afi (band)

AFI is an American Punk band formed in 1991 by Davey Havok(vocals), Markus Stopholese (guitar), Vic Chalker (bass) and Adam Carson (drums) in Ukiah, California. Bassist Vic was later replaced by Geoff Kresge. Geoff was replaced by Hunter Burgan. Formerly a street punk band , they recently have been writing slower guitar driven songs. AFI formed when the members got bored in between skate sessions. Adam and Davey played school soccer together, and Adam used his brother's drum kit. Havok was in the school's choir. After doing a few live shows in parks and such, AFI broke up while its members moved away to different colleges, including University of California at Berkeley (where Havok began a double major of English and Psychology) and University of California at Santa Barbara. After reuniting to perform a very successful live show, the members decided to drop out of college and play in the band full-time. They released a few independently made vinyl EP's, and eventually released their debut full-length album Answer That and Stay Fashionable in 1995. Their second album, Very Proud of Ya, was released in 1995 (later re-released in 1996 by the Niro Label), after which their bassist Geoff Kresge decided to leave the group for personal reasons. Their current bassist, Hunter Burgan, formerly of The Force (and currently, also doing the side projects of The Frisk and Hunter Revenge) filled in for Kresge for the tour in support of Very Proud of Ya Hunter perfers to go by the single name Hunter and he helped afi record their album, Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes. Shortly after, he became their full-time bassist. Over the course of four following LPs, the band has established a dedicated fan-base following and is widely respected as one of the better rock bands of the 1990s. After the recording of the A Fire Inside EP in 1998, Mark left the band to be replaced by guitarist Jade Puget, formerly of Redemption 87 and Loose Change, who was critical in forming the band's new sound over the following albums. Following on from the new approach they had taken on the aforementioned A Fire Inside EP (released on Adeline records) the band recorded their Black Sails in the Sunset (Nitro 1998) a musical turning point. On this album, and the following All Hallow's EP (Nitro 1999), other EPs and the seminal The Art of Drowning album (Nitro 2000) their original punk roots were still quite apparent in their musical approach, but more 80s horror punk seemed to appear in the lyrics. However, many fans feel their latest album Sing the Sorrow which was released on the much larger DreamWorks label on March 11, 2003 displays a different musical approach which has lost some of the punk rock aggression and connected more with its lyrical (and angsty) subject matter. They are followed by a devoted fan base called the Despair Faction. Consisting of fans old and young, the Despair Faction attends every AFI show in its areas. Hunter, who replaced Geoff (who went on to join Tiger Army but is now in the Horrorpops), is from Grass Valley in Northern California. He was in a number of bands, including The Force. Currently he has a solo band Hunter Revenge and is in The Frisk, as well as being in AFI full-time. Davey has also pursued several side projects. One of those was his position as lead vocalist of the punk/metal super group "Son of Sam" which was made up of members of Danzig, Samhain, and Tiger Army as well as Davey. Another project, known as "Blaqk Audio" is Davey and Jade's electronic side project, which not much is known about at this time. The website for Blaqk Audio, however is www.blaqkaudio.com. The meaning of the initials "AFI" means A Fire Inside. Some claim differently but, Davey Havok claims that the meaning of AFI has always been "A Fire Inside." In 2004, AFI covered Nine Inch Nails' "Head Like A Hole" for the soundtrack. Out of the two soundtracks that were released, AFI's cover appeared only on the 2-disc set. In fall of 2004, AFI covered The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" for The MTVicon 2004 TV show that aired on MTVEurope and MTV2. As of March 2005 the band is continuing it work on their new LP which name is still undecided. The band claims they well incorprate more 'rock elements' and adapt more of a 'cold-pop' sound with more electronica incorprted into it. Also Due for 2005 is Glitterboy the new fashion line from Davey Havok and Serious Clothing. It will be available in May 2005 at Hot Topic Stores. According to Havok, the new album is expected to be released late fall/early winter 2005.