AFI Ignite

• The Band
• Davey Havok
• Jade Puget
• Hunter Burgan
• Adam Carson

Hardcore punk revivalists AFI (A Fire Inside) originally formed in 1991 when their members -- vocalist Davey 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. While on tour, Havok and Puget dedicated their spare time to a side project that would become Blaqk Audio, which they debuted in early 2007. AFI went on to release I Heard a Voice: Live from Long Beach Arena later that same year.

This year, AFI announced that their new album, Crash Love, will be released at some point in 2009. They are currently finishing up the recording process.

Personal Life

David Marchand (born David Passaro, on November 20, 1975, in Rochester, New York) more commonly known by the stage name Davey Havok, is the lead vocalist of the American rock band AFI. Havok was born in Rochester, New York and is of Italian ancestry. At the age of three, his father died and when his mother, Penny, later remarried he took on the surname of his stepfather, Marchand. When Havok was six years old, he and his family moved from Rochester to Ukiah, California. There, Davey attended Catholic school in Ukiah until the eighth grade. He has a brother named Mike.

Music Career

During high school, his friends Mark Stopholese and Vic Chalker wanted to start a band (which would later become AFI). Unfortunately, they had several problems; chief amongst them was their lack of a drummer. Mark suggested that his friend Adam Carson fill the position of drummer in the band. However, they didn't know how to play any instruments, but they knew that Davey had a good voice and that Adam had a drum set.

Shortly after high school, the band broke up and Davey moved to Berkeley, California, where he attended UC Berkeley, planning to double major in English and Psychology. He began constantly writing lyrics to songs that would eventually appear on the albums Answer That and Stay Fashionable and Very Proud of Ya.

In a memorable reunion, the band played at the Phoenix Theater for several hundred fans. Following the good reception from the fans, they decided to reunite and record an album. In 1995, the band's first album Answer That and Stay Fashionable was released on Wingnut Records and in 1996, their second album Very Proud of Ya was released on Nitro Records. In 1997, the band released their third full length album, Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes, in which Davey started getting more serious about his lyrics. He started singing about religion, humanity and other more serious issues.

The next release was the A Fire Inside EP. It featured covers of The Cure's "The Hanging Garden", in which Davey got to flaunt Robert Smith influences, and "Demonomania" by The Misfits. In 1999, the band released Black Sails in the Sunset, which was the first album to include the current line-up: Havok, Carson, Hunter Burgan and Jade Puget. In the fall of 1999, they released the All Hallows EP, which has gathered a cult following among the fanbase, and is perhaps their most popular EP.

In 2000, they released The Art of Drowning to fair record sales, and great acclaim by fans of the band. The group had toured with one of Havok's favorite bands, Samhain, on their reunion tour. Havok later joined three Samhain musicians, Steve Zing, London May and Todd Youth, and recorded an album in the vein of Samhain under the name Son of Sam, entitled Songs from the Earth.

Following Davey's work with Son of Sam, AFI continued to tour for a few years and released a few EPs along the way. In 2003, the band's first major label release, Sing the Sorrow, was released, attaining great record sales.

On June 6, 2006, Decemberunderground was released on Interscope Records. Havok, along with AFI, toured around the world, each tour named after a song from the album. Along with this concert series, AFI's first DVD, I Heard a Voice was released on December 12, 2006, containing the live concert from Long Beach Arena from September 15, 2006. This DVD was released as in CD version in November 2007.

On August 14, 2007, Havok's new electronic side project with AFI guitarist Jade Puget, Blaqk Audio, released their first album, entitled CexCells. There was a brief American/Canadian tour following the release. Havok is currently in the process of writing songs for the next AFI album, an EP containing unreleased songs। Jade Puget has confirmed in his blog that they hope to have it released in early 2008.

Notable Quotes

Interviewer: AFI stands for A Fire Inside. What's your favorite alternate definition?
Davey: On a couple of occasions, people have maintained that it stands for A Fire Within or, like, A Forgotten Song, where they'll totally ignore the letters of the acronym. And it's nice to hear the base, derogatory stuff directed at the band -- like A Fag Inside. I enjoy those. But I really like Aw, F*** It.

Interviewer: Tell me something about your fake eyelashes.
Davey: Fake?!
Interviewer: Well..I mean...uh..ok.
Davey: Here, feel.
Interviewer: Oh..but..alright, seriously do you have a special person that applies those for you or do you do it by yourself?
Davey: I actually have a very special person, he's very dear to my heart, it's me. I spend most of my time with him, he's very hard to deal with.

Kerrang: What’s the best way you’ve heard you died?
Davey: A heroin overdose, here in London. That was the most real one because that made it all the way back to the United States and caused our booking agent there to call our booking agent here to make sure I was okay. They often kill me of cancer, which I really don’t like. Then there was the one that Claudio from Coheed and Cambria tackled me and killed me.
Adam: What were you doing!?
Davey: Playing football I guess. And I died, which sucks.

Davey: Old ladies come up to me all the time telling me to find God. Look, all I want to find is some chai and a good vegan muffin.

Davey: If God exists, I'm so f*****.

RP: You have the only job in the world where people line up to hug you.
Davey: Well, me and the Pope.
RP: Are you crazy? You can't hug the pope. He's inside the bubble.
Davey: Are you sure you can't hug the Pope? Hey, everyone, does anyone know if you're allowed to hug the Pope?

Interviewer: Hey Jade, are the rest of the guys jealous that the entire 'Girl's Not Grey'video occurs in your crotch?
Jade: Hey Dave, are you jealous that 'Girl's Not Grey' takes place in my crotch?
Davey: No, because I'm going to take place in your crotch.
Jade: You know, I never stopped to think that the majority of our video does indeed take place in my crotch. I must contemplate the significance of this.

Personal Life

Jade Errol Puget (born November 28, 1973 in Santa Rosa, California) is the guitarist for rock band AFI (joined in 1998), and the keyboardist/synthesizer operator for the electronic duo Blaqk Audio. He takes his stepfather's surname. Puget is a vegetarian, and is straight edge along with Davey Havok, the vocalist of AFI.

Jade has a half-sister- Alishea, a half-brother named Gibson, and a younger brother named Smith. The latter being AFI's Tour Manager. Gibson appears in the poem in the beginning of This Time Imperfect on the CD Sing The Sorrow. Jade dropped out of school at the age of seventeen, yet still moving on to go to UC Berkeley, where he majored in social theory. After graduating from college, Jade then joined the likes of AFI.

He has a various tattoos- an "18" (which was originally a "13"), a cat jumping through a 9 (a tattoo he shares with Nick 13 of Tiger Army and Davey Havok), and the word "Committed" arched across his stomach. On his arms, he has the words "Boys Don't Cry" (a homage to The Cure) and the words "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (a Joy Division tribute).

Music Career

Before joining AFI in 1998, Puget played in various bands, including Loose Change and Redemption 87. His first album with AFI was Black Sails in the Sunset (1999). The first song he wrote for the band was "Malleus Maleficarum". The band released The Art of Drowning in 2000, Sing the Sorrow in 2003 and Decemberunderground in 2006. AFI won a VMA for best rock video for "Miss Murder" in 2006. Puget is also a member of Blaqk Audio with AFI bandmate Davey Havok. Their debut album, CexCells, was released on August 14, 2007.

Puget recently remixed Marilyn Manson's newest single "Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)", released as an international bonus track from the album Eat Me, Drink Me (2007). He also recently remixed the song Tiger Army's "Where the Moss Slowly Grows" off the band's latest album Music From Regions Beyond. The song is only available through purchasing the album on iTunes. He also did some additional production on The Dear & Departed's debut album Something Quite Peculiar. Additionally, he recently remixed Tokio Hotel's UK single "Ready, Set, Go" from their first English album, Scream (or Room 483). Also, his remix of The Static Age's song "Vertigo" (called "Airplanes") appeared as a bonus track on the band's album "Neon Nights Electric Lives."

Puget prefers the Les Paul Studio (black and white) model and has used a number of different Gibson Les Paul guitars since he joined AFI, along with a few Fender models in recording. Both for live performances and studio recordings. He is also known to be using Gibson SGs occasionally.

Notable Quotes

Interviewer: Aaaand finally, Jade, since you're named after an ornamental stone used as decoration, do you have any kids?

Jade: Do I have any kids? No, I don't.
Interviewer: Okay, uhh...would you rather name your first child if you ever have one, "Alabaster" or "Marble" which are two kinds of ornamental stone?

Jade: Yeah, I actually thought about that. I thought if I had a son, I would name him "Salt" but I'd spell it "NaCl." (At this point, Davey gets up off of his seat, covering his mouth as he is laughing)

Jade: "I'm so f***** on the show tonight. Fudged. Sorry kids, if you curse you're the worst."

Jade: "But yeah! It's exciting to finally have something out even if it's one song. I know most of you probably already have rips of Stiff Kittens but dig up some change in the cushions of your couch and buy it. If you put the change in the CD tray of your computer and close it, the money goes right to Apple and the song automatically downloads to your desktop."

Jade: “Davey doesn't watch the damn road when he's driving. I'm sure if we crashed, he would be fine and I would be embedded in a tree. If he ever kills me with his driving though, I'm gonna come back as a squirrel and run up his pant leg.”

Jade: “The whole time we were recording, we were trying to get permission from Winona Ryder to use her ‘My whole life is a dark room’ part from Beetlejuice but we never heard from her so we said, 'F*** it, we'll use our own spooky dark-haired girl,' and called in Davey.”

Jade: “Even when I go see one of my favorite bands, I start to get bored/tired/over it after an hour and a half. If they said, ‘Guess what! We'll be playing for 2 hours tonight!’, you'd see a Jade-shaped hole in the front door.”

About:

Hunter Lawrence Burgan (born on May 14, 1976 in Long Beach, California) grew up in Grass Valley, California. He is the third and current bass guitarist of AFI. He played in a band called The Force at the time that he joined AFI. He was meant to be a temporary replacement for the existing bassist, Geoff Kresge, for a few tours and a record, Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes, but eventually became 

AFI's full-time bassist in November 1997. The Force broke up in September 1998.

Burgan loves Prince's music and even has his own side-project called Hunter Revenge dedicated to singing early-80s-style R&B. A talented multi-instrumentalist, Burgan can play drums, bass, guitar, saxophone and piano. He was the drummer and one of the founding 

members of The Frisk, who played their final show in December, 2005. He was the drummer of the Nevada City, CA band, Badical Turbo Radness (BTR) in the mid 1990s. He has also played drums for The Eyeliners, Gardening, Not 

Architecture, F-Minus (one show), and the Halo Friendlies on tour.

Hunter was featured on Tegan and Sara's newest album, The Con, playing bass on the songs written by Tegan. He recently appeared with them on Late Night with Conan O'Brien playing the shakers on the song "Back in Your Head". He has also confirmed an upcoming side project with Tegan.

He is often referred to as simply Hunter, as his last name is never given in the list of band members on AFI's albums.

Notable Quotes: 

"I have two cell phones and I don’t feel weird about this. No disrespect to children in third world countries that only have one cell phone."

"I have so many black T-shirts, Fruit of the Loom gave me my own private jet."

"I love eskimos. They have 23 words for "sno-cone." 

About:

Adam Carson is the original and current drummer of the alternative rock band AFI. He is one of the two original members left in the lineup, the other being singer Davey Havok. Carson also filled in as drummer for the band Tiger Army. His drumming can be found on Tiger Army's Early Years EP as well as their debut album Tiger Army. Adam was also a member of Influence 13 - a band formed by Nick 13, Jade Puget (who joined AFI in 1998), Geoff Kresge (who left AFI in 1996), and two other friends. Along with the other members of AFI, Carson is vegetarian. However, Carson is not straight edge like band members Davey Havok and Jade Puget.