Another year of touring isn’t frazzling AFI – quite the opposite.
“I usually bug out off tour at, like, day 10,” explained drummer Adam Carson, who, along with his bandmates, is enjoying his first vacation since before Sing the Sorrow was released in March. “It’ll be nice to do another tour.”
AFI’s latest jaunt launches February 18 in Bakersfield, California, with Coheed and Cambria and A Static Lullaby in the opening slots. A few weeks later, Thursday will replace the latter until the tour wraps in mid-March.
AFI will then decide whether they’ll release another single and remain on the road or return to the studio and begin recording their next album.
“You never really know,” guitarist Jade Puget said. “If people wanna keep buying our record, we’ll keep playing on it.”
AFI just released “Silver and Cold,” the third single from Sing the Sorrow and the follow-up to “The Leaving Song Pt. 2”.
John Hillcoat, best known for his work with Depeche Mode and Nick Cave, directed the video late last year in Prague, Czech Republic. AFI came up with the concept involving the band literally running around the city, and Hillcoat agreed to develop it.
“This one is more plot-driven,” Puget said. “We’ve kind of covered the performance angle, so the ‘Silver and Cold’ video just tells a story. We did a little acting.”
“Prague is very cold,” singer Davey Havok chimed in.
“It’s also very beautiful,” bassist Hunter added.
When their tour wraps in March, AFI will not work on the Electronic music side project Paget talked about in the fall. The guitarist said he was just thinking out loud and that he and Havok never considered recording something outside of AFI.
“It was just a little 10-minute interview in England, so I didn’t think it would ever reach anyone,” he said, laughing.
As for reaching people, AFI have been blown away by how loyal their fanbase – especially their official fan club, the Despair Faction – has become.
“We were in Reno last night and saw Faction kids there from all over California and Nevada,” Havok said. “We met a girl who had seven AFI tattoos.”
“One kid last night – he looked like he was about 14 – had AFI on his knuckles,” Paget added.
“We met a really young boy, probably about 12 or 13 years old, with eyeliner on, which really excited me,” Havok said. “It was pretty nice.”
