He’s also naked as a jaybird, as the hapless maid in his hotel is about to discover.
“I’m on the phone!” he hollers to the startled maid. “Thanks!”
When fully clothed, the 33-year-old singer spends his time shocking people in an entirely different way as the frontman of goth-glam punk band AFI. On the band’s newest album, Crash Love – the eighth record of the band’s 18-year career – Havok and company continue in their chameleonic ways, this time steering away from the electronica-tinged sound of 2006’s number one smash Decemberunderground and embracing a driving, melodic, bare-bones rock sound.
In anticipation of AFI’s November 12 show at the Electric Factory, Team Last Call tracked down the au naturale crooner to talk about why you won’t find him crying in a corner anytime soon.
Team Last Call: You’ve said that you’ve never been more proud of a record than you are of Crash Love. What prompted you to say that?
Davey Havok: It’s hard to step back from something you created and explain why it means so much to you. It moves me in a way that our music’s never moved me before. For the first time, when I listened to it through, I felt a sense that it could transcend any sort of era. That’s not to say it will, but I was struck with that feeling. I thought about it more – and I don’t think I’ve ever articulated this – but this is the first album really ever that I feel I can play for my friends and say, “OK, check out our new album,” without having to skip any songs.
TLC: Especially starting off in punk and hardcore like you did, you’re taking a huge risk by constantly expanding your sound, and it’s something you’ve gotten a lot of flack for. Have you reconciled yourselves to that?
DH: Absolutely. It’s something that we accepted very early on. It really comes from the ethos of being a punk and hardcore band. It was really because we just didn’t give a fuck. In the same way that we were playing punk and hardcore and didn’t give a fuck that anybody liked it, we continued to write and play what we liked and didn’t give a fuck if anybody liked it. Our hope is that people do like it, but if they have an issue with it, it doesn’t matter because we’re doing what makes us happy.
TLC: I can’t believe you keep getting away with it.
DH: Neither can I. Well, I can believe it in some respect, because the longer we’ve done it, the more our fans have come to expect that progression from us. Not to fear it, but actually in a way demand it. To release a record that sounds like our last record would be more of a detriment to us.
TLC: AFI attracts a lot of fans who feel like outcasts. Why do you think people react that way to your music?
DH: I think it really comes naturally from me. I really feel that likely it’s pervasive in the sentiment of the records because my feelings tend to be contrary to those of your general, average person. So if people connect to that and recognize that, it’s just something that’s part of the way I write.
TLC: Did you have music as you were growing up that served the same purpose for you?
DH: Pretty much everything I love was music from people who disassociated themselves from the masses in some way. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they weren’t a massive band, if you look at The Cure, for instance. But their perspective was not the average.
TLC: You seem relatively upbeat and sociable. It’s funny, because I’ve always had this idea of you, like, always crying in the dark.
DH: Most people do.
TLC: Do you care about that?
DH: Oh, no. It doesn’t bother me. Whatever people think of me is fine, however they want to envision me. I find it curious. I’m always intrigued by who people think I am and the persona they have created for me, what they think I’m into, what they think I’m not into. But I certainly understand that consideration, that I would be a bleak and miserable person, because a lot of my lyrics are very despondent. Luckily, I have the music to use as catharsis. If I didn’t, I might spend more time sitting and crying in a corner than I need to. Also, I think manners are very important. To be a sullen rain cloud when conversing with someone, be they your friends or a journalist, I think is inappropriate.
TLC: You are famous for your lifestyle choices, being vegan and straightedge. Why is that stuff the most important to project?
DH: I really think for the good of this world that, if I could have it my way, the whole world would be vegan and straightedge. So that’s why I feel it’s important to create an awareness of this lifestyle, create an awareness of the choices people make. To bring awareness about those lifestyles can bring a positive change, if only on the level of an individual.
TLC: It’s wildly entertaining, the amount of wrong guesses and suppositions you can find online about what AFI stands for. Do you have any personal favorites?
DH: I’ve heard we’re Christian, and that always tickles me. I’ve heard that I’m a junkie. I’ve heard that I’m a vampire. I’m a junkie vampire. That can be your pull-quote.
TLC: That quote just got boxed out in 24-point type.
DH: Thanks. I don’t spend a lot of time reading about myself or researching myself, so it’s hard to come by this stuff. It’s always pretty funny, and it’s rarely true.
TLC: Even the acronym itself. “A Flame Internal!”
DH: We’ve had people say it stands for something that doesn’t even have the right letters beginning the words. “Oh, that stands for Ah, Fuck You.” It’s like, what are you talking about?
TLC: You started this band 18 years ago at the age of 15, practicing in garages. Do you ever think about what you might say to that kid?
DH: Just do what you love, I’d say. Don’t try to write something that you think someone else will like. Write something that you like, and if they don’t like it, fuck ’em. That’s what it’s about.
*Reprinted from Fly Magazine
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