The Last Kiss

I got this article from the Oct 2001 issue of AP.

With both bands touring so heavily, the meeting was bound to happen sooner or later. And it was everything he'd ever hoped it would be, sighs AFI grand goblin Davey Havok - bumping into his boyhood heroes the Cult backstage at a recent gig. Mustering up the courage, Havok recalls, "I walked over to Ian Astbury and told him how much I loved his band, and that he had been a huge influence on me. And he was just real nice, and he and Billy Duffy talked to me about (legendary U.K. Goth haunt) the Batcave because I was wearing an Alien Sex Fiend shirt. They talked about Specimen, Theatre Of Hate, Sex Gang Children, too." In parting, Astbry inquired about the name of his young protege's outfit; The name AFI stopped him dead in his tracks. "He said, 'Oh! You're in AFI? I've seen your shirt with the black cat on it -I rally like it!"" Havok was stunned, and stammered out a promise to send the Cult as much offical gear as their closets could handle. And Havok loves the underling message - that the gulf between an "80s drone-rawk sombo like the Cult and a modern hyper-chorded punk quartet like AFI can be bridged by a sinlge credo-uniting T-shirt. Be it an elaborate Alien Sex Fiend desing or that basic "East Bay Hard Core" black cat, with its signature 666 collar. Obviously, swag wasnt the reason he and drummer Adam Carson formed their subtly spooky groug 10 years and five albums ago. But merchandise and instantly identifiable logos soon becam a part of their hard - working ethos, to the point where - on their Baudelairian lates, the Art Of Drowning (Nitro) they pause to credit-thank "All those who have created websites, graffiti, or had their bodies tattooed for AFI." and for those who have yet to take the skin art plunge, there's even a list of ecommended tattoo parlors, personally tested by Havok, bassist Hunter and guitarist Jade Puget. AFI is an acronym for A Fire Inside, and Havok's is certainly burning as bright as any bonfire. Which, of course, he proved, night after scene stealing night on the 2001 Warped Tour where AFI T-shirts were the hit of the swinging' souvenir stands.

With the Warped Tour being underwritten by Target, just like Josie And The Pussycats were, do you think Target logo offends or secretly comforts all those suburban punks out there?
Davey Havok: Yeah ! The Pussycats and Target that was reall funny. Well , I think to the audience that was coming, Target made no difference whatsoever. All the kids coming to Warped Tour were more concerned with seeing 10 of their favorite bands than they were with who was bringing them those bands. It mad no difference to anyone at all. None of the kids at the shows ever said anything to me about Target, at least. And I feel the same way. Warped is a great tour, and it doesn't really matter that a big corporation like Target is presenting it, because what it's doing is allowing the ticket price to be really low for a bunch of young kids to come and see a ton of bands and skaters and ton of other stuff. And, I guess, simutalneously giving Target some cred. Whatever.

The whold underground, Gilman Street punk ethic strsses right and wrong when it comes to linking your music with logos. But yet evey punk takes comfort in logos, in wearing the appropriate T-shirt with the perfect Op Ivy-elite design. Otherwise, how would Astbury have ever seen your black cat silkscreen?
Davey: Yeah, that's true. It's just a recognizable thing to cling to . And it wasn't really a big deal, initially it was only used on that shirt, and a friend of ours came up with it for us. We used it on that one shirt years ago, but it's something people seem to have picked up on, I guess. And Astbury must really have his ear to the music scene to be able to know about it and us, withoust us having any radio play.

How have your logo and imagery changed over the years ?
Davey: In the beginning, we were doing a lot of EC-styled comic book stuff, and gangster/ Taxi Driver stuff, too. Basically, we were using anything we thought was cool. But now, in the past couple of years, our art work and our imagery has really solidified and come to accent the music very well with the help of our friends Alan Fobes and Linas Garsys for DC, who both have been working with us and listen to the music and read the lyrics and create images that they think really add to it. And imagery is important. I think it's just another level of expression that you can use to express what the band's about, and in doing so it creates an association that lets people know a little bit about where you're coming from. And I'd been familiar with Forbes' work from the poster art that he'd done for bands like the Damned, Bauhaus and the Cramps. I'd always been drawn to his imagery, which was dark and spooky instead of hot rods and naked girls. I think he's gonna do a three-part poster for the three shows that we're gonna do in San Francisco around Halloween, each part being a jigsaw piece that goes together, so if you went to all three shows, it'd form one big poster.

You actually thank kids for thier AFI body art. How many AFI tattoos have you seen? And who do you see'em on - guys or girls ?
Davey: Both guys and girls - it's remarkable. And the most elaborate one I've seen a whole back piece of the recor - release poster for Black Sails In The Sunset. And I've haeard talk to many other back pieces that I haven't seen yet. And we have on our Web site a whole tattoo gallery, where kids can send in their tattoos and they'll get posted. But the gallery is maybe one fifieth of all the tattoos that we've seen. And tattooing is a great art - we love to support it. And I think the tattooing community is very similar to the music community that we came up in it's a very difficult struggle, something that's not percievied as positive at all times. But I just think it's great.

You're probably very concerned about your own image, as well-you always seem to be decked out in nothing but black. But what band T-shirts would you dare to be seen in?
Davey: Well, I've been wearing a Laibach T-shirt, the guy with the axe. I wear a lot of band T-shirt I was wearing a vintage Cult Electric shirt yesterday. I wear Sisters, Cure, Joy Divison, Specimen. But the Laibach T-shirt I just found. I found it in Berkeley a few days ago, and a good bootleg Morrissey shirt and a good bootleg Siouxsie shirt, too. I bought bootlet shirts, which is kinda lame. i probably shouldn't talk too much about that.

One of the coolest concert trinkets I ever saw was for Sisters, sevral years ago-they sold a metal badge of the Merciful Release logo.
Davey: We made that style of pin for the Warped tour, of the little winged demon creature. We should have'em at our Halloween shows, too.

Is there one bit of AFI merch that you have yet to pertect? Apeice of dream swag ?
Davey: We're working on - and still have yet to achieve a plush doll of Art, the character in The Art Of Drowning with the large eyes. And that's it. And hopefully, that'll materialize by Halloween. It was supposed to be ready for the Warped tour, but it wasn't. So we're still working on it, so someday our dream merchandise item will be completed!

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