I think I began asking Nitro for an AFI interview about a month before their tour with RANCID was formally announced. This was one of those things that I had to do. I like a lot of bands, and a lot of music, but there are only a few bands which I truly hold dear, and AFI is pretty high on that list. Simply put, experiencing them live is something 100% unique. Their explosiveness and character are something to be cherished. Although this isn’t the best interview that I’ve ever done, do myself being nervous, and only having a limited amount of time to talk, I think Davey’s (vox) sincerity comes across very well. Unfortunately, I did not get to ask Davey about his new side project with Glen Danzing, and other members of Samhain, entitled “Son of Sam.” Read the show review of this night, by clicking here. Interview by Jordan A. Baker.

Pastepunk: A very cool thing happened, your new album, “The Art of Drowning” appeared on the Billboard charts on its debut week, number 174 I think…did you think something that like could happen to you?

Davey: Nope…never in a million years. I just couldn’t imagine it ever happening. When we started the band, and figured that on our sixth record, we’d sell like 8000 units in the first week, it would be have been crazy talk…sixth record…it’s insane! It’s awesome though.

Pastepunk: What’s up with the radio single?

Davey: “Days of the White Phoenix” is pretty much in testing. It was picked up in San Francisco, San Diego, and Cincinatti. I guess LA is playing us a little bit, but not too much. We picked that song because we liked it and Nitro liked. It’s got a nice pace to it, and we feel that it’s pretty distinct song. We’d like to make a video for it eventually. Not for like mainstream MTV, but M2 and Mx (anyone ever hear of this??), because they already have been playing other stuff by us.

Pastepunk: What other videos have you done before?

Davey: That would be our forth video, the last one we did was for “Total Immortal,” which was a ton of fun to make, and we also did one for “Third Season,” and “He who laughs Last.”

Pastepunk: With “Shut your mouth and open your eyes,” the music definitely turned more aggressive. And then on “Black Sails…” it was almost a complete change in theme and style…definitely much darker and with stronger metal influences. What spurred these changes?

Davey: Well lyrically, we had been pretty dark in past, but with “Shut your mouth…” the music began to correspond with the lyrics more, and likewise. A lot of that was due to the addition of Jade, and the stronger chemistry and song writing of the band. It was pretty much a natural progression. As a tighter unit, our song writing skills were able to grow quicky, and we just became more dynamic.

Pastepunk: (Question by Alex, the Photo Girl). There’s this thing on Veggiedate.com with you, I found that really funny…what’s the story behind it?

Davey: Yeah, my friend put that up for me…it’s pretty funny, and I’ve gotten a lot of interesting feedback from it. It’s mostly a joke though.

Pastepunk: I think you sound a lot like Axl Rose, so when you covered “My Michelle,” on the Punk Goes Metal compilation, it was like the best of both worlds. Did you always have the ability to sound like him?

Davey: Wow…thanks. I don’t know, I guess it’s natural, but thanks. Axl’s a great singer. I wouldn’t say that I sound like him intentionally, but yeah, I was surprised on how many people thought I sounded like him on “Black Sails…” That was a fun cover to do because we were all big time Guns N Roses fans.

Pastepunk: Do you do a lot of covers? I can only think of few that I heard from you guys….

Davey: Actually, we’ve done a ton of covers, but only a handful or so have ever been released. Let’s see, “Hanging Garden,” “Demonomania,” the “Last Caress,” umm… “Whatever I do,” “Values Here,” and probably a whole bunch more. Basically, we cover songs that have meaning to us. We did the Cure cover, and obviously, tons of Misfits covers since we’ve basically started.

Pastepunk: What’s the tour been like so far?

Davey: Oh man, touring with Rancid is the best. It’s been a ton of fun, and its like full circle and all, because they took us out years and years ago. I think last night was the first show that wasn’t sold out. Crowds have been huge, we’ve all been having a ton of fun. The last time Rancid and us toured together was like 5 years ago. We’ve been playing Bay Area shows with them, but a tour of this magnitude is freaking wonderful. The Distillers are awesome too, and right now they got two guys from the Nerve Agents filling in, Dante, and Andy. It’s been cool.

Pastepunk: Any plans to go overseas? Every played Japan?

Davey: Yep, we should be going to Europe in January. We’ve been to Japan once, with The Offspring, which was insane. It was unbelievable how much fun we had. The people there were amazing, and they treated us really well. Like we were the first band to go on stage, and we knew the kids had never heard of us before, but they would still scream along. Unlike in the US where kids kinda mill around before the show starts, in Japan, once they opened the doors, like 1-2-3, the kids came flooding in and running up to the front of the stage. From the start of the first song, immediately people just pogoed the entire time. Since they didn’t know the words, they just shouted “Hey” which worked well during “Third Season,” heh.

Pastepunk: “Black Sails in the Sunset,” is that from the Greek myth?

Davey: I know what you are talking about, but you’d have to ask Hunter, since he named the album.

Pastepunk: What’s been the mix of songs on the current tour?

Davey: It’s been a pretty strong mix of mostly songs off the past two albums and ep’s, but we’ve thrown a few older ones for the fans who’ve been with us from the beginning. It’s always fun to play the old ones and see the crowd react (at this point I asked what songs they had in store for the night, and it didn’t include “Wester” unfortunately).

Pastepunk: You did that Hot Water Music, Indecision, Sick of It All tour last year. What was that like?

Davey: That was a crazy tour that really opened our eyes to some good music. We were friends with Sick of It All beforehand, but we had never extensively toured with them. With all the bands, we all became friends really quick, and the shows were amazing because of the diversity of the styles. It was cool because of the bands had been kicking it for a long time, and working really hard, so it was like a culmination of something meant to be.

Pastepunk: Bands don’t always last forever, do you have any other musical plans, say 10 years down from now in like producing bands or stuff like that?

Davey: What about Danzig, he’s been around forever, heh. Nah…this is all I know, and all I want to know. I plan to be making music forever, I don’t care how many albums, 13, 22, whatever. This gives me the best feeling, to be able to do this day in and day out.

Pastepunk: Good answer. That’ll be a good note to wrap this up on. Thanx!