Jade Puget (ex-Redemption 87) joined for the fourth full-length, Black Sails in the Sunset, as well as the subsequent All Hallows e.p., a four-song release that contains the original version of "Totalimmortal" (a song that received heavy radio airplay all over the nation when it was recorded by The Offspring for the soundtrack to the film "Me, Myself & Irene"). Puget's task was not easy: in addition to assuming guitar duties he became a primary writer of the band's music. Still, no one better understood where AFI had been musically and where they should go. He'd known the band since the very beginning and had played guitar on the flip side of their first ever release, a split 7" with Loose Change released in 1992.

Things coalesced quickly as Jade proved to be the perfect complement to Havok's brooding lyrics and accomplished vocal talents. There's no weak link in this chain; to say that Burgan and Carson are accomplished in their respective rhythm section duties would be an understatement. Such lineup changes might have destroyed any other band, but the opposite has occurred with AFI. With each new album and e.p. the band has bravely forged ahead into new musical territory, while always maintaining their original energy and intensity.

The Art of Drowning is no exception to this progression. While it contains the inevitable musical surprises that avid listeners have come to expect from the band, it is also a distillation of all that has come before, touching on every phase of their evolution, as well as showing signs of what is to come. Of the new album, vocalist Davey Havok says, "I feel it's our most complete work."

It is also the most sonically pleasing of their albums. Recorded in Berkeley's famous Fantasy Studios with Chuck Johnson at the helm, it was then mixed in the familiar environment of Art of Ears in Hayward by longtime associate Andy Ernst. Johnson, a well-respected veteran who's worked with everyone from Nick Cave to Korn, lent his expertise as he co-produced the new album with the band.

The days of honing their craft in the garage are now a long ago memory, but one thing has not changed-- the fire inside AFI still burns more strongly than ever. With each new record, each tour, each show, the flames spread-- ever igniting in new people and places, threatening to someday engulf the world.

-Thanks to Nitro Records-

Enter second column content here

Hardcore punk revivalists AFI (A Fire Inside) originally formed in 1991 when its members -- vocalist Davey

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Havok, guitarist Markus Stopholese, bassist Vick, and drummer Adam Carson -- were attending high school in Ukiah, CA. Vick was replaced by Geoff Kresge after several months, and the band played a few local gigs and released a split 7" titled Dork with fellow Ukiah natives Loose Change (a band that incidentally included future AFI member Jade Puget). An EP titled Behind the Times was released as well. The bandmembers then split up to attend different colleges, with Kresge temporarily moving to New Jersey to join Blanks 77, and all assumed East Bay's AFI was defunct. However, the band reconvened during a holiday break from school to play a one-off reunion show, and audience response was so positive that the bandmembers decided to quit school and concentrate on music full-time. A couple of singles preceded a record deal with the Nitro label, which issued the band's second album, Very Proud of Ya, in 1996. Two LPs followed in 1997 -- a re-release of their 1995 debut, Answer That and Stay Fashionable, and Shut Your Mouth & Open Your Eyes -- and personnel shifts ensued; Kresge was the first to leave, being replaced by Hunter Burgan, and Stopholese departed in favor of ex-Redemption 87 guitarist Jade Puget, who then shared songwriting duties with Havok. The new lineup recorded an EP titled A Fire Inside in 1998, and issued a noticeably more mature full-length in 1999, Black Sails in the Sunset. 1999 also saw the release of the All Hallow's EP before The Art of Drowning followed a year later. Though already owning a fiercely loyal core base of fans, the latter album saw the band's music being received by an even larger audience, due in part to the moderate success of the single "Days of the Phoenix." In the new millennium, AFI hooked up with Jerry Finn and Garbage's Butch Vig for some recording. The end result was the ambitious Sing the Sorrow, released in March 2003, their major-label debut for DreamWorks that showcased the band's significant growth from their early hardcore days. The record also marked AFI's crossover into the mainstream as their fan base considerably grew, national news publications praised them, and several singles found airplay on MTV. Working again with producer Jerry Finn (blink-182, Green Day), the band's next record was their most labor-intensive to date, resulting from two years of detailed songwriting. Decemberunderground, album number seven, surfaced on June 6, 2006, on Interscope. The album was an instant success, debuting at number one on the Billboard charts. AFI kept the momentum going on the road nationwide that summer, followed by a string of overseas dates in October. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
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