n Tuesday, April 8, I stood in front of the oh-so-mysterious fence that prevents AFI fans from going backstage at Brick’s. I waited for Smith, the road manager, to let me in so that I could conduct my interview with the band. Smith opened the gate and out of nowhere asked me what I was doing there. What? Had I not called him just hours before to remind him of who I was and what my intentions were? Well, once he remembered who I was, he wanted to know who I was there to see. Um…could it get any more obvious? I guess this is why there are tour managers, so that they can be the brains behind the performance. Well, the interview turned from being with the whole band to being with whomever Smith saw standing outside doing nothing.

AFI’s drummer, Adam Carson, happened to be the lucky guy who got to suffer through all of my questions. “You’re with RAD Magazine?” he asked. I told him no, that it was RED. “Oh, it would be cool if it was RAD Magazine.” Yes, it would be. And that is how it all began. The dark-haired, handsomely mysterious drummer sat down in the tour bus and explained to me what AFI is. The hard-core, dark, goth, whatever you-will band started 10 years ago and is running stronger than ever. He explained the music, the fans and life as a musician.

The vibe coming from Carson was honest and his answers were sincere.

The energy exchange between the band and its fans was intense. Though my blue tank top was a bit bright in comparison to the sea of black, the feeling from the relentlessly energetic fans was comfortable. I expected a ton of pushing and jumping, but it didn’t happen. The vibe was alive and Davey Havoc and the rest of the band put on an awesome show.

The RED Interview
RED: What would you say is the difference with Sing the Sorrow from previous CDs you guys have released?

Carson: With all our records, I think that we as a band constantly evolve between records and so when it’s time to make another one, we’re in a radically different place. So that’s nothing new and it’s something that we’ve always done. And I think it’s something that our fans have grown to expect and sort of embrace from us the fact that we’re never going to make the same record twice. If you listen to all the records in order, you can sort of trace that evolution. But this time around, for the first time we had the resources we needed to really make the record we wanted to make.

In the past, we’ve been limited. We haven’t had enough time to get things the way we really want them and we haven’t had the money to make to record we really wanted to.

RED: How would you describe this evolution over the course of the past 10 years?

Carson: I’d say it has been consistent…We’re still learning how to play our instruments. In each album we go to write, we realize that we can do so much more because everyone has gotten better.

RED: What would you say the purpose is behind your music and is there a message that you’re trying to project through it?

Carson: The purpose is just who we are as people, it’s our life, our lives are based on writing and recording music and playing shows and sharing what we’ve created with other people…

Dave writes all the lyrics, so it’s sort of weird for me to comment on this. For us, the music is very cathartic, and I think for our fans it’s cathartic as well, so, people say oftentimes that they have found solace in our music and that our music has helped them through hard times and I think that its done the same thing for us…We’ve gotten letters from kids who have said that at one point in their life they were thinking about committing suicide and that our music has helped them through that hard period in their lives. That’s just the most amazing thing in the world to hear and it sort of reaffirms that we’re doing something positive.

RED: How would you describe the creation process of the songs?

Carson: I don’t really know what the standard process is for other bands, but I imagine that it works the same. It basically starts with Jade coming up with different riffs and different parts that he likes. And then getting together with Dave and they work on melodies and make sure that each part of the song is interesting. Then he usually writes lyrics and then the rest of the band gets involved and we listen to it. Sometimes the songs come together right away.

RED: Do you ever write any lyrics? Have you on your own?

Carson: No, I think that Dave is one of the best song writers, one of the best lyricists that I have ever encountered and the lyrics are far better off in his hands than mine.

RED: Do you ever even play around with it on your own?

Adam: No, there are things that I do in my personal time that are private to me, but nothing that I am willing or wanting to share with the world.

RED: “Girl’s Not Grey,” in comparison with the rest of the CD, seems a little bit on the lighter side. Discuss.

Carson: Our goal when we put all these songs together was not to have a song that can be played on the radio. It was an attempt to have a cohesive album that took you on a journey from beginning to end—and ebbed and flowed and played between aggressiveness and sort of more melodic-sounding stuff that really took you on a journey. In the context of the other 13 songs, it seems very appropriate. By itself, taken away on the radio, I can understand that people would think, ‘oh you know, that’s the token radio song.’ But, it’s simply not.

RED: Since you do have songs that they play on the radio, that results in a variety of fans. How do you guys embrace that?

Carson: Well, that’s nothing new to us either because we have always had a really diverse fan base. I think the music is pretty varied. Obviously we get the punk kids because we have sort of been rooted in that world. Then there are also influences from hardcore and metal and pop and dark English music and all kinds of stuff. So, we’ve always, had a really diverse fan base. That’s nothing new, the radio just exposes us to more people.

RED: How would you describe a successful concert?

Carson: More often than not, we go on stage and then 45 minutes or an hour later, I come off stage and I don’t really remember what happened. To me, that’s a pretty successful show because it’s very emotional and it’s very cathartic for me and it’s just a complete exchange of energy between the people who have come to the show and us. But you know, obviously a successful show is one where our equipment doesn’t break where we don’t break and no one in the crowd breaks.

RED: How would you describe the band’s relationship with the fans?

Carson: We come from a community of bands where there’s very little separation between the band and the audience. And so, sort of coming from that world, we’ve always made an effort to make our fans feel welcome and feel like they have access to us as much as possible. And it’s not really an effort on our part, it’s simply what we do. So we do all kinds of things like that. We always try to talk to people as much as possible, and we have a fan club where if they sign up early enough they can come to sound check and watch…and then we usually meet them afterward.

RED: What are your plans post touring?

Carson: This tour’s going to take us to the end of the year or longer. So I guess our plans are to kind of regroup, write another record and keep doing it. I mean this is the cycle that we’ve been on since ’95. Writing a record and then recording it and when it comes out, touring nonstop and then starting all over. It’s a pattern that we’re really satisfied with in our lives. So, I hope just more of the same.
autumn@RED-mag.com