As AFI approach three decades together you might think they may have become stale but after speaking with bass player Hunter Burgan the City Hub has learned that is far from the case.
Whilst speaking with us about the band’s tenth studio album, The Blood Album, Burgan explained that the group had written close to 60 songs for the record before distilling that list down for the studio sessions.
“We’ve tried to be more economical with the last couple of records and not record more songs than we need. I think we recorded 15 and our goal was to get it down to 12 but we simply couldn’t cut that many songs.”
By simply looking at the sheer volume of songs the group wrote for this record it is clear to see that this was a special record for the band and as such they wanted to ensure it captured the publics attention. In order to do this they chose to implement a marketing strategy which saw them blacking out all of the bands social media accounts, which generated quite the buzz.
“There is so much information bombarding people on a daily basis so it’s tough to make a real impression on people,” explained Burgan, “I can’t tell you how many times my phone is telling me about news, sport scores or different things. The vast amount of information hitting people everyday is making each little piece less significant, so it takes ideas like we used to get people’s attention.”
Over the years AFI have not only captured fans attention with their records but also with their spectacular live shows, which often go slightly off script thanks in large part to frontman Davey Havok’s antics.
“He [Davey] does a lot of things that surprise me, like climbing on things or going into the crowd,” explained Burgan, “I don’t think even he knows what he’s going to do, it’s just a spontaneous kind of thing.”
This spontaneous attitude can occasionally lead to tricky moments for the other members of the band.
“During one particular show in LA there was a specific moment where musically Davey cues us for timing but we couldn’t see him in the crowd so we had to tune into each other to make sure it worked…” reflected Burgan, “That’s part of the fun though. I like the fact that every audience is going to be different and thus in turn we’re going to play off the energy in the room and have a fun time.”
If moments like this are anything to go by fans of AFI should expect the unexpected at the show this weekend.
Sep 9, 7pm. The Big Top, Luna Park Sydney, 1 Olympic Dr, Sydney. $95.70+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.tickets.destroyalllines.com
