An Extended Interview With AFI's Davey Havok

As far as genre?

Yeah.
I remember what was called ska-punk -- excluding bands like Stiff Little Fingers and Operation Ivy. You know what we're talking about. That drove me crazy.

That was a huge East Bay thing, too.
Yeah, there was a lot of it here. There was a lot of it everywhere. It drove all of us crazy at the time. It was very prevalent in like '95-'96, so much that it was appropriate to say to our booking agent when we went on tour, ''Look, just make sure that the local bands aren't ska-punk bands.'' It would be fine if they're ska, or if they're punk. But when you put those two together it drove us crazy. Luckily, that's over, which is nice. As far as broad hatred of the genres, I don't really hate entire genres. I mean, usually there's something good within a greater genre, even if the whole thing is mostly bereft of any sort of quality.

What are your guilty pleasures, in that regard?
I don't really see any of my pleasures as guilty pleasures, because anything I like, I feel like, ''Well, I like it. It's good. If you don't like it I don't care''.

So you'd still throw on Off the Wall?
Yeah. Well, I never owned the Michael Jackson record -- it was my Mom's -- but yeah, a song came on when I was getting my eyebrows done from Off the Wall yesterday, and I was like, ''Oh yeah, this is good.'' It was interesting because it was kind of a good example of what you're talking about. Three songs came on in a row and they were completely different, but I thought to myself, ''Wow, these are really great. This is like three songs in a row that I like'' -- completely different genres of music. There was a song off of Off the Wall, DJ Sammy's remix of Brian Adams [''Heaven''], which is great, I love that, and then they played a Smashing Pumpkins song off of Siamese Dream. So, that was really cool.

You know, people ask me, ''Is there anything you would listen to that would shock people?'' and for me it's hard to answer because so many people have so many different perceptions of who I am. Wherever I go, whatever show I go to or whatever event I go to -- and I go to a lot of shows -- people always say ''Wow, I'd never expect to see you here.'' I don't know where people expect to see me. I mean, when I'm at an industrial show, or a Morrissey show, or a hardcore show, or some sort of fashion event or whatever, they don't expect to see me there.

That's funny.
Yeah, and I always say like, ''Why? Where did you expect to see me?''

In a park, under a tree, in the rain, writing gloomy lyrics?
They never have an answer! [Laughs] Yeah, I guess it's just that they don't expect to see me at all, anywhere.

Are you super-excited that your record's coming out on 6/6/06?
No. I mean, I'm not disappointed. It's not really a big deal. I don't put too much weight in those Christian concepts. It's kind of fun in that it's memorable, and maybe it's going to bum some people out. But let me tell you: To answer your question, I would have been super-stoked in junior high or high school if you would have told me that I was going to have a record that came out on 6/6/06. It would have been amazing. But now it's like, you know, whatever. It was coincidence; it wasn't on purpose. It just landed on a Tuesday. So, there it is. Like, I would be super-stoked if Slayer was coming out on that day, because it should be. I hope so. I hope so. I hope Slayer planned that out in advance. You know, it's just so right.

Do you decorate your vocal booth in the studio?
I do. I do, yeah, for inspiration. I like to put posters of my favorite singers up around the vocal booth, so there's always Moz and Bowie and Freddy. Unfortunately, the last recording session was greatly lacking in all my Ians: Ian Curtis, Ian Astbury, Ian MacKaye. We couldn't find any of the Ian posters. So, you know, you might be able to see they aren't represented in the vocal quality. Umm, Peter Murphy, Robert Smith. And lots of candles. Most studios actually provide the candles.

Cool. What's your bunk like, on the bus?
Passenger side, closest to the front of the bus, lower bunk. Adam's always above me.

What happens after the show when you guys all get back on the bus? What do you guys do?
It's pretty uneventful. I mean, we get back on the bus, we all sit around a little bit, kind of hang out with all our crew. And, most recently, I think the South Park movie happened to be on. We discuss anecdotes of the day and then just go to bed. But, pretty rock and roll, huh?

That's outta control.
Completely out of hand.

How do you remember anything?
I know. It's nuts that I'm even still here.

Is there one record store that you've spent the most money at? Maybe at Amoeba?
You know, it's probably Rasputin's, because Rasputin's actually had a greater industrial, dark section than Amoeba did for years and years. Now that's not the case. Now, Amoeba's better.

I read somewhere that you got letters written in blood.
Yeah, I've gotten a few.

What do those say?
They say really nice things. They're usually professions of adoration and commitment and appreciation. They just happen to be written in blood.

What other kind of bizarre stuff do you get in the mail?
Most of the stuff, luckily, is not as frightening as that, or as unsanitary. I get socks, kind of cute socks sometimes. I get make-up. I get nail-polish. I get little Japanese plastic toys or plush toys. I'll get things like that, which is far preferable to any sort of bodily fluids.

Do you have an iPod?
I do.

Is there a ton of shit on there?
There is so much on my iPod. In fact, I actually need a new iPod.

You need a separate one.
I hear rumors that they're going to come out with the 100-gig. And I'm kind of holding out for that. I think it's going to come out really soon, so I'm holding out.

So you have a 60-gig now?