Ask AFI about its influences and you'll get a long answer. "We have many, many influences that span the musical spectrum," says lead singer Davey Havok.
"Each of us grew up on everything from punk to hard-core to dark '80s UK stuff like the Cure, Bauhaus, Joy Division, and Sisters of Mercy. And there were rock bands like Guns N' Roses and Metallica and industrial bands like Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Front 242 and Alien Sex Fiend. And we all love the Smiths."
The list is impressive, but more compelling is the way that AFI has distilled those influences into its latest album, Sing the Sorrow. The brilliant, ambitious disc threads together punk, Pink Floyd-like opera, industrial samples, acoustic interludes, and lyrics that make it clear that Havok reads everyone from Bukowski to Baudelaire.
In short, this is a smart record made for rock fans who are tired of humdrum formulas and assembly-line bands.
"This is very natural for us," says Havok, whose group plays Saturday at Pompano Beach Amphitheatre as part of the Vans Warped Tour. "We began the band when I was 15, and we've just tried to keep growing beyond the simplicity of hard-core and punk. The goal is always the same -- to make the best-sounding record that we can -- but we had more time and more resources to do this one."
One might also call it a concept record about spiritual identity, doubt, and crisis. "I don't think it's too crazy for people to think that," says Havok, who is in his late 20s. "It's not necessarily a concept album, but there are themes that tie it together. We definitely made an effort to take you on a journey."
That journey is rather dark but is not meant to be hopeless. "Lyrically, it's very introspective, but also very cathartic," he says. "It's an expression of where I was when we made the record. The album deals a lot with disappointment and with feelings of detachment and despondency." Havok writes first-person accounts of bleakness in songs like Bleed Black (where he sings, "I'm exploring the inside/I find it desolate"), Death of Seasons and The Great Disappointment.
The music, however, is inspiring, with a lot of upbeat, punk-vocal choruses, and the album winds up with such revelations as "there is poetry in despair" and "somewhere in the wilderness we found salvation scratched into the earth like a message."
"I think of myself as a spiritual person," says Havok, who wrote all the lyrics. "But I don't adhere to any one established religion. I was raised as Catholic, but not as a straight Catholic. My parents were pretty cool about it. They made me go to church every weekend, and I went to a Catholic school until the eighth grade, but my parents weren't the fire-and-brimstone types. They didn't say, `You'll go to hell if you play rock 'n' roll.'"
Berkeley, Calif.-based AFI, which stands for A Fire Inside, has actually been around for close to 12 years but is just breaking through with its modern-rock hit, Girl's Not Grey, a walloping track from the current album. "Yeah, we're an overnight sensation after 12 years," Havok says with a laugh. "There was a time when we wondered how we would hold the band together. ... Sometimes we'd worry about having enough gas money to get to the next club. The first few years were not very glamorous. We'd sometimes even sleep in parks."
Havok says that despite recent success, the members of the band are still grounded.
"People come up to us and say, `Gee, you guys are still cool,'" Havok says. "It's like they're surprised. But I don't understand that. We're still the same people who made the record. We've been at it a long time and we've worked hard. Nothing has been handed to us."
IF YOU GO
Vans Warped Tour features AFI, Glassjaw, Slick Shoes, All American Rejects, Less Than Jake, Suicide Machine, Andrew W.K., Mad Caddies, Taking Back Sunday, Atmosphere, Mest, Ataris, Bowling for Soup, One Man Army, Knowhows, Brand New, Pepper, Starting Line, Destruction Made Simple, Places to Park, Dropkick Murphys, Plain White T's, Thrice, Face to Face, Poison the Well, Time Will Tell, From Autumn to Ashes, Rancid, Tsunami Bomb, Simple Plan, Yellowcard. Plus extreme athletes. Gates open 11 a.m. Saturday at Pompano Beach Amphitheatre, 1801 NE Sixth St. Tickets $28; call Ticketmaster (561-966-3309, 954-523-3309, 305-358-5885).
