AFI Biography -
AFI wasn't always "East Bay Hard Core". In fact they used to live many, many miles from the (San Francisco) Bay. Ukiah to be exact. Ukiah is a town 115 miles North of AFI's current homebase of Berkeley, California. It's a VERY small town, it's total population (as of 1990) was only 14,535. Ukiah's main attractions are: fishing, boating and agcriculture. This tells you a little about the people who inhabit the town: Rednecks. So, with this bio, I will guide you through their humble beginnings in a hick-town to their current position....

AFI started out when friends (all about age 15) Davey Havok, Vic Chalker and Mark Stopholse decided to start a band. Mark quickly got his friend Adam Carson to play drums and AFI was formed. They all played together for about eight months until Vic left the band. Vic was gone but some of his music survived, he penned the music to Ny-Quil which appeared on Answer That And Stay Fashionable. Geoff Kresge took over bass duties. Not long after that, AFI's released a 7" split with another Ukiah band called Loo$e Change. They put this out on a label Geoff had created called Key Lime Pie Records. It didn't end up being anything more than a means to put out their own records, but who cares... DIY, right? They released one more seven inch and played shows at a great venue known as The Phoenix Theatre before graduating high school.

After high school the band broke up. Davey moved to Berkeley to attend college, Adam found his way down to Santa Cruz, Mark headed to southern California and Geoff moved to New Jersey to join Blanks 77. The band remained in this unfortunate state for a few months, but then, over Christmas break they reunited to play the Phoenix Theatre. It was at that show that they relized people were taking notice of them. They recorded their performance and sold it as a 7" called "Eddie Picnic's All Wet". That settled it. They decided to reform the band at the suggestion of many a person. They all quit school and moved to the Bay Area. They released several more 7"s on East Bay labels such as Wedge Records and the now frowned upon Wingnut Records. Bigger acts, such as San Francisco's Swingin Utters and Berkeley/Oakland legends Rancid (For those not in the know Matt and Tim were also in Operation Ivy, THE East Bay punk band of the late 80's) started to notice the energetic, determined foursome. These bands took them on tour and played shows with them, thus exposing them to whole new audiences. Shortly after the 1994 Swingin Utters tour and the release of Answer That... AFI got picked up by Nitro Records, owned by the Offspring's frontman, Dexter Holland. They released thir second full length in 1996 and toured with Snapcase and the absolute supreme gods of the hardcore scene: Sick Of It All.

At the end of the 1997 SOIA tour AFI lost their bass player, Geoff. Geoff decided to quit because, according to Davey, he wasn't enjoying the whole band thing anymore and touring had burned him out. They recruited Hunter Burgan, bass player of The Force to fill in on their big tour with the Offspring. As of late 1997, with the release of Shut Your Mouth And Open Your Eyes Hunter was still considered a temporary member (He was merely thanked for playing and not listed under "AFI is:") It wasn't until the release of A Fire Inside EP that he was listed as a full fledged member.

In late 1998, after the release of the "A Fire Inside EP", the original guitar player, Mark, left the band. Mark was basically asked to leave because the band felt that he no longer shared their love of creating music. AFI found Jade Puget to fill in the vacancy. Jade has been connected to AFI for quite some time. He was thanked in the "Answer That..." "Thank You's" section and was in a band called Influence 13, with Nick 13 and Geoff Kresge in the early 1990's.

1999 marked the beginning of a new era for AFI. With two new (permanent) members their music has taken a step forward. The new album Black Sails In The Sunset is a hardcore landmark. The songs have gotten a little bit longer, the lyrics more poetic and a heavier sound in general. "Shut Your Mouth..." foreshadowed this transformation but "Black Sails..." is really what perfects their "new" sound. AFI is constantly on tour regularly releases new material. They are at their peak and will hopefully remain as inspirational, thought provoking and ground breaking well into the new millennium.

ADDENDUM (9/29/2000)
The year 2000 has been good to AFI. They've seen their fanbase grow (though they remain modest and skeptical about it... it is true) and they've just released "The Art Of Drowning". "The Art..." is possibly the most anticipated AFI release ever. So anticipated in fact, that after a couple promo copies got out over the summer, MP3 files were made and the album was traded freely on amongst fans nearly two months prior to it's release date.

Other than that things have gone quite well for AFI so far this year. They played a healthy amount of shows, including the Warped Tour, where they were featured on the main stage a couple times. Also, the "AOD" record release show is scheduled for Saturday, October 7th. This should prove to be an eventful show, as the buzz surrounding it is immense. 1000+ tickets were sold out in a week!

They are also gearing up for a Winter tour with Rancid. After that they will launch a headlining tour probably release an EP by the end of 2001.

ADDENDUM (9/24/2001)
2001 has been an incredible year for AFI. the Art of Drowning has been nothing but successful; sales were already well above 65,000 units by summer. Come summer-time, they took to the road on the annual "Warped Tour". Last year, they played several dates, on the smaller sides stages, with a few forays into the limelight of the main stage, in certain markets. This year they played the whole tour on the mainstage, with friends, H2O, Rancid and The Distillers.

AFI is not the kind of band that likes to sit around, so make sure to catch them this fall on their headlining tour with Boston's American Nightmare.